The small, lantern-lit house was enveloped in a heavy, mournful silence.
Brados sat at the head of the wooden table, his dark eyes staring distantly at the flickering flame.
Kenshin, Asami, and Horuto did not dare speak.
The weight of the Master’s heartbreak—a love abandoned centuries ago for the sake of duty—hung palpably in the air.
“I returned to the Endlerworld,” Brados finally continued, breaking the quiet.
“When I arrived, the sovereign leader of the Underward, Livad, welcomed me back. He knew of my defection from the Nine, and he offered me sanctuary.”
Brados rested his hand on the wooden table.
“Livad possessed three pure, elemental powers. One was a violet energy, one was green, and the final one was a dark, abyssal gray. He entrusted these powers to me, asking that I train and bestow them upon three students whom I deemed truly worthy.”
“I agreed,” Brados said.
“Over the years, I trained many hopeful warriors. But none possessed the sheer will required to inherit such raw magic. None proved worthy… until four years later.”
Brados turned his gaze to Asami.
The beautiful, midnight-blue-haired warrior sat rigid, her icy blue eyes fixed entirely on him.
“I was walking through the streets of the Underward during a torrential rainstorm,” Brados said softly.
“I saw a little girl. She looked no older than four. She was running through the mud, sobbing, entirely alone. I stopped and asked for her name. She said it was ‘Asia.'”
Asami’s breath hitched.
She looked down at her lap, her hands curling into tight fists.
“I asked where her family was,” Brados recalled, his voice thick with emotion.
“She told me she was alone. Her family had kicked her out onto the streets because they… they did not like her. They abandoned a child to die in the rain.”
Horuto and Kenshin turned to look at Asami in shock.
“She was so small, yet so fierce,” Brados smiled faintly.
“I took her in. I adopted her. I gave her a new name… Asami. The one sitting right before you.”
A single tear escaped Asami’s icy blue eyes.
She quickly turned her head away, her shoulders trembling slightly as a choked, muffled sob escaped her lips.
Horuto gently placed his hand over hers, offering a silent, steadying comfort.
Kenshin’s chest tightened.
Asami’s strict, unyielding exterior suddenly made perfect sense.
She had been thrown away by her own blood, just as he had been.
“After that, I began to train Asami,” Brados continued, his gaze shifting back to the lantern.
“But two years later, a squad of unfamiliar soldiers arrived at my gates. They bore the crest of the Liyami world.”
The atmosphere in the room shifted.
“They said they were ordered by Queen Hikari to deliver a letter,” Brados murmured, his deep voice carrying a tremor.
“When I opened it, it read: ‘It has been a long time. I hope your health is still as it was. The truth is, that night we spent together… I ended up giving birth. This is our son. I named him Takashi. I have sent him to you, so you can raise him to be as strong as you are.'”
Kenshin gasped.
Horuto’s eyes widened in absolute shock.
Takashi was not just the Master’s student.
He was the biological son of Master Brados and Queen Hikari.
“When I looked up from the letter,” Brados said, a tear finally sliding down his weathered cheek, “the soldiers presented a six-year-old boy. He was terrified. He did not know where he was. I knelt down and told him, ‘You are in the Endlerworld. I am your father. Trust me.'”
Brados wiped the tear from his beard.
“Takashi cried from fear that day. But over time, he calmed. I raised him alongside Asami. I trained them both.”
“And then came Horuto,” Brados said, nodding to the young warrior with the olive-green eyes.
“One of my oldest friends, Zold, came to me. He needed to leave on a dangerous, extended mission. He asked me to protect and train his son while he was away.”
“At first, Horuto hated me,” Brados chuckled softly.
“A seven-year-old boy does not easily accept being left behind by his parents. But as he grew, he understood. When Zold finally returned three years later, Horuto chose to stay with me. And he has been with me ever since.”
Horuto lowered his head respectfully.
“You are the one who forged me into a warrior, Master. I will never forget that.”
Brados smiled warmly at Horuto.
Then, his expression instantly hardened into stone.
He turned to Kenshin, his dark eyes locking onto the scarred teenager. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
“So, after three years, Horuto was ten. Asami and Takashi were both nine. I was sitting in my inner sanctum with Asami,” Brados said, his voice dropping into a deadly serious rumble.
“When my guards announced that I had a visitor.”
Kenshin’s racing heart skipped a beat.
“It was Zenjiro,” Brados said.
Kenshin gripped the edges of his chair.
My father.
-Break-
The memory shifted to the Master’s private quarters, a decade ago.
Brados sat at his desk, watching as the towering, dark-haired Gladeon stepped into the room.
“It has been a long time, friend,” Zenjiro said, his voice devoid of its usual, bored tone.
“Come in, Zenjiro,” Brados said, standing up.
“Tell me. Why are you here in the Underward?”
Zenjiro remained completely silent for a long time.
When he finally spoke, his voice carried a heavy, terrifying weight.
“I have a son. He was just born,” Zenjiro said.
“But… the Shadow… the Power of Darkness… it went into him.”
Brados’s eyes widened in absolute shock.
“How is that possible?”
“I do not have any idea,” Zenjiro replied, his pure black eyes looking exhausted.
“I do not know why.”
“Do the other Strong Holders know?” Brados asked urgently.
Zenjiro nodded slowly.
“Yes. King Bellod knows. And he has given an absolute decree. I must do whatever it takes to force that dark power out of the boy and destroy it. And if the power will not leave…”
Zenjiro paused, his jaw tightening.
