The dawn came too quietly.
The once-familiar sound of roosters, the laughter of children, the smell of bread from the baker's hut — all gone. Only the crackle of burnt wood and the slow sigh of the wind filled the hollow remains of the Twin Moon Village.
They destroyed everything
Daniel stood before what used to be his home. The roof had collapsed inward; smoke rose from what little remained of their hearth. His mother's small garden — the one she had tended each morning — was now blackened soil.
He took a step forward, boots crunching over charred wood. Each step echoed like thunder in his ears.
His hands trembled. His mind kept replaying her voice — the way she had screamed when they dragged her into the night.
"Mother…" he whispered.
He fell to his knees. The smell of ash and blood hit him like a wave. Tears fell freely, cutting faint streaks through the soot on his face.
> "Why… why did I awaken this cursed power?"
The Codex in his mind flickered, faint runes pulsing like a heartbeat.
> "The storm gives, the storm takes. What is lost shall guide the tempest."
He clenched his fists. "Guide the tempest? She's gone!"
Lightning flared from his skin — uncontrolled, jagged, wild. The ground cracked beneath him, sparks scattering like fireflies before fading into smoke.
For a long while, Daniel just sat there, listening to the silence. Then, something stirred at the edge of the ruined path — a presence that bent the air itself.
He turned sharply.
A man stood there.
Tall. Cloaked in gray and deep blue, trimmed with faint sigils that shimmered like moonlit waves. His hair was silver-white, yet his face unlined. His eyes glowed faintly — not with light, but depth, like the pull of an unseen ocean current. Even the air around him seemed heavier, pressing gently on the world.
Daniel tensed, instinctively defensive. "Who are you?"
The man didn't answer immediately. His gaze swept across the ruins, the scorched symbols left by the Darkened Moon Sect. He sighed softly.
> "So the shadows have moved again… I had hoped they would remain buried beneath the tides of time."
Daniel's heart quickened. "You know them?"
> "I know what they seek. I also know that you, boy, are the storm they will chase until the end of all realms."
Daniel's jaw tightened. "Then tell me where they are! I'll—"
> "You'll die," the man interrupted calmly, his voice deep and resonant — the kind that carried weight even in still air. "You can barely contain the storm within. You'd burn out before striking a single one of them."
Daniel's lightning dimmed slightly. His body trembled from exhaustion and fury.
> "Then what am I supposed to do? Sit here and wait while they kill her?!"
The man's expression softened just slightly. The pressure in the air around him eased, as if the invisible tide he commanded receded.
> "No. You must survive. Grow. Temper yourself in the world's heart. Only then can the storm strike true."
He extended his hand. A faint glow appeared in his palm — a swirling orb, neither light nor darkness, but something in between. Its core pulsed like a heartbeat, surrounded by faint rings of force that made the air ripple.
> "Take this."
Daniel hesitated, then reached out. The orb was warm, yet impossibly heavy — like holding a droplet of condensed gravity.
> "What is it?" he asked.
> "A Tide Core. It carries a fragment of my essence — gravity and current. Should the darkness find you again, it will shield your life once. But it will also guide you to me when you are ready."
Daniel frowned. "You mean… when I'm strong enough?"
The man nodded.
> "If you reach the Core Formation Realm before your fifteenth year, then you will be ready. Seek me where gravity and tide meet the heavens — the ashira mountain."
He turned to leave, his cloak rippling in a way that seemed to bend the wind itself.
"Wait!" Daniel called. "Who are you?"
The man paused, glancing over his shoulder. For a heartbeat, the air around him warped, dust and ash rising in a slow spiral.
> "Names are burdens, boy. But if you must call me something…"
His eyes glinted faintly with silver-blue light.
"…then call me the Keeper of the Deep Tides."
And then he was gone — the ground bending slightly where he had stood, as though the world exhaled once his weight was lifted.
---
Daniel stood alone once more. The orb pulsed faintly in his palm, heavy yet comforting. The Codex whispered faintly in his mind, its runes flickering to life again.
He looked toward the horizon — the far-off mountains where dark clouds gathered faintly above silver plains.
> "Ashira mountain… Core Formation… fifteen…"
His voice hardened. "I'll get there. No matter what it takes."
---
He buried what remained of his home before leaving — a small mound of stones beneath the single surviving tree. The orb in his hand vibrated faintly, responding to his sorrow, before growing still again.
By noon, he was gone from the valley.
The plains stretched endlessly before him, shimmering like water under the sun. The air was thick with elemental essence; he could almost feel the world's heartbeat through the soles of his feet.
At dusk, thunder rolled faintly across the horizon. He looked up, and the clouds above the mountains began to spiral — faint silver arcs within their depths. But before he could move, a strange vibration passed through the ground.
Water surged upward from cracks in the soil, forming long streams that danced in the air before vanishing again.
Daniel froze.
> "What in the—?"
Then he saw them.
Three figures gliding across the grass, cloaked in deep azure light. Their eyes glowed faintly blue, and when they moved, the air shimmered like waves.
> "Azurekin…" the Codex whispered in his mind.
"Descendants of the Water Spirits. Their kind controls tides and gravity — avoid conflict."
Daniel ducked behind a ridge, heart pounding — but one of the Azurekin stopped mid-stride, nostrils flaring slightly as if scenting the air.
> "Lightning essence," one hissed, voice echoing as though spoken underwater. "He carries it."
A spear of condensed liquid essence shot toward him. Daniel barely rolled aside, the ground exploding behind him. He fired a burst of lightning into the dirt, propelling himself away — his feet leaving scorched marks.
> "Stop him!" another Azurekin shouted, water whirling into blades around their arms.
He ran, lightning flaring instinctively with every step. The Codex screamed warnings in his mind.
> "You cannot face them yet. Retreat toward higher ground!"
He dashed across the plains, dodging whirlpools of essence that erupted wherever their attacks landed. When he stumbled, he pressed the orb — the Tide Core — against his chest without thinking.
A deep hum answered.
The world slowed.
Gravity itself bent around him, pushing the Azurekin backward as if an unseen wave struck them. A faint blue-white barrier formed around Daniel, shimmering like a tide between two storms.