Four years was a long time to spend in a place that didn't exist.
For Kael, it was a blur of failure, frustration, and the lingering scent of burnt herbs.
KAEL: "Are you sure this is supposed to be green? It looks... angry."
He peered into a bubbling cauldron. The concoction inside was the color of a bruise and was spitting viscous purple globs onto the floor of the Crucible.
MASTER BELLAM: (Sighing dramatically) "By the Nine Hells, boy! It's a simple Foundation Establishment Pill!
You need the blood-lotus petal, the sun-dusted moss, and the eye of a newt. You put in the eye of a newt, a whole newt, and what looks suspiciously like one of your socks!"
KAEL: "It fell in! And it wasn't a sock, it was a bandage. My arms still hurt from trying the second move of the Starfall Swordsmanship."
He'd named it the Zephyr Step. So far, it was less 'zephyr' and more 'stumbling drunk.'
His training had become a monotonous cycle. Meditate with the Umbral Weaving Art Veyrith had given him, feeling his body slowly strengthen.
Practice swordsmanship until his arms felt like lead. Fail at alchemy. And every few months, for a dose of pure humiliation, he'd challenge The Gauntlet.
He'd conquered the Adamant Wolf on the first floor. The second floor's guardian, a lightning-fast Panther automaton, had taken him six months to defeat.
The third floor... the third floor was a colossal armored bear that had, on his last attempt, used him as a stress ball.
NICO: (From the Feiling Sword, which was propped against the wall)
"You know, if you spent less time brewing sock-soup and more time listening to me, maybe you wouldn't get your spine rearranged by a teddy bear."
KAEL: "Shut up, Nico. I'm building my foundation."
NICO: "You're building a collection of bruises! Your cultivation is stuck at the peak of Aether Weaving. That black core of yours isn't getting any stronger, and the golden cage around your soul is just sitting there, laughing at you. You need to break the seal, kid. Stop stalling."
Kael knew he was right. The rage, the despair... it all felt duller now, but the wall was still there. He was strong, but incomplete.
That evening, he went south.
Veyrith and the black cat, Umbra, were waiting by the cenotaph as if he'd never left.
VEYRITH: "You are ready."
It wasn't a question. Kael nodded, his jaw tight. "I've reached the second level of the Umbral Weaving Art. My body is tempered."
VEYRITH: "Good. The process will be... unpleasant. It requires three things. An attack from the outside to weaken the seal's structure.
An agent from the inside to corrode it. And a catalyst to bridge the two. Master Bellam should have provided the catalyst."
Kael produced a small, jet-black pill. A Seal-Breaking Pill. He'd finally managed to brew one successfully, much to Bellam's shock.
VEYRITH: "The attack will be handled. The final piece is the agent. The corrosion." He glanced at the black cat.
Umbra stretched, yawning. Then, its form began to shift. The melon-sized cat grew, its fur darkening into pure shadow, its body elongating.
Bones cracked and reformed. Two massive, leathery wings burst from its back, and its golden eyes burned like dying stars.
It was no longer a cat. It was a beast of nightmare and legend, radiating an aura of absolute, crushing darkness.
UMBRA: (His voice a low growl that vibrated in Kael's bones) "Took you long enough. This form is terribly inconvenient for napping."
Kael staggered back. "What... what are you?"
UMBRA: "I am Umbra. A Shadow Domain Beast. One of the ten Divine Beasts of Chaos. And for this to work, you and I need to be more than just acquaintances."
He lowered his massive head, his golden eyes boring into Kael.
"We must form a life-bond. My power will become your power. My life, yours. And vice-versa. If you die, I die. Are you prepared for that, little half-blood?"
Kael looked from the terrifying beast to the impassive man in black. This was the path. The path his father had forbidden. The path to finding his mother.
KAEL: "Yes."
He placed his hand on Umbra's forehead. A torrent of dark energy, True Devil Lo, surged from the beast into him, forging an unbreakable link deep within his soul.
The Umbral Core in his Sea of Lo pulsed in harmony.
UMBRA: "It is done. Now, for my part."
The beast inhaled, and the world dissolved. The barren ground, the cenotaph, the sky, it all vanished, replaced by an endless expanse of swirling, pure darkness. This was the Shadow-devil Domain.
VEYRITH: (His voice cutting through the void) "Take the pill."
Kael swallowed it. A fire erupted in his stomach, spreading through his veins.
VEYRITH: "Now... endure."
From the darkness, Veyrith stepped forward. In his hand was a sword.
A simple, unadorned black blade that seemed to drink the very shadows. It was the source of his name. It was Silence.
He raised it.
And brought it down on Kael.
There was no sound, but the impact was absolute. It didn't cut his skin; it struck the golden cage around his soul.
Pain.
Not physical. Not mental. It was a pain that existed on a plane beyond comprehension.
It was the sound of his very being screaming as it was torn apart. The world wasn't black anymore. It was a universe of pure, white-hot agony.
He couldn't scream. He couldn't breathe. He could only exist within the torment.
And in the deepest part of that torment, a voice he hadn't heard in years whispered with grim satisfaction.
VOICE: Yes... this is the key. Let the pain burn. Let it all burn away.