chapter Two: The Wolf and the Traitor
"Grandpa!"
Auron's scream tore through the forest like the howl of a dying beast. He burst from the shadows of the oak, snow kicking beneath his boots, lungs burning with terror. The air hung heavy with iron and ash.
The world blurred; branches, corpses, and the faint orange shimmer of dying runes in the crater's heart.
And there, in that circle of ruin and blood, stood Malvio. He was trembling, his knife buried deep in Godfrey's ribs.
The boy froze. For a moment, the world lost sound. Only the slow patter of blood dripping onto snow remained.
"Malvio…?" Auron's voice cracked. "You… you killed him!"
Malvio spun. His silver hair was matted with sweat and soot, his eyes wide and haunted. It was the stare of a man who had already damned himself.
"Auron, please! Listen to me! They- they had my daughter! I was saving her!" His words tumbled, desperate and hollow. "The heavens forced me, child! You don't understand. I had no choice!"
But Auron wasn't listening. He fell to his knees beside Godfrey's body. The man's massive frame, once bright with strength, now lay sunken and pale.
His eyes were closed. His chest was still. Auron pressed trembling fingers to his neck nothing.
The warmth was gone.
He stayed there for a long moment, snow clinging to his sleeves, the forest holding its breath. It isn't real. He's still here. He has to be.
But the body was only a body. The laughter, the harsh lessons, the safety; all of it cut out in a single heartbeat.
He wanted to cry, but no sound came. Only the heavy pounding of his heart, and the cold rush of grief flooding into something darker.
His eyes caught a glint.
Around his wrist, the bracelet with the carved wolf sigil shimmered faintly beneath the blood-splattered snow. He remembered that day, years ago, when Godfrey had placed it there himself.
"This is our legacy, boy," Godfrey had said with a grin. "The sun rises and sets. The wolf endures. Remember that."
Now that same bracelet was slick with Godfrey's blood. As it touched the crimson pooling on his arm, something ancient stirred.
The runes along the sigil flared with a light that was not of this world; cold, silver, and primal. The ground trembled. The air thickened.
Malvio stumbled back, feeling the air twist around the boy. "Auron, please! Give me a chance to explain! For Godfrey's sake!"
"Don't you dare say that name out of your filthy mouth."
The voice that left Auron's throat was not his own. It carried a growl, raw and otherworldly, as if a beast spoke through him. His pupils thinned into slits. His breath came out in cold mist.
His face shadowed under a rising veil of spirit-light and above him, forming like smoke and lightning, loomed a great spectral wolf. Its eyes burned silver. Its fangs glimmered like moonlight.
Malvio staggered back in horror. "No… He's forming a contract. Damn it all!"
Auron lunged, and the world tore open around him. His fingers were claws. His scream was a snarl.
Malvio barely dodged, the boy's strike slicing a gash through his cloak. "Auron! That thing's not your savior. "it's trying to consume you! You're letting it make you its vessel!"
But the boy heard nothing. His body moved on instinct or possession.
The wolf spirit howled, and Auron mirrored it. The cry echoed across the trees. Wind and snow whipped into a frenzy until the clearing vanished in chaos.
"Then I'll stop you by force!" Malvio roared, summoning his own mana. The silver tattoos on his arms flared to life, veins glowing beneath his skin. Circles of ancient script spun in the air.
He rushed forward.
Each breath scraped like fire. The world narrowed to pulse and motion.
Auron struck first, leaping high. His nails met Malvio's forearm with a metallic clang, sparks flying as invisible force collided.
Malvio twisted, catching Auron's leg midair, slamming him into the snow but Auron rolled like a beast, rising with frightening speed. His small frame radiated power, veins glowing like molten silver.
"Bind!" Malvio's sigil flared, and chains of light erupted, snapping toward Auron like serpents. The boy caught one midflight and tore it apart.
Mana flared like lightning, hurling them both across the snow. Trees snapped like twigs.
Malvio hit the ground hard, coughing blood, ribs aching. He looked up just in time to see Auron's shadow stretch impossibly tall. The spectral wolf behind him threw back its head and howled, the sound shaking the earth.
"That's no ordinary spirit," Malvio muttered, fear clawing through his composure.
