Sir Kael Zephyros
It'd been years since the egg incident. The kid was probably thirteen now, off at whatever fancy academy the nobles bragged about. I shuffled down the corridor to the meeting they'd dragged me into, still half-asleep, and pushed the door open.
The room was thick with tension the moment I stepped in. The king sat at the head of the long table, flanked by generals and advisors, their faces grim beneath the flickering torchlight. Only one Paladin stood among them—Althea.
"Finally, you arrive, Kael," she said, voice cool but strained.
I groaned under my breath. Ugh, Althea.
She stood near the map table, blonde hair catching the light like molten gold. Her armor gleamed—clearly polished for ceremony, not battle—but the faint tremor in her hand gave her away. Typical noble brat, trying to look composed when she was anything but.
The king's voice cut through the murmurs. "Sir Kael. Lady Althea. Reports from the northern outpost have stopped. The last message mentioned… movement—something vast, unnatural."
I frowned. "Something? What kind of something?"
Althea stepped forward, her tone clipped. "The scouts barely had time to speak. They described a presence, nothing more. Then the line went dead."
"So we don't even know what we're facing," I said, crossing my arms. "And you're sending me out there?"
The old general leaned forward, voice gruff. "Not alone. Lady Althea will accompany you. Two Paladins should be enough to assess the threat."
I shot Althea a look. "You've got to be kidding me. Her?"
Her jaw tightened. "Try to keep up, Kael."
Before I could fire back, the king raised a hand. "Enough. You leave at dawn. Your orders are simple—identify the source of the disturbance and report back immediately. Do not engage unless necessary."
I exhaled through my nose, muttering, "Yeah, because that always goes according to plan."
A few hours later, I was still waiting for Althea.
"Ugh, seriously? How long does it take to put on armor?" I muttered, tapping my foot. "And here I thought she was already wearing it at the meeting."
Then Althea finally showed up.
"How the hell does it take you that long to put on armor?" I said, exasperated.
She flipped her hair with that smug little smirk. "So what? I was just picking which armor suited me best—unlike you."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, because fashion's definitely going to save your life out there."
"Oh yeah… you're probably not going to like this," I said, scratching the back of my neck. "For my power to work, I have to… uh, carry you."
Althea blinked, then her face turned scarlet. "W—what? You've got to be joking! There's no way that's how your power works, you— you pervert!"
I slowly raised both hands, palms open. "I swear I'm not trying anything. Ask the king if you want. It's just… necessary."
She hesitated, biting her lip. "Ugh… fine. But if you try anything weird, I swear I'll kill you."
I sighed and finally lifted her into my arms. She yelped softly, covering her face with both hands, her ears burning red.
"It's not like this is easy for me either," I muttered, trying to sound annoyed but failing to hide the warmth creeping up my own neck.
"S–so what?" she stammered, her voice muffled behind her hands. "I'm the daughter of a duke—practically a princess of this kingdom! Being carried by some man with no background is… It's an insult!"
I glanced down at her, unable to stop a small, amused smile. "Yeah, sure. You look really insulted right now.
I activated my Evolvant.
Runes blazed to life across my body, glowing like molten lines under my skin. The world blurred—flashing, bending—as if space itself folded around us. In the next instant, we were standing at the outpost.
Althea stumbled out of my arms, hugging herself like she'd just been violated. Her face drained of color.
"What?" I asked, my voice calm but edged with confusion.
She didn't answer—just raised a trembling hand and pointed.
I followed her gaze… and froze.
The outpost was gone. Nothing remained but a wasteland littered with the dead—bodies mangled and grotesquely twisted, as if torn apart by some impossible force.
Slowly, I turned—and my stomach dropped.
The mountain nearby looked wrong, its form warped and coiled like rubber, as though reality itself had been twisted out of shape.
"Well… we're fucked if that beast's still here," I said calmly.
Althea spun on me, her voice trembling. "How the hell are you so calm about this? Look at that mountain—look at how it's twisted!"
"I know," I said quietly, eyes scanning the horizon. "But at least that thing isn't here anymore."
A low voice cut through the silence behind us.
"Wrong. You lose one point."
Every muscle in my body tensed. I turned sharply, sword flashing into my hand as I faced the source of the voice.
A man stood there—wearing a black suit, his hair neatly combed back. But it wasn't just black; it absorbed every trace of light that touched it, the same way his eyes did. They were like voids—calm, endless, and wrong.
And the way he moves, like nothing can kill him, like death itself is scared of him
"One step," he said slowly, "and you die. Speak without my say — and you die. Even a wrong breath — dead."
The man tilted his head slightly, eyes glinting with something almost amused.
"You're Kael, right? You're allowed to speak now."
My throat felt dry. "Y-yeah… may I ask you something?"
He smiled — calm, easy, terrifying. "Sure. Why not?"
I swallowed hard. "Who the hell are you?"
"Oh?" His smile widened, just a fraction. "I thought you'd already guessed. Even with only ten percent of my power, I figured you'd know who I am."
A chill crawled down my spine. I did know.
"You're… the Father," I whispered.
He gave a single nod, smooth and unbothered.
