Kaito stood on the cliffside, the wind ripping through the mountain peaks like it had a vendetta. The sun hadn't risen yet, but the sky was bleeding into blue from its bruised night. He breathed out. Frost formed in the air. His knuckles were taped, his bandages long gone. Bruises littered his body like war medals.
Below, the training camp stretched out like a warrior's playground—gravity wells, elemental rings, psychic domes, bone forges. Ren's old team didn't just train you. They broke you. Reforged you.
But this chapter wasn't just about breaking.
It was about awakening.
The giant—Gama—stood at the base of a platform made of obsidian rock. "Bloodlines," he bellowed, "are not power. They're keys. What you open with them? That's your real worth."
Kaito cracked his neck. "Then let's find the lock."
White-haired Nanami, floating upside down, yawned. "Confident. But stupid. Typical."
The silent woman—Seraphine—just nodded toward the obsidian ring. Kaito stepped into it.
Gama stomped the ground.
BOOM.
The entire arena shifted. The ring lowered into the earth like an elevator, taking Kaito underground. The walls glowed with etchings—old writing, blood symbols, and arcs of lightning frozen in glass.
Nanami's voice echoed from above. "You want to learn the truth of your bloodline, don't you?"
Kaito gritted his teeth. "I want to master it."
The ring locked into place. Walls spun.
Then everything went silent.
[Blood Trial Initiated: Echo Chamber – Lineage Isolation]
Kaito opened his eyes. He wasn't underground anymore.
He was in a desert.
But not one of sand.
This was made of glass. Jagged shards beneath his feet. A sky of crystal. Lightning overhead like dragons.
A voice rumbled:"Welcome, Veyne."
Kaito turned.
Before him stood a man. Cloaked in obsidian robes, eyes glowing like polished sapphire. A single sword hovered behind him, made of glass. But it shimmered—like it reflected futures.
"You are the inheritor of the Glass."
Kaito blinked. "Glass... what?"
The man stepped forward. "Your blood isn't human. It's forged. Created during the Epoch of Shatterfall. When the world was torn... Sylus Veyne rose with a blade that could cut fate itself."
The sword hovered between them.
It hummed.
"Only those of his blood can awaken the ability to mirror, deflect, and fracture powers. You don't control one element. You break all."
Kaito's heart pounded.
"So… what do I do?"
The man smiled grimly. "You survive."
The sky shattered.
Beasts made of molten mirrors dropped from the air.
Their roars cracked the sound barrier.
Kaito didn't hesitate.
He moved.
First beast lunged—jaws wide, crystalline teeth. Kaito ducked, slid under it, and slammed his fist into its gut. It fractured—glass flew. But the shards reassembled.
"Damn…"
The sword—the glass blade—floated beside him now. Waiting.
He reached for it.
Shock. Pain. Vision.
He saw Sylus. Standing on a mountain of corpses. Slicing thunder. Dodging gods. His face carved with sorrow and fury.
Then gone.
Kaito gripped the sword.
The beasts came again.
He didn't dodge.
He struck.
One slash—and the beast shattered completely. The sword reflected its own power back into it, amplified. Kaito's veins glowed blue-white.
He screamed.
But didn't stop.
Second one. He twisted mid-air. Reflected its fire breath. Incinerated it.
Third—snapped its legs with the blade's echo power. Let it crawl before stabbing through its core.
He stood alone again.
Chest heaving.
The voice returned.
"You are not Sylus. But you are Veyne. That is enough. For now."
The world blinked out.
He opened his eyes.
Back in the ring.
Seraphine nodded once. "He survived."
Gama cracked his knuckles. "Boy's cooking."
Nanami floated upside down again, this time smiling.
"You saw him, didn't you?" she said. "Sylus."
Kaito clenched his fists. "He's... not what I expected."
Nanami's eyes sparkled. "Good. Because you're not here to worship legends. You're here to surpass them."
Kaito's body still ached—but his spirit buzzed. His blood felt awake. His breath, sharper.
The sword wasn't in his hand anymore. But it was in his aura. Like a memory made steel.
Later that day, at the mess hall, Ryuu approached the trio.
He stood awkwardly beside Gama, who was chewing through a brick-like protein bar.
"I… want in."
Gama paused.
Nanami smirked. "You'll die."
Ryuu didn't back down. "So did Kaito. Almost. But he's still here."
Seraphine finally spoke. "Accepted."
Kaito blinked from his seat. "Wait, wha—?"
Ryuu grinned. "You're not leaving me behind, I am gonna rescue with my own power."
Kaito looked away, trying to hide the smile.
That night, Kaito sat outside, looking at his hand.
He could still feel the power.
But he also felt the weight.
Sylus Veyne. The first to break the system. The first to bend the other branches under his bloodline.
He didn't just fight.
He dominated.
But the price? Unknown.
The arena was quiet again. The heat of battle still simmered in the air. Kaito stood, panting, his skin crackling with the echoes of the blood trial.
The Glass Sword hovered—silent, gleaming, elegant.
Too elegant.
It was beautiful.
But it wasn't his.
Kaito stared at it, then slowly reached out. Fragments of shattered beast-glass still floated in the air—glinting like stars. As he raised his hand, those fragments drifted to him like iron to a magnet.
They pieced themselves together.
Not like the sword from the vision.
No hilt.
No cross-guard.
Just a jagged blade of broken will.
The ghost of Sylus echoed in his blood. "Take it. Rule with it."
Kaito looked down at the blade... then snapped it over his knee.
The crack echoed louder than thunder.
Everyone watching froze.
Even nanami tilted her head.
"I'm not Sylus Veyne," Kaito muttered, shards falling from his hands like ash. "And I'm not here to carry some ancestor's name like a curse. I'm not a relic. I'm me."
He looked up, fists shaking.
"I'm Kaito Ishikawa."
"I don't care if that's selfish. I don't care if I'm wasting potential. I'll protect my friends—not as a ghost's shadow—but as me."
Silence.
Then—slow claps from the dark. Gama.
He was grinning.
"Kaito Ishikawa..No wonder your ancestor is Sylus."
Seraphine nodded again—more approval this time.
Nanami dropped to the ground from his float. "this is like the most irrational move."
From his cloak, Kaito pulled a scroll—the one that changed his life. He hadn't dared open it till now.
It pulsed now. Like it had waited for this choice.
He untied the crimson thread.
The scroll unrolled by itself.
On it—a seal. Glowing with his bloodline.
But it wasn't Sylus's mark.
It was new.
Unclaimed.
Waiting to be forged.
Kaito's eyes lit with resolve.
This wasn't the end of his legacy.
It was the beginning.