The forest was still smoldering hours after the battle. Thin pillars of smoke drifted into the darkening sky like wounded spirits. Leaves were scattered everywhere, some burned to ash, others sliced apart by the Rift Beast's energy. The whole place looked scarred—like a battlefield that was never supposed to exist inside a peaceful forest.
Billionzaruto walked slowly between the fallen branches and charred soil, his steps heavy. His muscles ached, and his breath still felt rough from the blast. But the real weight pressing on him wasn't from the fight.
It was from the silence afterward.
The kind of silence that happens when the world is waiting for something.
Behind him, Kaigos followed at a respectful distance. The Sentinel rarely showed emotion, but even he looked shaken. His normally calm expression had an edge to it—a seriousness deeper than usual.
"You should sit," Kaigos said finally, but not like an order. More like a suggestion from someone who understood exhaustion very well.
Billionzaruto shook his head. "I'm fine."
"You're not."
"Maybe not," Billionzaruto admitted, "but I don't want to stop moving yet. If I stop, I'm going to start thinking… and then I won't like what comes after."
Kaigos's gaze lingered on him for a moment. "You're worried."
Billionzaruto didn't respond. Not at first.
He kicked a stone in his path, watched it bounce once, twice, then disappear into a cluster of broken roots.
"It felt too easy," he finally said. "Not the fight—the fight was hell—but the ending. It felt like the Beast rushed toward me. Like it wasn't attacking me… it was reaching for me."
Kaigos exhaled through his nose, a solemn sound.
"That's because it was."
Billionzaruto turned. "Explain that."
Kaigos stepped closer, his cloak brushing the ground like a long shadow. "Rift Beasts aren't just hunters. They're trackers. They don't move because they sense danger. They move because something calls them. Something guides them."
Billionzaruto frowned. "You're saying someone sent it?"
"No. Not someone…" Kaigos looked up at the sky as if expecting another crack of dark lightning. "Something."
That didn't make Billionzaruto feel any better.
They continued walking until they reached what used to be a shallow stream. Now it was a trench carved by the explosion, filled with blackened water. Billionzaruto crouched and scooped a handful of the water, watching the soot swirl around his fingers.
"Kaigos," he said quietly, "what is the Rift exactly? You keep mentioning it like it's alive."
Kaigos lowered himself onto a fallen log, his posture tired but disciplined. "The Storm Rift is not a place. Not a monster. Not even a spell. It's a tear. A wound in the world. Long ago, before you were born—before most people living now were born—the sky cracked open during the Great Tempest War. The Storm Lineage tried to seal it, but the magic backfired."
"And the Rift Beasts came out?"
"Yes. Each one different. Each one shaped by the energy leaking through the Rift. But they all share one instinct: devour the strongest source of power they can find."
Billionzaruto let the water slip through his hands.
"That source… is me."
Kaigos nodded slowly. "Your fire. Your lightning. Even your speed. Together, they make you the most valuable energy the Rift has smelled in years. That is why it sent a Beast after you the moment your abilities awakened."
Billionzaruto clenched his jaw. A fierce anger mixed with a harsh kind of sadness curled in his chest. He had never asked for this—never asked to be born into some forgotten bloodline or chased by creatures that shouldn't even exist.
"Why didn't my mother tell me any of this?" he asked, voice rough.
Kaigos's expression softened slightly. "Because she wanted you to have a life without fear. The more you knew, the sooner the Rift would sense you."
"But it sensed me anyway."
"Yes," Kaigos said. "Because something triggered your awakening."
Billionzaruto stood, wiping his hands on his pants. "I didn't trigger anything. I wasn't even training. It just happened."
Kaigos's eyes sharpened. "Power does not awaken without a reason. Something pushed it out of you. Something provoked your heritage. Look deeper."
Billionzaruto opened his mouth to respond—then closed it.
He thought back.
The night before his powers flared for the first time…
There had been a dream.
Flashes. Fire. Lightning. A voice he didn't recognize. A shape that felt familiar but impossible to remember clearly.
He never told anyone about it. Not even himself.
Before he could speak, a distant rumble rolled across the sky. Billionzaruto's muscles tensed automatically, but Kaigos raised a hand.
"It's just thunder," the Sentinel said. "Normal thunder."
Billionzaruto nodded but didn't relax. Normal thunder still felt wrong after everything that happened.
Kaigos continued, "There is something else I must warn you about."
"Go on."
"You destroyed the Beast—but not the connection. When a Beast dies, the Rift feels the loss. And when it feels the loss… it sends another."
Billionzaruto stared at him. "Another? You mean—this won't stop?"
"It will stop," Kaigos said, "but only when the Rift stops leaking. Only when it is sealed."
"And how do we seal it?"
Kaigos hesitated for the first time since Billionzaruto met him.
"That is complicated."
"Try me."
"Only someone of the Storm Lineage can close the Rift." He looked directly into Billionzaruto's still-faintly glowing eyes. "Meaning you."
Billionzaruto rubbed his face with both hands. "So let me get this straight. I have creatures trying to kill me because of powers I didn't ask for, a Rift tearing the sky open somewhere, and the only way to stop it is to walk into the middle of all this chaos and fix something ancient that I know nothing about?"
Kaigos nodded once. "Correct."
Billionzaruto laughed—not out of humor, but disbelief. "Perfect. That's just perfect."
He walked away a few steps, dragging a hand through his hair, pacing in a tight circle. His heart felt too big for his chest. Too loud. Too heavy.
Kaigos let him walk, let him breathe.
After a moment, Billionzaruto stopped and asked the one question that had been sitting like a weight behind his ribs:
"If sealing the Rift is so important… why didn't anyone else do it? Why does it have to be me?"
Kaigos looked older suddenly—like the years he carried finally slipped through his mask of discipline.
"Because," Kaigos said softly, "the last person who tried… died."
The world seemed to still around them.
Billionzaruto swallowed hard. "Who was it?"
"Your father."
Silence.
Real silence.
Not the eerie kind from earlier. This one felt personal. Like a truth that cuts deeper than claws ever could.
Billionzaruto's breath hitched without warning. He turned away, eyes stinging. He didn't know the man—never even saw a picture—but the word father still hit him in the chest like a punch.
Kaigos stood and walked slowly toward him. "He was brave. And powerful. But he was alone. The Rift overwhelmed him."
Billionzaruto's fists trembled. "So what makes you think I can do any better?"
Kaigos placed a hand on his shoulder—not as a mentor or a guardian, but as someone who had watched a legacy unfold for too long.
"Because you are not alone. And because your father never had the fire of the eyes."
Billionzaruto blinked. "Meaning?"
"That power… is entirely yours. Something new. Something the Rift has never encountered. And because of that—" Kaigos squeezed his shoulder exactly once, "—you may be the one person it cannot predict."
Billionzaruto let the words settle inside him.
Scary words.
Heavy words.
But words that carried something else too. Something quiet and stubborn.
Hope.
He took a slow breath.
"Alright," he said finally. "Then tell me what I need to do."
Kaigos bowed his head slightly.
"First, we train."
Billionzaruto exhaled, almost relieved. "And after that?"
Kaigos turned toward the horizon where distant mountains loomed under the fading light.
"After that," he said, "we find the Rift."
Billionzaruto followed his gaze, feeling something stir in his chest—fear, yes, but also resolve. The kind that grows slowly but refuses to die.
Because whatever came next…
He was done running.
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