News travels fast in a place like the Ashen Blades camp.
By the next morning, everyone knew.
The scout team had come back battered but alive from an unstable high-mid Rift. They'd mapped it, grabbed minor loot, and the probationary kid, the Shadow Null with the bounty on his head, had bound a second beast.
Not just any beast.
A primordial ember serpent. Newborn, but radiating heat and power that made veteran beasts whine and back away.
Kai woke to stares.
He stepped out of the probationary tent, Nyx on one shoulder, Veyra coiled loosely around his torso like a living scarf, small enough to be manageable, scales dimmed to a warm glow.
The camp's main path went quiet as he walked toward the mess area.
Hunters paused mid-conversation. Beasts growled or cowered. Children, there were a few, born to long-term Blades, peeked from behind tents.
Whispers followed like smoke.
"Two beasts…"
"And one's divine fire…"
"Kid's corruption, did you see his eyes? Black veins yesterday."
Ragnar waited at the central fire pit, arms crossed, ember direwolf sitting beside him like a throne guardian.
Garrick stood nearby, along with the rest of the scout team.
Ragnar's gaze locked on Kai as he approached.
"Report says you bound the embryo in the throne chamber."
Kai nodded. "Yes."
The captain's eyes flicked to Veyra. The newborn serpent lifted its head, ember eyes meeting his calmly. Heat shimmered the air around it.
Ragnar's direwolf growled low, embers flaring in its fur.
The big man raised a hand, silencing it.
"Show me."
Kai hesitated, then commanded mentally.
Veyra uncoiled, sliding to the ground. It grew slightly, fifteen meters of sleek ember scales, wings half-unfurled, horns glowing. Not full size, but enough to dominate the space.
Nyx leaped down beside it, shadow and fire side by side, opposites that somehow belonged together.
Gasps rippled through the gathering crowd.
Ragnar stepped forward, unafraid.
He extended a hand. Veyra lowered its massive head, allowing a brief touch. Heat singed his glove, but he didn't flinch.
After a long moment, he straightened.
"Two divine bloodlines. One contract is legend. Two…" He shook his head. "Unheard of."
He turned to the camp.
"Listen up! The kid's under my protection. Anyone takes the city bounty, they answer to me. Anyone leaks his location, they're out, or worse."
Murmurs rose, some approving, some uneasy.
A voice cut through from the back, a sharp-featured woman in her thirties, leader of a rival hunting party, with a storm eagle on her perch.
"Protection? Ragnar, he's a walking calamity. Double divine contracts? That kind of power corrupts. We've all seen what happens when seals break."
Others nodded. Fear more than greed.
Garrick spoke up. "I was there. He didn't force the contract. The serpent chose him. And it saved our asses when the guardians went berserk."
The woman scoffed. "Chose him? Or he broke something he shouldn't have?"
Tension thickened.
Ragnar raised his voice. "Enough. He's proven useful. Pulled weight twice now. We vote, no, I decide. He stays."
The woman, Captain Lyss, glared but backed down. Her party muttered but dispersed.
Ragnar turned back to Kai.
"Gear up. Emergency contract just came in, high-rank Rift boss manifested near the eastern badlands. Clients paying triple. Your team's going."
Kai blinked. "Already?"
Garrick grunted. "Best way to shut mouths, show results."
An hour later, twelve hunters rode out Ragnar leading the main strike, Garrick's team as support.
The Rift was chaos.
A massive corrupted behemoth had torn free, thirty meters tall, body of fused stone and flesh, six arms wielding shattered throne chains as weapons. Mid-high rank, bordering legendary.
City guilds had tried and failed. Civilians evacuated.
The Ashen Blades took the contract no one else wanted.
Battle lines formed.
Ragnar's direwolf led the charge, flames meeting stone.
Serna's salamanders and other fire beasts hammered weak points.
But the behemoth regenerated fast, chains whipping with seal-breaking force.
Hunters fell back, wounded.
Ragnar shouted orders. "Flanks! Draw the chains!"
Kai's moment came.
He stepped forward, Nyx and Veyra fully unleashed.
Nyx grew to full juvenile size, sleek phantom wolf, shadows trailing like cape.
Veyra expanded to twenty meters, serpent wings spreading, scales blazing.
The behemoth paused, sensing divine resonance.
Kai gave the command.
Dual assault.
Nyx Phantom Dashed repeatedly, blinking through the behemoth's body, Shadow Bind wrapping chains to immobilize arms.
Veyra rose high, Ember Breath unleashing, a torrent of primordial flame that didn't just burn, but eroded the corruption itself.
The behemoth roared, swinging wildly.
Kai Shadow Stepped onto its shoulder, dagger channeling both beasts' power, shadow and fire merging into a black-flame blade.
He struck the core crystal embedded in its chest.
Crack.
The behemoth staggered.
One more combined strike, Nyx's Abyssal Gaze paralyzing, Veyra's Flame Cloak enveloping.
Final blow: Kai leaped, dagger plunging deep.
The monster crumbled, chains shattering into dust.
Silence.
Then cheers.
The Ashen Blades had won.
Loot was massive, core crystal worth a fortune, throne chain fragments, regeneration glands.
Kai's share alone could buy top gear.
Back at camp that night, celebration roared.
Bonfires blazed. Ale flowed. Stories grew taller.
Kai sat with Garrick's team, now his team.
Jorin slapped his back. "You're a monster, man."
Mira healed minor burns, smiling shyly. "Incredible."
Even Lyss's party nodded respect from across the fire.
Ragnar raised a tankard.
"To Kai Voss, the Shadow Null who just saved half the badlands."
Cheers echoed.
Later, alone by a smaller fire, Garrick joined him.
Nyx and Veyra rested nearby, serpent coiled, pup curled against warm scales.
The old man passed a flask.
"You dominated that boss like it was nothing."
Kai took a drink, burned going down.
"Felt good."
Garrick nodded. "But the corruption?"
Kai pulled up his sleeve. Dark veins laced his arms, faint but permanent now.
"62%. Manageable."
Garrick was quiet a long time.
"You're changing, boy. Faster than any Tamer I've seen."
He stared into the flames.
"I lost a partner once... to forbidden power. Went mad. Killed half our team before we put him down."
Kai met his eyes.
"I won't."
Garrick searched his face, then nodded slowly.
"Hope not. Because I'm starting to like you, kid."
He stood.
"Get rest. More contracts coming. Word's out, the Blades have a double divine Tamer. Clients want you specifically now."
Kai watched him go.
Nyx nuzzled his hand.
Veyra's tail draped over his lap, warm.
Power.
Respect.
A place.
But the visions came stronger now, collapsing thrones, seals shattering, ancient voices calling his name.
Corruption whispered too.
He pushed it down.
Not yet.
There was more to claim.
More thrones to awaken.
And the world would learn what a true Sealbreaker could do.