The ruins stank of death.
Blood soaked the shattered marble. Ash drifted down like black snow.
The air still crackled with the aftershock of unleashed power.
Xin Ren knelt at the broken altar, body swaying with exhaustion, blood dripping from a hundred wounds.
The second and third tails burned low behind him…wild, barely tamed, flickering like dying suns.
Beside him crouched the feral boy…barefoot, bruised, eyes fever-bright, chest heaving.
His silver tattoos pulsed with frantic energy, searing the air with every heartbeat.
The two of them were the only living things left amid the carnage.
And Xin didn't know how much longer that would be true.
A low rumble shook the earth.
From the far side of the ruin, the ground split open.
Baixue, wrapped in a cyclone of frost, tore through the debris, landing lightly atop a broken pillar. Her robes were blood-smeared, her violet eyes hard.
Zhenlong crashed through next, his body a furnace of restrained flame, his gaze sweeping the ruins.
Langya followed last, fists dripping black blood, a grim smile twisting his scarred mouth.
The three guardians froze.
Staring at the sight before them.
At Xin Ren.
And at the feral boy crouched beside him like a wounded wolf.
"What... is that?" Langya growled, flexing his claws.
The feral boy bared his teeth and hissed, pressing closer to Xin, protective despite his battered frame.
Xin forced himself upright, staggering.
"He's one of us," Xin croaked, voice raw.
Baixue's lips thinned into a dangerous line.
She took a step closer, her gaze flickering over the boy's trembling form…over the silver tattoos that twisted around his spine and arms like binding chains.
Recognition flared in her eyes.
And horror.
Zhenlong's flame flared suddenly.
"What did you bring out of here, Xin?" he demanded.
Xin coughed, blood splattering the altar.
"He's... the next guardian."
"No," Baixue said sharply.
Xin blinked, confused.
Baixue's voice was cold as the grave.
"He's a prisoner."
The boy whimpered low in his throat, flinching from their stares.
Xin instinctively stepped between him and the others.
"Explain," he rasped.
Baixue's fists clenched.
"The tattoos," she said. "They're not marks of power. They're seals."
Langya's nostrils flared. "Chains."
Zhenlong's fire burned brighter.
"He wasn't raised to protect the Zodiac power. He was locked away to keep something worse inside."
Xin shook his head stubbornly.
"He fought with me. He saved my life."
"That doesn't mean he's safe," Baixue said.
"That doesn't mean he's human."
The feral boy whimpered again, clutching his own arms, trembling against Xin's back.
Xin could feel the truth under his skin..the raw, broken terror bleeding from the boy's soul.
And he remembered.
He remembered what it felt like to be hated.
Feared.
Thrown away.
He remembered.
And he chose.
Xin turned fully, shielding the boy with his own battered body.
"You're not touching him."
The air crackled with tension.
Baixue's face went cold. "Step aside."
"No."
Zhenlong's voice rumbled low. "Think carefully. He will destroy you."
Xin laughed…low and bitter.
"Maybe," he said. "But so what?"
He straightened despite the blood dripping down his sides, despite the fire in his shattered muscles.
"They said the same thing about me."
For a long, terrible moment, no one moved.
Then Langya grunted and crossed his arms.
"Your funeral."
Baixue's jaw tightened…but she said nothing more.
Zhenlong stared long and hard at Xin, flames guttering low…
And then he turned away.
Xin sagged slightly, pain wracking his frame.
But he didn't falter.
He dropped a hand to the boy's messy hair.
The boy flinched…then leaned into the touch with a broken, desperate noise.
Xin forced himself to his feet.
He looked at the shattered ruin around them.
At the ruined gods.
The broken guardians.
The endless ash and blood.
And he whispered, voice hoarse but unshaken:
"Whatever you are, whatever they say…
I will protect you."
The boy shivered…
And smiled.
A tiny, shattered smile.
But real.
Far above, unseen beyond the fractured sky, something ancient smiled too.
Old chains groaned against pressure they could no longer hold.
And far away in the abyss…
Something woke.
Something that had been waiting for Xin Ren for a long, long time.
The ruin burned behind them.
Xin Ren led the way forward, cradling the feral boy against his side, one arm braced firmly under the boy's legs despite the blood still leaking from his own wounds.
The others followed in tense silence.
Baixue drifted behind like a storm barely contained, frost leaking from her fingers.
Zhenlong marched grimly, flames guttering low under his skin.
Langya trailed them all, grinning with savage amusement…but his amber eyes never left the boy for long.
They had left the shattered temple behind, but none of them believed they had escaped danger.
Not with what Xin now carried.
The mountains loomed around them..sharp, broken teeth gnashing against the dying sky.
