Chapter 116 — Echoes of Eternity
Zenith Vista, House No. 001, Nova Lumina.
Only a single month remained before the great tournament would begin.
Deep beneath the surface, inside the cold expanse of the underground training hall, Kai and Snow were in the middle of another grueling session. The three of them—Moon, Kai, and James—had established a strict rotation: Kai would train eight hours each morning, James would take over in the afternoon and evening, while Moon pushed himself through the long, silent hours of the night.
It was a merciless routine, forged out of necessity. For twenty-four hours a day, the training hall never slept, and neither did the fire burning in their hearts. To balance the strain, each man surrendered the hours outside of his shift to complete rest, forcing the body to heal and absorb the punishment it had endured. They had no other choice—without that healing, the weight of their regimen would have destroyed them.
This meant, however, that their interactions with one another dwindled to nothing. They passed like shadows in the corridor, rarely speaking, rarely meeting, their lives consumed by the cycle of sweat, pain, and silence. And so, as the month slipped away, their bond remained unspoken, buried beneath discipline.
And then, suddenly, it was the eve of the tournament.
Moon sat sprawled on the sofa, his posture heavy yet deceptively calm, the flicker of the television screen casting restless light across his face. Every channel, every broadcast, every fragment of media had been overtaken by the tournament. It was no longer just an event—it had become a festival.
Even ordinary humans, whose average lifespan now stretched to five centuries thanks to medicine and the ambient leakage of essence from hunters and cultivators, rarely had the chance to witness such a spectacle more than ten times in their entire lives. For them, this was history wrapped in blood, power, and glory. A chance to stand at the edge of something greater than themselves.
Kai entered the room then, his steps casual but his eyes sharp. He found Moon watching the screen with a faraway look and asked with a small smile, "You're not nervous, are you? You'll pass easily."
Moon turned his head slowly, meeting Kai's gaze. For a moment, his expression was unreadable. Then he spoke in a low, deliberate tone.
"Kai… will you answer a question for me?"
Kai gave a light laugh, the sound meant to comfort, though there was curiosity in it too. "I'm your brother. Of course I'll answer. Ask anything."
Moon's lips curved into a faint, almost mischievous smile.
"What do you call a moose with no name?"
Kai blinked. His brows furrowed, his mouth half-open in confusion. "What? How does that have anything to do with tomorrow's tournament?"
Moon waved the concern away with a flick of his hand. "Forget the tournament for a second. Just guess. What would you call it?"
Kai rubbed his chin, thinking far harder than he should have. "Uh… unknown moose?"
Moon shook his head, eyes glinting. "Wrong. Try again."
Kai frowned, thinking again, but after a long pause he sighed in defeat. "I give up. What is it?"
Moon's grin widened. "Anonymous."
And with that, he burst into uncontrollable laughter. His shoulders shook, his head tilted back, and the sound echoed in the quiet room.
"Hahahahaha! Anonymous!"
Before Moon could recover, Kai stepped forward and delivered a swift kick directly to his brother's backside. Moon yelped but continued laughing even as he rolled onto his side.
"I thought you were sitting here worrying about the tournament," Kai scolded, half annoyed, half amused. "But no—you're watching the news and coming up with a joke so bad it makes my ears bleed."
Still chuckling, Moon staggered to his feet and wandered off toward his room. "Goodnight," he said lazily, waving one hand behind him. He vanished through the doorway, still grinning.
Kai shook his head, muttering under his breath, but he didn't follow. Instead, he turned back to the glow of his screen. The tournament was one thing, but the battleground itself was another. He had been researching, digging through archives and scraps of data, and tonight he had found something that made his blood run cold.
The arena where the first phase of the tournament would be held was no ordinary wasteland. It was a barren stretch of existence, spread across dimensions, fragments of a scarred expanse that once covered nearly ten percent of the multiverse. Now, it was reduced to a mere three percent.
But ten thousand years ago, that place had not been barren at all. It had been alive—universes upon universes, each filled with countless planets, civilizations, and living beings. Until the war.
The records were vague, shrouded in silence, the details stripped away as though someone had torn the truth from history. But one thing was clear: it had not been armies that had brought ruin to that place. It had been one being.
A single being had risen and fought against strongests of that era, and not only had he fought them—he had defeated them. The clash had been so catastrophic that the very fabric of the multiverse had been torn apart, leaving behind only barren scars where vibrant life had once thrived.
What became of that being, or even which race he had belonged to, no one knew. He had vanished into obscurity, leaving behind only the silence of his destruction.
Kai leaned back in his chair, staring at the information in disbelief. The thought was staggering. To hold enough power to wound the multiverse itself… to break the unbreakable. Such a being truly existed in this world.
Elsewhere, in his room, Moon tossed and turned in his bed. His earlier laughter had been only a mask. He had acted carefree in front of Kai, even gone out of his way to appear relaxed, but deep inside, the tension gnawed at him. He had worked too hard, bled too much, and endured too many sleepless nights to feel nothing.
And Kai had seen through him. He always did.
But instead of calling him out, Kai had chosen to play along. He had allowed Moon his space, his small act of defiance against fear. That was their unspoken language, the bond forged in years of growing up side by side. No one could understand them better than they understood each other.
They had walked together through every shadow and every light, and tomorrow, they would face the storm.
To be continued…