Chapter 43: My Mentor
The time-trapped boy, still dazed, was safely cradled in Ashley's arms. The spatial warping had ceased, the gym was silent, and the immediate crisis was averted. But for Null, the real storm was raging inside. The absorption of the Echo of Time had been too much. The flood of memories, the temporal equations, the cold mechanics of a power he hadn't known he possessed—it all spun together in a dizzying vortex.
He stumbled, his vision blurring, the vibrant gold of his cross-eyes flickering erratically.
"Null!" Kai shouted, grabbing his arm.
Null tried to speak, to assure them he was fine, but the world tilted violently. The polished gym floor rushed up to meet him, and the last thing he heard was Sophie's sharp intake of breath before the lights went out.
The Sea of Blood
Null didn't fall into darkness; he fell into a blinding red.
He found himself standing in a vast, desolate landscape. It was an ocean with no waves, no horizon, just an endless expanse of liquid, coagulated blood. The sky above was not blue or black, but a deep, overwhelming crimson, run down by a light that offered no warmth, only a pervasive sense of dread. There was no sound, only the thick, oily silence of a forgotten place.
"Where am I now!" Null shouted, his voice hoarse, echoing uselessly across the oppressive sea. He was furious, tired of being a puppet yanked between a ruined future and a forgotten past.
Then, he saw it: a shimmering opening within the sea of blood, a portal. It looked exactly like a bright, sunny street from his world, vibrant and alive. Driven by desperation, Null didn't hesitate. He plunged into the red liquid, swimming toward the light, hoping to return to the sanity of the gym.
A Brother's Hand
Instead of waking up, he burst out of the portal and into a dizzying rush of sound and color.
He was on a narrow, cobbled street, not in the present, but in a memory. He saw two boys running, their laughter bright and carefree.
"Horuto, run quickly!" one boy yelled.
The name Horuto struck Null like a physical blow. The identity of the boy flooded his mind with a warmth he didn't recognize but instantly longed for. Horuto looked exactly like Null—the same frame, the same build—like they were twins.
"Soren... wait up!" Horuto shouted, puffing hard. "You're too fast! Wait for me, you're way at the back!"
The name Soren was the second shock. Soren. That was me. He saw the boy who called himself Soren, and it was a younger version of Null, but undeniably him. Yet, there was a difference: this younger Soren's eyes had no cross. They were a stunning, liquid blue-black, like the entire sea compressed into a single round eye, unmarred by the golden cross that now marked Null's destiny. They were beautiful, innocent.
"Get back here, you little thieves!" A portly store owner chased them, but the effort was futile; he was no match for the speed of two young boys.
The chase ended abruptly.
A tall gentleman with long, green hair and striking, deep purple eyes suddenly appeared in their path, moving with impossible speed. His hand reached out, halting the two boys instantly. A large, ornate Prime Stone embedded in a necklace on his chest glowed powerfully. with a simple all white outfit
"Nev—" the boys shouted, trying to wriggle free, but the man's grip was firm, yet not painful. They instinctively knew not to mess with him. He was powerful, radiating an aura of calm, immense strength.
The man gently escorted them back to the winded store owner, who quickly gave up the pursuit. He looked down at the two boys—Soren, the daring one, and Horuto, the cheerful follower—with an expression of deep, thoughtful understanding.
My Mentor: Yoguri
"You should not be stealing, boys," the gentleman said, his voice deep, kind, and resonating with absolute knowledge. "You are blessed with gifts, and gifts should not be used to cause trouble. They should be used to build."
"We need food," Soren blurted out, a desperate honesty in his young voice. "Our mentor... our last mentor died. He left us his card, but it stopped working. We haven't eaten in two days." He instinctively put an arm around Horuto, shielding him.
The man, Yoguri, listened intently, his purple eyes examining the worn clothes and hollowed-out faces of the boys. He clearly saw the Prime Stone in Soren's chest, still dormant, and recognized the intense power already bottled inside the boy.
Yoguri sighed, a heavy sound of resignation. "Another one. The cycle never ends." He looked at the boys, a decision made. "I cannot allow two potential kings to starve on the streets. Come with me."
He led them through the bustling streets to a quiet, spacious apartment above a bookbinder's shop. It was clean, filled with rare books, and smelled faintly of old paper and incense.
Over the next few hours, Yoguri treated their wounds, fed them a lavish meal, and asked questions that were both probing and respectful. Soren, usually guarded, found himself explaining everything: the death of their previous, less-than-stellar mentor, the cold hunger, the useless credit card, and the bewildering feeling of possessing a power they didn't understand.
Yoguri nodded slowly. "The Prime Stones are not toys, Soren. They are anchors of creation. And if you are not careful, they can anchor you to madness." He took a deep breath. "I will be your mentor. I will teach you control, responsibility, and the history of the Prime Stones. But you must promise me absolute discipline and obedience. The path of the Unwritten King is paved with blood, and I will not lose you both to chaos."
Soren and Horuto, seeing a genuine, powerful, and benevolent figure, instantly agreed.