"So you're the Leviathan," I said, my voice barely holding steady.
"Correct." He adjusted his cuffs, eyes never leaving mine.
"Why? Why are you here? I thought you'd send one of your beasts to destroy a useless outpost like this."
He chuckled low, a sound soft enough to be polite but cold enough to freeze marrow. "Relax. I came to meet the man who kept my gift from ending up in that scholar's torture lab."
My eyebrow twitched. "Your… gift?"
He nodded once, almost amused by my confusion. "That egg you stole back? That wasn't some random divine lottery prize." His eyes glinted darkly. "I left it there. For the boy."
"Arthur?" I breathed.
"Yes." His tone softened with a strange, ancient fondness. "A safeguard. A contingency. A piece of myself, wrapped up neatly for him. I don't hand out favors often, Kael. So losing it to mortals poking at it with tools was… irritating."
Althea stiffened beside me, breath catching as if the temperature dropped ten degrees.
He nodded again, something almost fond flickering in his eyes.
"Why Arthur?" I asked. "Why give that to him?"
A slow smile crept across his face. "Because it wasn't random. It was part of a long-term initiative set in motion by my father. A contingency plan that kicked off the moment the first-born timeline collapsed."
Althea's breath hitched, the air around us tightening as if reality itself didn't like hearing that truth spoken aloud.
Althea's breath hitched beside me. Her hand hovered over her blade, but she didn't draw. Her lips trembled — not from fear alone, but disbelief. The torchlight painted her face pale, her eyes wide, as if she were staring at a god made flesh.
"Anyway," he said with a lazy shrug, amusement barely masking irritation, "thanks for that. I wasn't planning to raze a kingdom just to get my egg back."
"You're welcome," I muttered.
The man tilted his head, voice smooth and almost bored.
"Hmm… should I let you walk away unscathed? Or fight you? Hm. I'm bored—why not."
The words barely left his lips before I activated my Evolvant.
Golden runes flared across my body, burning like molten veins. Space folded, and I shot forward—faster than thought—my blade cutting through him in a blur.
But it didn't hit.
It passed through him, like slicing water. The surface of his body rippled once, then stilled—untouched.
Before I could react, his hand shot out and clamped over my face. His grip felt like iron wrapped in gravity.
"Pathetic," he murmured.
He flicked his wrist—and the world spun.
I hit the ground a heartbeat later, the impact shattering stone beneath me. Pain exploded through my chest; blood sprayed from my mouth as I gasped.
Seven ribs, maybe more, my mind registered dully.
"Kael!" Althea's voice cracked through the ringing in my ears.
Her Evolvant ignited. Energy rushed to her like a storm breaking loose—air trembling, armor glowing white-hot as her body absorbed the ambient force. The power condensed into her palms, forming a blinding sphere that pulsed with unstable light.
She thrust it forward, screaming, "Try passing through this!"
The sphere exploded from her hand, a streak of pure annihilation screaming toward the man.
I folded space again, blinking behind him just as Althea's blast hit. My blade punched clean through his chest, golden light searing the edges of the wound—if it even was a wound.
At that same instant, Althea's sphere of energy slammed into him head-on. The explosion tore the air apart—light, sound, and pressure blending into chaos.
But he didn't move.
He just… grabbed it.
His hand closed around the core of the blast like he was catching a ball. The energy hissed and warped, bending to his will.
"Interesting," he said softly. "You try to burn me… and I reshape it."
The light in his palm twisted, melting into glowing petals—hundreds of them, drifting like embers. My sword was still through him, but he didn't even glance back.
He exhaled, almost bored, and blew the petals toward Althea.
They fluttered across the air, beautiful for a heartbeat—
Then they exploded.
The blast hit her square on, a wave of golden fire erupting where she stood.
I folded space again—appearing in front of Althea just as the blast hit, my runes flaring to shield her from the explosion's shockwave.
The ground split beneath us, air scorching with heat.
Then his voice cut through the dust, calm as ever.
"You dropped this."
My eyes widened as he flicked his wrist. My sword came spinning back—so fast the air screamed.
I twisted aside, barely dodging as the blade embedded in the ground beside me, still humming from the velocity. I grabbed the hilt, folded space again, and reappeared behind him mid-swing.
The strike never landed.
He caught my sword with two fingers. Just—stopped it.
"That's how your power works, huh?" he said, tone almost curious. "You control distance. You can turn a million steps into one, and the world still believes you actually walked it."
His eyes flicked toward me—black, reflective voids.
"You could easily point your sword at me and cut from anywhere… if you can appear behind me. But," he tightened his grip, the blade groaning under pressure, "if something blocks that space—anything at all—you can't move through it. You have to find another path."
He tilted his head slightly, a faint smile ghosting his lips.
"So tell me, Kael—how did you appear here without anything blocking your way?"
My vision swam. Blood dripped from my nose, warm and thick. My ears rang—then the ringing turned wet. I coughed, and a streak of crimson hit the ground.
He watched me quietly, head tilted in that same curious way.
"Huh… oh, I see now," he said, voice calm, almost pleased. "That's how your power works. It gives you a map—one you can process in, what, 0.01 seconds?"
