The highest-tier healing chamber was suffocatingly tense.
Kenshin lay completely rigid on the central stone slab, his dark-green eyes shut tight.
Though his physical body bore no new wounds, he was locked in a state of absolute, unbreakable unconsciousness.
The lead healer pulled his glowing green hands away from Kenshin’s forehead, his aged face pale with dread.
“There is nothing physically wrong with his vessel,” the lead healer whispered to the other medics in the room.
“His aura pathways are intact. But his condition… it is as if he has been exposed to a terror far worse than a mortal mind can bear. His consciousness has shut down to protect itself.”
Outside the heavy oak doors, the corridor echoed with anxious pacing.
Asuka sat on a wooden bench, her hands covering her mouth to muffle her soft, terrified weeping.
Ren stood rigidly beside her, glaring at the stone doors as if she could break them down with her dark-green eyes alone.
Akari clung to her mother’s dress, shivering.
“What are they doing inside?” Asuka asked, her voice cracking as she looked at the sanctuary guards stationed at the door.
“We do not know, Lady Asuka,” the guard replied, his own posture stiff with unease.
The heavy, rhythmic sound of footsteps echoed down the hall.
Master Brados approached, his expression forged from cold, unyielding stone.
“Brados,” Asuka stood up rapidly, tears spilling down her cheeks.
“My son—”
“He will survive this,” Brados interrupted gently, yet leaving no room for argument.
He turned to one of the guards.
“Bring Horuto, Asami, and my weapons to this chamber immediately. Go.”
The guard bowed hastily and sprinted down the corridor.
Asuka frowned, her maternal instincts screaming.
“Your weapons? Why do you need weapons in a healing room? What are you going to do to him?”
“We are not going to harm Kenshin,” Brados stated, his dark eyes shifting to the heavy oak doors.
“We are going to talk with the Shadow.”
Ten minutes later, the guard returned.
Behind him walked Asami, her midnight-blue hair tied back, and Horuto, whose chest was fully healed.
In Horuto’s hands rested the massive Green Dragon Guandao and the translucent jade-green longsword.
Horuto handed the weapons to the Master.
Brados gripped the spiraling golden shaft of the Guandao in his right hand, the immense magical pressure instantly filling the corridor.
“Come inside,” Brados commanded Asami and Horuto.
He turned to the healers and the remaining guards.
“Everyone else, out. Leave the chamber immediately.”
The healers did not argue.
They filed out of the room rapidly, their faces pale.
Brados stepped into the infirmary, with Horuto and Asami taking their positions slightly behind him.
The heavy oak doors slammed shut, sealing the three warriors inside with the unconscious teenager.
“Master,” Horuto asked quietly, his olive-green eyes fixed on Kenshin.
“What did you mean?”
“I meant exactly what I said,” Brados replied, his voice dropping to a dangerous, rumbling baritone.
Brados stepped forward, standing directly at the foot of the stone slab.
He gripped the heavy shaft of the Guandao and violently slammed the metal pommel into the marble floor.
CLANG.
“Shadow,” Brados commanded, his voice laced with absolute, lethal authority.
The room remained dead silent.
Kenshin did not stir.
Brados’s dark eyes narrowed.
“Come outside. Face me now, before I decide to tear Kenshin’s chest open and pull you out myself.”
He struck the Guandao against the floor a second time.
A brilliant, dark-green aura began to flow from Brados’s boots, swirling aggressively across the floorboards.
The magical pressure in the room spiked, the ancient Gladeon pushing his power into the atmosphere to challenge the entity.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then, the air in the room violently snapped.
A suffocating, pitch-black and dark-purple aura suddenly erupted directly from Kenshin’s chest.
The sheer, concussive force of the magical release shook the heavy stone walls of the healing chamber.
“Master!” Asami yelled, raising her arms to shield her face.
The physical reality of the infirmary began to warp and crack.
The polished stone ceiling faded, replaced entirely by thick, swirling clouds of black and dark-purple lightning.
The temperature plummeted to a freezing chill, and the scent of necrotic ash filled the room.
From the center of the dark-purple vortex hovering over Kenshin’s body, a figure began to physically manifest.
It was a head and torso composed entirely of thick, living shadow and crackling purple energy.
The Entity rose smoothly, levitating just inches above Kenshin’s unconscious face.
Its solid, pupil-less purple eyes locked directly onto Brados.
The aura radiating from the Shadow was catastrophically heavy.
It felt as if the entire ocean had suddenly been dropped onto their shoulders.
Horuto’s knees instantly gave out.
The young warrior collapsed onto the floor, his breath caught in his throat, completely paralyzed by the primordial pressure.