“…Then I must kill my son.”
“Are you insane, Zenjiro?!” Brados roared, violently slamming his fists onto his desk.
“You agreed to Bellod that you would execute your own child?! What kind of father are you?!”
“I do not know, alright?!” Zenjiro shouted back, a rare flash of raw, desperate emotion breaking through his cold exterior.
“I do not know how the Shadow power chose Ritsu! And I cannot betray Bellod! I have stood by his side for centuries in countless battles! Even against you, knowing you were right!”
Brados stared at his former brother-in-arms.
For the first time in over a century, Brados saw tears forming in Zenjiro’s pure black eyes.
It was a vulnerability that did not belong on the face of an apocalyptic warrior.
“He is my son…” Zenjiro whispered, his voice cracking.
“I do not want him to die, Brados. We named him Ritsu.”
Brados processed the horrific situation.
The Shadow was not a simple curse; it was a living, primordial entity.
“What did you tell Bellod?”
“I convinced Bellod to let me raise Ritsu until he is five years old,” Zenjiro explained quickly, formulating the desperate plan.
“I told the King that at age five, I will lock the boy in a dungeon and begin torturing him to force the Shadow out. I promised that if the power does not manifest after ten years of torture, I will kill Ritsu myself.”
“You bought yourself time,” Brados realized.
“Yes,” Zenjiro nodded.
“It gives us five years of peace, and ten years to study the alchemy. I told a trusted friend to send his best assassin to act as the torturer.”
“What kind of alchemy?” Brados demanded.
“It is not an experiment to break him,” Zenjiro said, his dark eyes burning with desperate conviction.
“It is a process designed to forcefully mutate Ritsu’s biology. The alchemy will force his body to adapt, granting him Absolute Regeneration. If Bellod ever orders an executioner to kill Ritsu in the future, the boy will survive.”
Brados was stunned.
“How can a five-year-old child survive that level of agony? And how can you guarantee the Shadow will not kill him from the inside?”
“It is a living entity. If Ritsu is pushed to the absolute brink of death, the Shadow will have no choice but to intervene to save its host. We have both sides covered, Brados. We can save him.”
-Break-
The memory faded.
Inside the lantern-lit room, Kenshin was trembling violently.
His breathing was ragged, rapid, and completely out of control.
Tears streamed down his scarred cheeks, dripping onto the wooden table.
“So… that is why he did it?” Kenshin choked out, his voice breaking into a devastated whisper.
“To torture me… just for his loyalty to his King?”
“No, Kenshin,” Brados said softly, leaning forward.
“That was not a torture designed to break you. It was a desperate, horrific gamble to save your life.”
Kenshin shook his head frantically.
“What do you mean?! I was chained to an iron chair! I had my fingers crushed! My bones drilled!”
“Because if he didn’t do it, King Bellod would have atomized you as a baby!” Brados yelled back, his voice booming with authority.
“Zenjiro knew that if the King suspected he was showing you mercy, Bellod would erase your entire family from existence! He had to make it look like a brutal, authentic execution attempt.”
“He did not care about me!” Kenshin sobbed, hitting his fist against the table.
“He sacrificed me for 150 years of loyalty to Bellod!”
“He does care!” Brados countered.
“But Zenjiro is trapped. He is a man of his word. He served his life as a Strong Holder. His loyalty is so absolute that he is willing to sacrifice his own soul, to play the villain in your eyes forever, just to ensure you survive!”
Kenshin’s legs suddenly gave out.
He slid off the chair, collapsing onto his knees on the wooden floor.
The realization was a crushing, suffocating weight.
His father had not hated him.
His father had plunged him into hell so that he would become strong enough to survive the apocalypse.
“You all knew…” Kenshin whispered, looking up at Brados with a shattered expression.
“You said you would not be the father I got… but you are all the same. You are all… monsters. You played a game with my life.”
Horuto immediately rushed over, grabbing Kenshin’s shoulders to help the broken teenager stand back up.
Horuto turned his head, glaring at Brados.
“I never expected this from you, Master,” Horuto said, his voice laced with profound disappointment.
Brados remained quiet, accepting the judgment.
“I have faced my consequences, Horuto. I lost my own son to darkness… while trying to save my friend’s child.”
Asami stood up, her icy blue eyes wide with horror and disgust.
“Save?!” Asami burst out, her voice cracking.
“You call that saving him?! He suffered for ten years in a torture chamber! No matter if it was for his own good, he was mutilated! It would have been better to let him die peacefully as a child instead of letting his mind rot in a dungeon!”
Brados did not flinch.
“Because the Shadow is not a simple power, Asami. Rumors say the Shadow entities have their own dimension. They are strong enough to crush all of our combined magic like removing dust from a table with a cloth. If that entity fully awakens and consumes Kenshin… it will be the end of everything.”
Silence descended upon the room once more, heavy and absolute.
Asami swallowed hard.
“What… what happens next?”
Brados stood up.
He reached down and picked up the heavy Green Dragon Guandao.
“First,” Brados commanded softly, looking down at the weeping teenager.
“Kenshin’s family is alive. The news Zenjiro delivered in the dungeon about your mother and sisters being killed was a lie. It was a calculated trigger, designed to force the Shadow power to awaken through pure rage.”
Kenshin froze.
His breath hitched in his throat.
“Go, Kenshin,” Brados said, gesturing toward the door.
“They are waiting for you back at the sanctuary.”