Kai awoke to silence.
No pain. No ground beneath him. Just the feeling of weightlessness, like he was suspended in a dream. He opened his eyes slowly and found himself surrounded by an endless expanse of starlight, a void so vast it seemed to hum with ancient energy. Countless motes of light drifted through the air, some flickering like memories, others pulsing like silent hearts.
"Am I… dead?" Kai whispered.
His voice echoed strangely, not around him, but within him. The last thing he remembered was stepping through the Celestial Gate—triumphant, broken, ready. Then… nothing.
"It seems that he is awake." A booming voice called out." How quaint. I assumed he wouldn't wake up this fast. But he is strong."
"Maybe. But is he strong enough to bear our training."
Kai spun in fear as there was silence again.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" He shouted.
There was silence for a moment then suddenly the stars shivered.
Out of the vastness, six figures emerged, cloaked in glowing echoes of their former selves. Each radiated power, but each—distinctly—was dead.
The first, tall and wrapped in gleaming armor made of molten gold, stepped forward. His expression was regal, eyes sharp and full of fire. His hair was white and his beard was flowing.
"I am Vaerik the Emberreign," he spoke, his voice crackling like a furnace. "Once Archon of Flame. I burned cities… and then learned to protect them. But I lost my life by assassination due to my pride.You will master destruction through restraint."
Next came a serene woman in flowing robes that rippled like the surface of a tranquil lake. Her hair drifted in invisible tides, her feet never touching the ground.
"Call me Lirien of the Stilldeep," she said gently. "I ruled the tide not with force, but with rhythm. I was a queen and a great ruler but died of heart break to the loved one I lost. Emotion is your tide now. You will learn to let it flow, not to drown you."
From the dark strode a lean figure in wind-worn leathers, his eyes like twin storms. He twirled a jagged spear that seemed to hum with motion.
"Zephros Stormwoken," he said, nodding curtly. "Wind does not wait, and neither will I. I'll teach you how to move—sharp, sudden, uncatchable. I was a rebellious prince and was a wind master but died by pirates. "
A fourth stepped forward, older than the others, his robe stitched from root and stone, his staff trailing moss and dust. His voice rumbled like mountains waking from sleep.
"I am Grom of Stonecall," he intoned. " I was an earth mage in the service of the of the council of Centarro kingdom. I will teach you that strength is not in the strike, boy. It's in the stance. You don't break the world—you let it carry you."
A shadow flickered—there and gone—before reforming into a sleek woman with skin like dusk and a dozen knives floating silently behind her back. Her smile was too sharp.
"Nysha, the Veilblade," she purred. "I was an assassin and one of the greatest during my time but was betrayed and was killed by the ones i love.Shadow's not weakness, child. It's freedom. I'll teach you to vanish between heartbeats, to be myth and menace."
Finally, a hunched figure stepped from the void, crackling with lightning and madness. His eyes sparkled like shattered glass.
"I'm Threx," he said, grinning wildly. "No fancy name. Just Threx. I used to be a storm. Got bored. Blew myself apart. Have no story or background for you. Came back meaner. I'll teach you chaos. And how to enjoy it."
Kai stared, speechless. He stared at the six figures circling him in the star-drenched void. His heart pounded—not from fear, but from awe. These beings radiated more than power; they carried history in their bones, voices like echoes of a forgotten era.
Kai blinked. "You… you're dead. All of you. Why are you here?"
"We were once the greatest of our time," said Lirien gently. "But before us, there was only one."
Their forms floated closer, and behind them, the stars themselves shifted, forming the outline of a vast silhouette—broad-shouldered, crowned in elemental flame, surrounded by spectral wings, jagged earth, cascading water, and living shadow.
"Zephyron the Primordial," Grom intoned with reverence. "The First Elementalist. The only one to wield all the elements in perfect harmony."
Nysha's voice dropped lower. "He wasn't born of this world. He was a spark in the void—something ancient… something awakened."
"When Zephyron came into being," said Vaerik, "his very breath disrupted the balance. The Abominables emerged from the depths to erase him, creatures born of what the elements could not contain."
"But Zephyron fought," Zephros said, the wind curling in his voice. "For centuries. Alone. Bound to no faction, no clan. Just a man holding the world together through war."
"He died standing," Threx whispered. "At the gate of the Shattered Sky. Still fighting."
Kai's throat tightened. "What happened after?"
Lirien stepped forward. "His death released what he had held back. His soul fractured—and scattered across humanity. That's why your people now awaken—but only to a single element. The body cannot contain more than one fragment of Zephyron's soul."
"Except," said Vaerik, turning his blazing eyes on Kai, "you were touched by more than one."
Kai's breath caught. The truth settled in like a fire ready to spread.
Nysha tilted her head. "That's why the Gate took you, Kai. You're a mistake… or a prophecy."
Threx grinned. "And we're here to see which."
Kai stood in the midst of starlight and silence, the weight of the six spirits' presence pressing on him like gravity. Their revelations echoed in his mind—Zephyron, the First Elementalist… the Abominables… the fragments scattered into humankind.
But one thought anchored itself deeper than the rest.
His voice cracked the stillness. "Why… why wasn't I sent through like the others?" He looked up, meeting Vaerik's burning gaze. "The others passed the Gate and ascended. But me? I wasn't transported. I was brought here."
The six exchanged glances—brief, wordless, weighty.
Lirien approached, her voice calm as rain on glass. "Because the Gate didn't see you as one who would walk the path. It saw you as one who would reshape it."
Kai's eyes narrowed. "That doesn't explain why it killed me."
Zephros let out a quiet chuckle, resting his spear on his shoulder. "The Gate didn't kill you, Kai. It claimed you. There's a difference."
Threx twirled a lightning bolt between his fingers. "You weren't chosen to join the ranks of Elementalists. You were dragged here because something in you broke the rules—and the Gate likes to keep what it doesn't understand."
"Or protect it," Grom added gravely.
Nysha stepped into his peripheral vision, her form flickering. "You crossed a line no one else could see. Not Nullborn. Not Chosen. Something else. Something the Gate hadn't felt since Zephyron himself drew his final breath."
A chill passed through Kai's chest. His pulse quickened—not from fear, but from something deeper.
"You weren't summoned," Vaerik said at last. "You were retrieved."
As the stars dimmed around them and the six spirits faded into stillness, Kai sat cross-legged on the glowing platform, sweat cooling on his skin from another brutal lesson. He glanced upward, toward the endless void swirling above.
"After all this," he said quietly, voice carrying in the silence, "when I'm ready… will the Gate send me back? Or am I never meant to return?"
There was no answer at first—just the hum of forgotten constellations.
Then Vaerik's voice came low and steady: "You weren't brought here to go back the same way you came."
Kai's fists clenched at his sides. He didn't want the same way—he wanted the truth. Even if it broke him.