A second later, Asami fell to the ground beside him.
Her icy blue eyes were wide with pure, unadulterated terror.
She tried to summon her Plandacorus energy, but the purple lightning within her was utterly crushed by the Apex Entity’s presence.
She was gasping for air, her body glued to the stone tiles.
Brados remained standing.
His broad shoulders tensed, his boots digging into the floor, but he did not yield.
He stared directly into the glowing purple voids of the Shadow’s eyes.
“You should consider yourself lucky I came out,” the Shadow spoke.
The voice did not come from a mouth.
It echoed directly into the minds of everyone in the room, deep, ancient, and dripping with arrogant malice.
“I never take orders from others,” the Shadow sneered, the dark-purple lightning around it flaring violently.
Brados felt his ribs aching under the crushing weight of the Entity’s aura, but he forced himself to stand tall.
He swallowed the metallic taste of fear in his mouth, keeping his grip tight on the Guandao.
“What did you do to Kenshin?” Brados demanded, his tone hard and uncompromising.
“Answer me.”
The Shadow tilted its head slightly, an invisible, mocking smile radiating from its dark form.
“I do not give answers to some lowly mortal,” the Shadow rumbled, the black clouds above them churning.
“But since you are so curious… I merely showed the boy my Empire. And I showed him my true self inside his own mind.”
Brados’s jaw tightened.
The Shadow’s purple eyes flicked downward, resting on Asami and Horuto, who were both trembling on the floor, completely immobilized.
“And yet,” the Shadow mocked, “right behind you, your two most loyal and finest students are laying on the floor like crushed insects.”
Brados’s dark eyes widened slightly.
His grip on the Guandao tightened until his knuckles turned white.
A surge of protective anger flared in his chest, allowing him to push back against the suffocating pressure.
“Watch your tongue, Shadow,” Brados warned dangerously, slowly raising the curved jade blade of the Guandao toward the Entity.
“Or I will teach it manners myself.”
The dark-purple aura around the Shadow suddenly spiked, vibrating with a lethal, cosmic intensity.
“Do not pretend that you do not fear me, old man,” the Shadow hissed, the voice dropping to a terrifying, absolute whisper that rattled Brados’s teeth.
The Entity leaned forward, floating closer to Brados’s face.
“You dare to comment on my tongue?” the Shadow sneered.
“I will let you know that I could cut your head off your shoulders right now, before you could even manage to raise your weapon with those trembling hands of yours.”
Brados did not step back, though the cold truth of the Entity’s words hung heavily in the air.
The power gap between a Strong Holder and this Primordial darkness was vast.
“Consider this a mercy for meeting me for the first time,” the Shadow stated, its purple eyes glowing with finality.
“Next time you summon me… invite me with respect.”
With a sudden, violent implosion, the dark-purple clouds vanished.
The shadowy torso retreated, sinking back seamlessly into Kenshin’s chest.
The terrifying, crushing gravity vanished from the room.
The stone ceiling reappeared, and the warm glow of the sun filtered back through the high windows.
Asami and Horuto gasped, violently sucking air into their starved lungs.
Horuto pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, his forehead dripping with cold sweat.
Asami staggered to her feet, her hands shaking so badly she had to lean against the stone slab for support.
“M-Master…” Asami stammered, her voice breathless and fractured.
“He is stronger… far too much. He is beyond anything we have ever faced.”
Horuto swallowed hard, unable to find his voice.
Brados lowered his Guandao.
His chest was heaving, his heart hammering against his ribs, though he kept his expression perfectly stern.
He looked down at the unconscious teenager lying on the slab.
“Prepare Kenshin,” Brados ordered, his voice echoing with absolute resolve.
“We will train him at any cost. He must be prepared to face his own power.”
With that, Brados turned and walked out of the healing chamber.
When the heavy oak doors opened, Asuka immediately stepped forward, her dark-green eyes frantic.
“Brados… how is my son?”
Brados stopped in the corridor, looking at the weeping mother and the two terrified sisters.
“He needs to become stronger,” Brados stated gently, but firmly.
“Much stronger than we could have ever anticipated. For now, the storm has settled. You and your daughters must return to your estate in the Underward. He is safe here.”
Asuka hesitated, glancing toward the closed doors of the infirmary.
Her maternal heart ached to stay, but she recognized the absolute authority in the Master’s eyes.
With a slow, sorrowful nod, Asuka gathered Ren and Akari.
The three women turned and walked down the long corridor, leaving the sanctuary behind.
Kenshin’s true journey, a path paved in blood, sweat, and absolute darkness, was about to begin.