His eyes narrowed, studying me like a scientist examining a specimen.
"But that's impossible for someone like you," he murmured. "You haven't reached level four yet, have you? That's the threshold where limits start to vanish… yet here you are, forcing a level-three body to handle what it can't."
A faint smile tugged at his lips.
"No wonder you're bleeding. You still have limits." he laugh like a maniac
A sudden blast of energy tore through the haze, slamming into him and sending shockwaves rippling across the ground.
Before the dust even settled, a hundred orbs of condensed light ignited in the air above—each one burning like a miniature sun. They rained down on him in a relentless storm, detonating one after another.
I couldn't help but laugh, half-crazed, blood still dripping from my mouth.
"Well, guess I'm just that talented," I said between breaths, voice rough with adrenaline. "Even stuck at level three, I still became a Paladin, dipshit!"
The moment the words left my mouth, I folded space again and appeared in front of him—blade flashing, runes blazing gold. I struck again and again, each swing splitting the air with thunderclaps.
Althea joined in, her aura blazing white as she unleashed a barrage of energy from every angle. The sky itself seemed to shake under the onslaught—our combined attacks lighting the battlefield like a storm of suns.
"Go on then—kill that bastard!" a voice appeared far away
We both froze.
I turned toward the sound—and there he was. Sitting casually on a chunk of broken stone, one leg crossed over the other, a delicate teacup in his hand. Steam curled lazily from it, the faint scent of jasmine cutting through the charred air.
He took a slow sip, unbothered by the destruction around him.
"Care for some tea, my good sir?" he asked, voice lilting with a strange, almost regal accent.
"He's not even taking us seriously," I said.
"Fine — then I'll go faster."
Runes lit my skin. Space hiccupped around me, lines of light tearing like paper. I launched — a blur — and hit him for real, sending him skidding through the air. He rose, unhurt, and I was already moving again; a mental map unspooled in my head, streets and vectors appearing in a cascade I could process in a breath. I used it to the fullest: afterimages exploded from my body, a million ghosts of motion, each one a promise of another strike.
He stood there—unharmed, unmoved, as if pain itself couldn't touch him. Every time my blade cut through, it felt like slicing through ink; his body flowed, reshaped, and refused to break. I've fought beasts whose forms bent the laws of nature, but none compared to the impossibility of his existence.
"I praise your skill," he said, slow claps echoing through the air. "To wield a power so useless and mind-devouring, yet still become a paladin—still cling to that title—even at level three. Amazing. Truly, a master of your own madness."
Then Althea appeared behind him, a flash of light screaming from her palm. The blast hit full-on—half his torso vanished in a spray of liquid darkness.
But before she could even breathe, it reformed. The missing mass rippled back together like molten ink crawling uphill.
He turned lazily, eyes cold, and backhanded her. The hit cracked the air itself, launching her through the rubble. His arm twisted, reshaping into a long, obsidian spear aimed straight at her heart.
I screamed—pure reflex—and threw my right hand forward.
The world broke.
Maps exploded behind my eyes, thousands of coordinates overlapping, crashing into each other like thunder. My skull felt like it was splitting apart.
Then space snapped.
Althea vanished—reappearing at the far edge of the battlefield, the ground scorched where she'd been a second ago.
The Leviathan froze mid-step, blinking once.
"You… shifted her distance? That's not possible. You shouldn't be able to do that. If you could, you wouldn't have needed to carry her here."
I coughed blood, my vision blurring red—streams ran down from my eyes like rivers.
"Yeah… if I kept doing that, my brain would've imploded," I rasped.
He chuckled—a low, knowing sound.
"You two remind me of a couple I once knew," he said, calm but weighted, like each word hurt to speak.
Althea's face flushed crimson.
"W–what?! I'm not his girlfriend!" she snapped, voice cracking.
Leviathan smiled faintly, eyes distant.
"It's better to embrace something than to reject what you might lose forever," he murmured, sounding like a man speaking from memory, not wisdom.
Then his tone softened, almost warm.
"You can go now."
He raised his hand, a gentle motion—almost human. My wounds sealed instantly, pain washing away as if he'd just brushed it off.
A ripple spread across the ground, and before I could breathe again, the world folded.
We stood at the kingdom gates.
I turned to Althea, still catching my breath.
"So… coffee?" I asked, calm, almost casual.
She blinked at me, completely dumbfounded.
"What—after that?"
I shrugged.
"Yeah. I'm tired, and the king's probably going to want a full report anyway. Might as well get caffeine first. What's wrong—don't tell me you're a tea drinker."
She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"Ugh… whatever. Sure. And yeah, I am a tea drinker."
I smirked faintly.
"Figures."
Then I felt something in my hand—a note. Althea noticed it too.
The paper shimmered faintly, words burning themselves across the surface:
"When the boy turns twenty, I'll return. Gather all ten kingdoms, every Paladin, every soldier you have… and I'll bring an army."
The letters faded as quickly as they appeared, leaving the page cold.
My hair stood on end. When I met Althea's eyes, she wore the same expression I did—pure, silent fear.