Kair!
Run!
Run, little wolf!” the voice shouted, a mixture of panic and discipline.
Run?
What happened?
Kair’s thoughts were a mess, and the smell of burning tore through his lungs.
Through his blurred vision, he saw his small town.
Beautiful.
Home to at least thirty thousand inhabitants, all of them of the wolf lineage.
It stood near a waterfall that plunged into the endless sea of clouds below.
Yes, the Asteria Empire was made up of countless islands.
Flying islands that floated above the clouds.
Kair’s island was one of those closest to the edge of the Empire, but hundreds of wolf warriors protected it.
Among them was his uncle.
“Move, Kair!
NOW!” His uncle’s roar pulled him from his daze, and now he could finally see.
His town was on fire.
Bodies were scattered across the streets, while hundreds of insectoid creatures flew through the air carrying pieces of corpses.
The bodies of neighbors who, only a few days ago, had called Kair over to share homemade sweets.
“KAIR!” Finally, his body began to move, but it was already too late.
One of the insectoids tore through the sky and came straight for him.
Only for his uncle to catch it with his claws and fangs.
Strong…
Kair’s thoughts died when he saw a cloud of those creatures sweeping toward his uncle.
Still with blood in his mouth and covering his claws, the old wolf spoke: “Run!
Run!
Even if it feels like cowardice, boy.
Only survivors can tell stories!” Kair ran.
He fled with everything he had, but not before glancing back and seeing his uncle.
A sky full of creatures was flying toward him.
“Uncle…” Kair watched the world shatter, and with a jolt, his eyes opened.
“Another nightmare,” he whispered.
It was morning the following day.
After the failed ceremony, he and all the other youths had been taken to the rooms assigned to them by the Empire.
It was customary that, after the Lineage Ceremony, the Coming-of-Age Test took place on the following night.
That night, they would be sent into a Fracture.
It occurred at the end of every year, on the same day and at the same time.
The youths who had just awakened their lineages would be sent inside and were expected to return after dawn.
After washing himself, Kair left his room and headed toward the courtyard.
They were staying in one of the palace barracks.
In the distance, the great palace could be seen in all its grandeur, its size so immense that Kair would need years to explore it.
“It looks so cold,” he whispered.
“I suppose it must be because the Empress has a lineage connected to ice.” A voice came from behind Kair, causing him to quickly turn around.
A young man with silver fangs and lupine eyes stared at him.
He appeared to belong to the Ironfang lineage.
One of the most common lineages, but one that always produced good warriors.
“Pleasure to meet you.
I’m Rovan Ironfang.” The young man’s smile revealed his silver fangs and gave Kair a friendly impression.
“Pleasure, Kair.” “Y-Your…
Your surname?” Amidst his stammering and disbelief, the young Rovan asked far too loudly.
“Yes…” “Then you shouldn’t be here.
Run from the Fracture!” The words that had once been kind turned to ice, as if he were afraid of staying near Kair.
Rovan left.
For the second time, a wolf had told Kair to run.
Heat began to spread through his chest.
Was there no honor among wolves?
Did they all consider him a burden to the pack, or whatever the hell they called themselves?!
With the heat still burning in his chest, Kair headed toward one of the training dummies.
The barracks courtyard was filled with youths from various lineages.
All of them were preparing for the Coming-of-Age Test.
As Kair walked by, he heard several whispers from the youths who had witnessed his Lineage Ceremony.
“Is he that boy?” “I don’t think he’s in a good mood.” The mockery was obvious on the lips of someone from the fox lineage.
“I think he’s going to die.
The Government must be insane to let someone without a lineage take the test…” Someone from the lamb lineage whispered with nothing but pity.
“Let him die.
People without lineages shouldn’t exist.” A member of the lion lineage spoke louder than most.
Almost running, Kair reached the farthest corner of the barracks.
Right beside one of the training dummies.
They had been created through a mixture of magical knowledge and abilities from various lineages.
The moment he touched it, a screen with the same coloration as the Empress’s statue appeared.
[Start Combat] [Yes / No] Almost as if he wanted to push his fingers through the screen, Kair pressed “Yes,” and his world immediately became a blur.
[Combat Ended] Something hot began to burn across his face, and his vision slowly returned to normal.
He had lost in a single punch.
The difference was obvious.
Blatant!
“Again!” Kair’s shout made several students turn their eyes toward him.
But they soon watched him fall to the ground again.
“Again!” He fell.
“Again!!” He remained standing for one second longer before being knocked out again.
The morning passed like that.
With falls and shouts, but Kair’s trance was broken when a hiss whispered close to him.
“Ten sssseconds…” Kair’s soul trembled as he turned around.
A mass of bruises had formed across his body.
Something close to purple and black covered him from head to toe.
But all his exhaustion vanished when the blazing eyes of Princess Elyra met his.
He didn’t know how long she had been there, but her eyes, which should have been cold, burned like magma and…
Was it curiosity or mischief that Kair could see within them?
“Prin-” “Enough.
Go rest and recover.
You shouldn’t enter the Fracture while exhausted.
I’ll ask some lineages with healing abilities to take care of you.” With the same commanding and fiery tone, Elyra walked away, accompanied by several guards from the serpent lineage.
Utterly stunned, Kair remained standing there for several minutes.
And he wasn’t the only one.
A few other nearby lineages had also frozen in place.
So this was how royalty did things?
No one could stop themselves from wondering, but no one was crazy enough to say it aloud.
Faster than most would have liked, the day passed.
Kair eventually followed the princess’s advice and order and went to eat and recover.
By nightfall, the entire city had gathered in the main square.
Several stalls had been set up, and countless lanterns painted the square in shades of orange.
Unlike any festival, no one seemed happy.
Silence ruled over the square, broken only when a few vendors offered sweets and various goods.
At certain moments, all the youths from the various lineages made their way to the square.
Many said farewell to their families, while some asked their parents to prepare their favorite dishes for the morning.
Kair was among them, but he had no one to ask for anything.
His fingers, now equipped with something resembling a clawed gauntlet, tore into the palm of his hand.
The barracks had provided several weapons, but perhaps because he had grown up in a city of wolves, or simply because he didn’t know how to use other weapons, Kair chose one similar to the weapon his uncle had always used.
When drops of blood began to run down his fingers, a terrifying cold fell over the square.
Kair froze.
Strong…
No.
Absolutely strong!
It felt as though even Kair’s thoughts had slowed down.
Following the source of the cold, Kair’s eyes fell upon something far away.
The main balcony of the palace.
There she was.
The supreme authority of the Asteria Empire.
So far away…
She can subjugate everyone from there.
How can anyone even stand in front of her?
That thought could very well have been what almost every youth was thinking.
However, they couldn’t lose themselves in it for long, because something else caught everyone’s attention.
High in the sky.
Right in the center of the square.
A crack tore through the sky and began to open.
Kair knew.
It had begun.
“This time…
No one is going to tell me to run!
Even if I die!” Kair roared deep within his chest.