Mist hung low over the Vale of Withering Pines as dawn slithered through twisted branches. The scent of damp moss and decaying bark clung to the air. Kairo stood at the base of a shattered shrine, half-swallowed by earth. His body was still, but his senses stretched outward—each breath tasting the shift of qi.
The Cenote had granted him more than memory. He now felt echoes beneath the world, like footsteps in forgotten corridors. And one thing was clear—he was being hunted.
Twinblight rested across his back, humming softly as if tasting the tension.
He didn't have to wait long.
A ripple split the air.
The first strike came not with warning, but with song—a high-pitched hum followed by an arc of silver flame. Kairo twisted to dodge as the energy seared a trench through the stone beside him.
From the woods emerged five robed figures, moving like petals caught in a hurricane. Their colors marked them as the Hunt Bloom—a deadly ensemble of Thirteen Petal Accord elites. Each one bore a different emblem: Vine of Judgment, Orchid of Severance, Thorned Rose, Blooming Eclipse, and the central figure—Seeker Hwen himself.
So they'd sent him.
Hwen stepped forward, his blade unsheathed but still pointed downward. His eyes, sharp as a hawk's, never left Kairo.
"You survived longer than expected," Hwen said.
"I'm full of surprises," Kairo replied.
One of the other cultivators raised a staff etched with anti-demonic sigils. "Target confirmed. Wielder of corrupted Codex. Protocol Cleansing Bloom is authorized."
Kairo's muscles tensed.
"No words, then?" he asked. "No trial? No inquiry? Just a burn order?"
Hwen's gaze didn't flicker. "This is your trial."
Twinblight leapt into his hands as the first wave came.
Two Bloom warriors surged forward, their weapons radiating pure light qi, aimed to suppress and seal. Kairo's body moved like flowing ink, twisting around their strikes. One blade grazed his shoulder, and pain flared as a fragment of his corrupted qi was sliced clean. He gritted his teeth—these weren't amateurs.
But he wasn't that boy from Veilwither anymore.
He spun, using the torque to hurl one of Twinblight's blades across the battlefield like a flail. It struck the Vine of Judgment's leg, staggering him.
A second warrior moved to flank, but Kairo struck low, drawing a glyph with corrupted qi into the dirt—a chain of void-shadow erupted, grasping the attacker's ankle and pulling him violently down.
The staff wielder snarled. "Restraint glyph—fail-safe!"
He raised his artifact and activated a sigil that burst in golden fire.
Kairo barely shielded his eyes before a wave of suppressive pressure struck. It wasn't just a flare—it disrupted his control over the Codex, forcing it into dormancy for a breath.
They were trying to seal it.
Pain rippled through him, but the shard buried near his heart flared in response—restoring just enough clarity for him to strike again.
Twinblight's other end sang as it pierced the Rose warrior's shoulder, severing their glyph-weave. The battle began to splinter. The woods groaned under unleashed pressure.
Hwen hadn't moved.
Kairo faced him, blood in his mouth and fire in his chest.
"Why wait?" he asked.
Hwen stepped forward. "I needed to see if they were enough. They weren't."
Then he vanished.
Kairo barely reacted in time. Hwen's strike came from above, descending like a falling star. Their blades clashed, light and shadow shrieking.
Every move Hwen made was calculated, trained, precise. Kairo's strikes were unorthodox, wild, warped by the Codex's instincts. And yet, they matched each other blow for blow.
"You think power justifies survival," Hwen said, parrying.
"I think betrayal makes survival necessary," Kairo growled.
Another flash. Another clang.
And then—
From the edges of the battlefield, someone groaned.
The Orchid of Severance had fallen. The Thorned Rose staggered.
Only Hwen remained unscathed.
"You're not what the Tribunal feared," Hwen muttered. "You're worse."
Kairo lowered his stance. "Then they should fear harder."
He drove forward with Twinblight, forcing Hwen into a defensive parry. Their auras clashed, warping the world between them.
Then, as quickly as it began, the Bloom retreated. One by one, the survivors withdrew into mist, vanishing with practiced technique.
Only Hwen lingered.
"We will meet again," he said. "And next time… I won't be holding back."
He vanished.
Kairo dropped to one knee.
His body screamed.
The Codex throbbed, hungry and pulsing. But it had tasted the Accord. And it remembered.