He dashed forward again, drawing a blade of condensed mana. The boy met him halfway, their strikes colliding again and again, light and shadow clashing in a blur. Sparks rained like meteors. Each hit resounded like thunder.
Auron's speed was feral, unpredictable, a hunter's rhythm, primal and raw.Malvio was the craftsman, each parry precise, each step measured. It was instinct versus experience, chaos against control.
Finally, Auron's punch connected. Malvio flew back, blood spraying from his mouth. His shoulder cracked against a boulder, shattering it.
He groaned, forcing himself up. "Damn… this boy's body—it's mutating."
Auron stood at the edge of the crater, trembling. His eyes glowed with that unnatural light. The wolf's specter loomed behind him like a god of vengeance.
Malvio made a choice.
He raised his hand, gathered mana in his palm, and whispered an incantation too old for mortal tongues. Power coiled around him, amplifying his strength for one final strike. He shot forward like lightning, his palm striking the boy's chest.
Auron's eyes widened. His body stiffened, the light inside him flickering. The wolf spirit howled once more, then shattered like glass.
Silence.
Snow began to fall again.
Auron collapsed, unconscious, his chest rising and falling in ragged breaths.
Malvio knelt beside him, gasping for air. He placed a trembling hand on the boy's back, circulating mana to stabilize him before the contract devoured what was left.
Then he froze.
"What in the—?" His eyes widened. "Two mana vessels?"
He pressed his fingers to the boy's chest again. Two distinct pulses one human, one impossible.
Every mortal was born with one: the Dantian, a core in the lower abdomen that gathered and refined mana for internal control. A rare few developed a Mana Circle around the heart, allowing command of external mana control.
But two vessels? That was blasphemy against creation itself.
"This isn't humanly possible," Malvio whispered. "No one should hold this much power. Not even a Highstar."
His mind raced. In the world's hierarchy, cultivators rose through Stars- first to tenth, mortal to god. Godfrey had barely reached the Seventh, and that was enough to slaughter armies. But this child... this sleeping boy... held potential beyond even that.
The Heir of Achelous.
Realization struck him like a blade. The heavens would come for this boy. The courts, the inquisitors, the Orders every force claiming divine authority would burn continents to find him.
And Malvio... Malvio was tired.
He looked at his bloodstained hands, at the corpse of his friend and mentor, and felt something hollow open inside. "What have I done?" he whispered. "How many times must I betray my soul just to keep breathing?"
He sighed, the sound ragged. "You were right, old man. The heavens never forgive. They only take."
With the last of his strength, he guided mana within Auron's body, sealing the wolf's power deep inside. A mark shimmered over the boy's chestthe sigil of a sleeping beast. The contract was dormant, not gone.
When the work was done, Malvio rose. He walked to Godfrey's body and knelt beside it. His trembling hands brushed snow from the warrior's bronze skin.
"You deserved better than this," he murmured. "I can't undo what I've done. But I'll give you a proper burial."
He dug through the frost with his bare hands, each motion slower, heavier. Snow mixed with blood until it froze red. When the grave was deep enough, he lifted Godfrey bones creaking, muscles straining and laid him to rest.
He whispered the old prayers of their order, the ones they had spoken in younger, cleaner days. Words of warriors who believed their fight was sacred.
By the time the final syllables left his lips, dawn was creeping through the clouds.
Malvio closed Godfrey's eyes, covering him with earth and snow. The white faded to grey, the red sealed beneath.
He turned to the silver-armored assassins and burned their remains, muttering words that turned bodies to ash so no diviner could trace the deed.
He looked once more at Auron, still unconscious, still breathing. "You'll be hunted forever, boy," he said softly. "But maybe you'll find something worth being hunted for."
He placed the boy gently in the cart beside a small sack of supplies, then turned away. His mana dimmed. The silver glow in his veins faded.
Malvio was done being a sorcerer. Done being a servant. Done being a traitor.
All he wanted now was to be forgotten by gods and men alike.
Behind him, the forest whispered. Snow drifted down upon the grave of a warrior and the sleeping heir beside it.
And far above, in the cold heavens that watched them both, something stirred. a star in the heavens above exploded.