For weeks, Yoguri became their anchor. He was kind, firm, and extraordinarily knowledgeable. He taught them the subtle art of controlling their latent powers—Soren's raw capacity for Time, Darkness, and Reality-Bending, and Horuto's complementary, but less aggressive, set of abilities. And lot of secrets. Yoguri's training was rigorous, demanding hours of focused meditation and physical discipline, but he always instilled respect for their power.
"Your shadow is an extension of the void itself, Soren," Yoguri would say, his purple eyes intense. "It is not evil, but the absence of light. Learn to wield the darkness with the clarity of a star."
Soren felt a security he hadn't known since his earliest memory. Yoguri was a father figure, a guide, a protector. They were a family.
Return
The memory fractured violently. The vibrant colors of Yoguri's apartment dissolved back into the terrifying red of the blood ocean. Null was alone again, plunged back into the oppressive silence of the void.
The weight of the new knowledge was crushing. Horuto. His brother. Soren. Himself. Yoguri. Their mentor. A bond of love, safety, and training he had completely forgotten.
Null crumpled, sinking to his knees in the crimson liquid. Tears, real, hot, physical tears, streamed down his face, washing away the blood-red reflection.
"Yoguri!" Null screamed, the raw grief tearing from his throat. "Horuto! Where are you?"
He looked frantically around the sea of blood, searching for the opening, the portal, anything that would take him back to the memory, back to the one person who had promised to protect him. The memory was gone, leaving only the crushing reality of the past's loss and the present's terror. He had to find them. He had to find out what happened to his brother and his mentor.
The oppressive crimson void and the crushing grief of the blood ocean shattered instantly. Null was violently yanked back to reality, hitting the polished gym floor with a painful thud. The scent of ozone and stale sweat rushed back, replacing the metallic tang of blood.
He was curled on his side, his hands pressed against his eyes. He wasn't just dizzy; he was sobbing—not the silent, inner tears of despair, but loud, ragged, heart-wrenching cries. The loss of Horuto, his brother, and Yoguri, his mentor, was a searing, fresh wound. The memory had been too real, too beautiful to be merely a fragment. He had lost his family, and he, the Unwritten King, couldn't even remember how.
"Null! What happened?" Ashley was instantly by his side, her voice laced with panic.
Kai knelt down too, looking utterly bewildered. "Did that thing... did it hurt you? What did you see?"
Sophie, however, understood on a deeper level. She had witnessed the god in her own stone; she recognized the profound spiritual trauma. She knelt quietly, placing a steady hand on Null's shaking back.
"He is grieving a memory," Sophie stated, her purple eyes wide with empathy. "The power forced him to relive something he lost."
Null pushed himself up, trying desperately to mask his breakdown. He wiped the tears and snot away with the back of his hand, his golden, cross-shaped eyes burning with shame and fury.
The boy they had saved, still sitting on the floor and breathing heavily, watched the scene with wide, terrified eyes.
Null forced his breathing to slow, shoving the names Horuto and Yoguri into the same locked vault where he kept the vision of the future. He couldn't risk revealing the truth of his identity as Soren.
"It's... it was the Echo," Null managed, his voice thick and rough. He clung to the partial truth. "When I destroyed it, the power hit me with a psychic backlash. It showed me... it showed me everything I could lose. My friends. You guys. It was a vision of us failing." He looked directly at Kai and Ashley, making the lie feel solid with the intensity of his conviction.
The half-truth worked. Their faces softened with sympathy rather than suspicion.
"That's why you were crying," Ashley whispered, pulling him into a brief, fierce hug. "Don't worry, Null. We won't let that happen."
Null nodded into her shoulder, accepting the comfort, even if it was based on a lie. I'm sorry, he thought, but I can't break you with my past, too.
Securing the Asset
Null pulled away and instantly shifted his focus to the time-trapped boy. The boy was their priority.
"We need to go," Null commanded, his voice regaining its kingly authority. He looked at the boy, who was still paralyzed by fear. "What's your name?"
The boy stammered, barely able to speak. "M-My name is Tyme. Tyme Rourke."
"Tyme," Null repeated, his eyes fixing on the boy's chest, where the subtle pulse of his Prime Stone lay. "You're coming with us. We're the only ones who can teach you to control that power. The next time that shadow thing shows up, we need you ready to fight it."
Tyme looked at the powerful, grief-stricken boy who had just saved his life, then at the girl who made the earth rise, and the two who moved air and light. He was completely out of his depth.
"Okay," Tyme whispered, scrambling to his feet. "I... I'll come."
"Good," Null said simply. "Ashley, keep him calm. Sophie, you feel the Earth. Tell me if anyone else felt that fight."
Sophie placed her hands on the cold stone of the gym wall. "The tremors are localized. But... I feel something else. Something faint, but warm. It's pulling us toward the city center, the direction of the main hospital."
Null's mind instantly flashed to Sooji. Sooji woke up. Fang must have gone back.
"The hospital," Null announced, already moving toward the exit. "We need to go back to the hospital. We have another ally there, and we need an update."
The group of four—now five—sprinted out of the silent gym and into the breaking dawn. Null was leading a growing family, a small army against an unseen enemy. He was an Unwritten King, walking toward his future, anchored by the grief of a past he could now barely stand to remember.