Twilight pressed against the earth, cold and thick with mist.
The boy whimpered softly against Xin's chest.
Every so often, the silver tattoos along his arms flickered…shining so brightly they seared Xin's skin through cloth.
Baixue noticed.
Her lips pressed into a thin line.
"It's unstable," she said coldly.
Xin said nothing, adjusting his grip on the boy as they picked their way across jagged rocks and frozen streams.
Zhenlong spoke next, voice low and steady.
"Those seals are meant to hold something worse than death itself."
Xin didn't stop walking.
He kept his eyes forward.
"He's just a boy."
Baixue's footsteps quickened until she walked beside him.
"Boys don't carry chains crafted by the Nine Hells."
Xin's jaw tightened.
Langya chuckled behind them.
"Maybe he's your problem now, Ren."
"Maybe he's the whole world's problem soon," Baixue muttered.
The trail narrowed ahead.
The mist thickened, choking the air.
Xin paused at a broken cliff's edge, surveying the treacherous descent.
That's when he felt it.
A shift in the air.
Predator stillness.
His second tail twitched.
Baixue froze beside him.
Zhenlong's fire flared.
Langya bared his teeth.
Without speaking, they moved.
They drew into a tight formation, Xin shielding the boy behind him.
And from the mist…
they came.
The assassins were not human.
Not anymore.
Shadows wrapped in bloodstained robes, faces hidden by cracked ivory masks, blades dripping black ichor.
Six of them.
Fast.
Silent.
Murder given form.
Sent by the ancient enemy who had sensed the boy's awakening.
The first assassin struck without warning, a dagger flashing toward Xin's throat.
He twisted aside, feeling the blade graze the air, and kicked outward, sending the attacker staggering into the rocks.
Baixue unleashed a blast of frost, freezing another mid-lunge.
Zhenlong's fist ignited, driving a burning hammer blow into a third.
Langya laughed and launched himself into the melee, moving with savage, brutal joy.
But they kept coming.
Xin felt the second tail roar inside him…but he didn't unleash it.
Not here.
Not with the boy still unconscious in his arms.
He fought with fists and blood and will.
Another assassin darted toward the boy.
Xin snarled and blocked the strike with his own body, feeling the dagger slash across his ribs.
He staggered..but didn't fall.
The boy whimpered, burying his face against Xin's shoulder.
Baixue shouted over the clash of blades.
"We can't outrun them!"
"No," Zhenlong growled, crushing another assassin's skull with a flaming strike.
"We stand."
Xin gritted his teeth, planting his feet firmly on the broken earth.
"I'll hold them."
Baixue's eyes flickered with something unreadable.
"You'll die."
Xin smiled, broken and fierce.
"Better me than him."
The assassins regrouped, circling.
Their leader stepped forward…a figure larger than the others, a crimson chain wrapped around its arms.
The chain glowed faintly.
Baixue hissed under her breath.
"That's a soulbinder. Meant to rip the boy's soul free."
Zhenlong's flame burned hotter, furious.
Langya spat onto the ground.
"Over my dead body."
Xin shifted his stance, balancing the boy carefully against his chest.
Every breath was a knife in his lungs.
But he didn't retreat.
He bared his teeth.
And waited.
The assassins attacked as one.
The air exploded into chaos.
Xin weaved between death, protecting the boy with every desperate step.
Langya tore through enemies like a rabid beast.
Baixue's frost turned assassins into glittering statues that shattered under Zhenlong's hammering strikes.
But it wasn't enough.
The leader lunged, chain flaring, aiming for the boy's heart.
Xin knew he couldn't dodge carrying this much weight.
He threw himself sideways..
Too slow.
Pain lanced through him as the chain wrapped around his arm, burning deep into flesh.
He roared and yanked hard.
The assassin stumbled.
Xin drove his fist into the mask…and kept punching until bone cracked and blood sprayed.
The assassin collapsed.
The chain withered into ash.
Xin swayed on his feet.
The boy whimpered softly.
Baixue grabbed Xin's shoulder roughly.
"You can't keep carrying him!"
Xin shook his head.
"I won't leave him."
Langya wiped blood from his mouth and grinned.
"Stubborn bastard."
Zhenlong only nodded grimly.
The mountain pass stretched ahead..dark, dangerous.
More enemies would come.
The boy's chains pulsed faster now, brighter, hotter.
Xin didn't care.
He cradled the boy closer, feeling the fragile heartbeat under his fingers.
And he whispered through broken lips:
"I'm not afraid."
The wind howled around them, carrying the stench of war and ruin.
Ahead, the true enemy waited.
But Xin Ren…bloody, broken, burning…
marched forward anyway.
Carrying his curse.
Carrying his hope.
Carrying his war.