After Ravihiro fell unconscious everyone rushed to him and takes him back to the sect hall
After some time
๐๐๐๐๐๐พ๐.
The grand hall of the sect was cloaked in a suffocating stillness.
It was not the silence of peace, nor the calm after victoryโ
but the tense, heavy quiet of fear.
The fragrant smoke of herbs and incense curled upward, struggling to cover what still lingered in the airโ
the sharp, metallic scent of blood.
It clung to the chamber walls, to the robes of those gathered,
to the very breath they exhaled.
At the center of the hallโ
๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐ง๐ค ๐ก๐๐ฎ ๐ช๐ฃ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐จ๐๐๐ค๐ช๐จ,
his body motionless upon a grand silk-laced bed.
His face was pale, his lips drained of color,
chest rising and falling in faint, uneven intervals,
like a candle burning at the end of its wick.
On a nearby table lay the shattered remnants of his mask.
Each fractured piece reflected the flickering candlelight,
as though shards of a broken moon had fallen into the room.
The mask that had hidden him. The mask that had restrained him.
Now nothing but ruins.
Around the bed, they stood.
Each figure carved in shadow, each carrying unspoken thoughts.
The Sect Leaderโ
brows furrowed, arms crossed, his silence sharper than any blade.
Ruminaโ
her fists clenched, her jaw tight,
a storm of emotions in her eyes that refused to yield.
Harunoโ
uneasy, shifting in place, as though her very skin crawled
with memories she wished to bury.
Huo and Tangโ
watchful, ready to act at the slightest provocation,
their hands never straying far from their weapons.
Kalkiโ
his piercing gaze dissecting every flicker of movement,
a mind already searching for answers in the shadows.
Rudraโ
sitting on a chair, his body bandaged,
his spirit still trapped on the battlefield he wished he could forget.
And then there were Ravihiro's parentsโ
their faces pale, worn by the weight of something unsaid.
His mother stood close to little Purvi,
her hand resting protectively on the girl's shoulder.
Yet even her touch trembled.
The chamber grew colder with each passing moment.
The silence stretchedโuntil finally, someone broke it.
๐๐ถ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ข'๐ด ๐๐ฐ๐ช๐ค๐ฆ.
It trembled.
"โฆ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐จ๐ฃ'๐ฉ ๐๐๐ข๐จ๐๐ก๐."
His eyes, shadowed with disbelief, lifted to face the others.
The weight of his words hung over them all like a blade.
"That thingโฆ wasn't my brother.
That was a monster."
The word cracked through the silence like lightning.
Rumina's jaw tightened, her gaze like a blade of her own.
"๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ฃ'๐ฉ ๐ ๐ข๐ค๐ฃ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ง," she snapped, her voice sharp, unyielding.
Rudra's fists clenched.
"๐๐๐๐ฃ ๐ฌ๐๐ฎ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐๐๐ ๐๐ช๐ง๐ซ๐?
๐๐ ๐ก๐๐ช๐๐๐๐ ๐๐จ ๐๐ ๐จ๐ก๐๐ช๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ค๐ฅ๐ก๐.
๐๐๐๐ฉ'๐จ ๐ฃ๐ค๐ฉ ๐๐๐ข!"
His words cut deeper than any blade.
And thenโ
"โฆ๐๐ ๐๐ก๐ฌ๐๐ฎ๐จ ๐ฌ๐๐จ."
The voice was quiet.
Yet it stole the air from every lung.
All eyes turned.
Haruno.
She hesitated, her lips trembling before the truth slipped free.
"โฆ๐'๐ซ๐ ๐จ๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐ฉ ๐๐๐๐ค๐ง๐."
๐พ๐ค๐ก๐ ๐จ๐๐ก๐๐ฃ๐๐.
A silence that bit at the skin, colder than steel.
Haruno's gaze lowered, her fingers twisting together.
"It happenedโฆ years ago."
Her voice cracked, a ghost dragged from the depths of memory.
"I was being hunted. A group of high-ranking cultivators ambushed me.
They wanted to capture me, chain me like some beast.
I fought, but I was losing. I was bleeding.
And thenโ"
Her eyes lifted, trembling as they settled on Ravihiro's still form.
"๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ง๐๐ซ๐๐."
The memory twisted her features.
"But when he didโฆ he wasn't himself. Just like tonight."
The Sect Leader's voice was low, dangerous.
"No mask?"
Haruno shook her head slowly.
"No. Nothing to hide behind. It was his faceโฆ his voiceโฆ
but warped.
He laughedโnot like him.
A laughter that chilled me to my bones."
Her fingers curled tight.
"๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ค๐ค๐ ๐๐๐จ ๐ฉ๐๐ข๐.
Breaking their bones one by one.
Smiling.
Leaving them alive, only so they would suffer longer."
Her voice trembled.
"It was the first timeโฆ
I was afraid of him."
๐๐๐๐๐๐พ๐.
The room itself seemed to recoil.
And thenโ
"โฆ๐๐๐๐จ ๐๐จ๐ฃ'๐ฉ ๐ฃ๐๐ฌ."
Another voice.
Calm, yet heavy with something unspoken.
Ravihiro's parents.
His father, broad-shouldered yet weary,
stepped forward with slow, deliberate steps.
His mother followed, her eyes downcast,
the sadness within them older than the lines on her face.
"He's been like thisโฆ since childhood,"
his father muttered, the words like falling stones.
Rumina's breath caught.
Her voice barely escaped her throat.
"๐๐๐๐ฉโฆ?"
His mother's voice was soft, fragile, yet the truth it carried was merciless.
"โฆ๐๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐๐ง๐ค ๐ฌ๐๐จ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ก๐, he wasโฆ different.
He didn't cry.
Not like other babies.
His silence wasโฆ unnatural.
He barely spoke. Barely showed anything."
Her voice cracked, but she forced herself on.
"And thenโฆ when he was six years oldโฆ"
She faltered, her hand tightening on Purvi's shoulder.
The little girl shrank under the weight of words she didn't understand.
"One nightโฆ he disappeared.
We searched everywhere.
Hours passed before we found him."
Her lips trembled, her eyes filling with tears.
"In a cemetery.
Covered in blood."
The chamber chilled.
Even the flames of the candles seemed to waver.
"He had killed an animal.
With his own hands."
Her voice broke.
"He tore it apartโฆ piece by piece.
And when we found himโฆ he was smiling."
The hall froze.
Every breath felt heavy.
Every shadow stretched longer.
And thenโ
"๐๐๐ฃ๐จ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ค๐ฌโฆ"
The Sect Leader whispered, his tone grim, as if naming a curse.
The tension cracked, ready to shatter.
Haruno's eyes burned with both anger and fear.
Purvi's small voice, sharp with defiance, cut through the dread.
"๐๐'๐จ ๐ข๐ฎ ๐๐ง๐ค๐ฉ๐๐๐ง, ๐๐๐๐ค๐ฉ!" she snapped, stepping forward,
her young frame trembling, yet her spirit unyielding.
The storm was no longer waiting.
It had arrived.