Chapter 61: Embers in the Sand
[Note:- Readers might felt overwhelmed with information but reread the part , its simple .]
Somewhere in the Amber Dunes.
The golden sands shimmered under the dying sun. The wind howled across the landscape, scattering trails of dust and blood. Scattered around the battlefield were several fallen hyena-like beasts, their yellow-furred bodies slashed open, oozing thick, black blood onto the sand.
Among their corpses sat a young man—black shirt torn in several places, pants bloodstained, white shoes now marked with dried black stains. His messy raven-black hair stuck to his forehead as sweat and blood dripped from his brow. Twin Nichiren blades—Uzui-style, forged from silver-black alloy—rested across his lap.
Moon.
He sat atop a stone, chest rising and falling with labored breaths. Gashes marked his arms and sides, and a faint tremor shook his fingers. Beside him, another figure lay partially reclined—a young man in a blood-splattered white shirt, dark hair matted to his scalp.
Kai.
Though slightly better off than Moon, his condition was still far from stable. Their surroundings were quiet now. Only the wind spoke.
Moon opened his system interface, his breath still ragged.
---
[ SYSTEM INTERFACE - MOON ]
Name: Moon
Lineage: Alhuwalia Clan (Not Awakened)
Race: Human
Body: Vajra Body
Tier/Level: Planetary / Rookie
Combat Mastery: C
Elemental Affinities:
Electro
Void (Unable to Use)
Essence Points:
Rookie: 150/150
Fighter: 45/150
Professional: 2/150
King: 0/150
Saint: 0/150
Form: [Dragon King] – Unable to Transform
Requirement: Insufficient Energy Reserves
Moon narrowed his eyes at the glowing system panel floating in front of him, the flickering blue light reflecting off the blood smeared across his cheek. His breaths were still uneven, his chest rising and falling in short bursts. The words pulsed on the translucent screen.
> Form: [Dragon King] – Unable to Transform
Requirement: Insufficient Energy Reserves
His gaze lingered on that line, brow furrowed.
"Dragon King form…?" he muttered under his breath. "It's not… a bloodline transformation. Then what the hell is it?"
His voice held a mixture of confusion and frustration. He clenched his jaw, pain surging through his ribs where dried blood cracked with the movement. The air around him felt thick—whether from fatigue or the weight of the unknown, even he couldn't tell.
He brought a shaky hand to his side, pressing lightly against a bruised gash. "Tch… and how much damn energy does this thing need?"
There was no answer. Only the silence of the dunes and the wind whispering over scattered corpses.
Beside him, Kai shifted, dragging himself upright. His own system panel appeared before him in a similar glow.
---
[ SYSTEM INTERFACE - KAI ]
Name: Kai
Lineage: Alhuwalia Clan (Not Awakened)
Race: Human
Body: Asphaleios Body
Tier/Level: Planetary / Fighter
Combat Mastery: C++
Elemental Affinities:
Hydro
Void (Unable to Use)
Essence Points:
Rookie: 150/150
Fighter: 35/150
Professional: 0/150
King: 0/150
Saint: 0/150
Form: [Poseidon Form] – Unable to Transform
Requirement: Insufficient Energy Reserves
His fingers moved with more precision—less emotion, more calculation—as his eyes skimmed the interface.
> Form: [Poseidon Form] – Unable to Transform
Requirement: Insufficient Energy Reserves
He stared at it for a few seconds longer than necessary.
Unlike Moon, Kai didn't speak immediately. He let the silence linger. But inside, his thoughts were racing.
Poseidon form? Why that name? Not a bloodline either…
He didn't voice the question. Not yet. He knew Moon was thinking the same thing. Something about these "forms" felt… different. Ancient. Beyond the known systems.
Like echoes of something older than the clans themselves.
He closed the panel with a flick, glancing toward his brother.
"Still locked?" he asked softly.
Moon nodded. "Yeah. Like it's taunting me."
Kai exhaled through his nose. "We need to figure out what these forms really are. They're not listed in any clan archives. I checked."
"And they're not the bloodline powers either," Moon added. "My bloodline hasn't even awakened. This… Dragon King… it feels like something else."
Moon didn't respond immediately. His fingers curled tighter around the hilt of his sword.
"…Maybe," he finally whispered.
Kai remained still, eyes locked on the flickering system panel in front of him. The light reflected against his bruised cheekbones, outlining the quiet storm building in his mind.
He didn't move. Didn't blink. Just stared.
Eventually, in a voice barely above a whisper, he muttered, "We need to keep moving. We don't have time to recover."
His tone was flat, but Moon could hear the undertone—the fatigue, the doubt, the pressure.
Moon didn't reply right away.
The breeze kicked up a veil of sand around them, momentarily blurring the blood-stained battlefield they sat in. The corpses of the hyena beasts still reeked of decay and iron. Moon let the silence drag a little longer before speaking.
His voice was low and steady. "We will awaken our bloodline?Don't forget why we were exiled from the Alhuwalia Clan."
Kai let out a short, humorless breath. It wasn't quite a laugh—more like a sound caught between irony and resignation.
He gave a faint, bitter smile. "Even if we don't… at least these bodies—Vajra and Asphaleios—they're not completely useless."
There was something unspoken in that smile.
They had been cast out. Labeled unworthy.
Not because they were weak—but because they had null potential, at least according to the president.
Their potential didn't fit any known scale, and in a clan obsessed with measurable greatness, that was a sin worse than being ordinary.
---
The two sat in silence for a moment, wind sweeping over them like a slow sigh of time.
But it wasn't just the exhaustion weighing them down.
It was the pressure.
Not from the battle. Not from their injuries.
But from pressure.
Unseen, heavy, and ever-present.
In recent months, their circle had changed. Not by their choice, but by orbit.
They will somehow surrounded by people like James, Ruby, Minji, Thomas, Taejin, Drew, and even the infamous Rejected Winter—people whose talents had either bloomed early or shone so brightly they couldn't be ignored.
It wasn't that Moon and Kai had grown close to all of them.
But proximity changed everything.
Ruby and Minji were practically glued to James's side in most group missions. And James? For all his smugness, he had a gravitational pull—one that tugged others into his orbit.
So naturally, Moon and Kai found themselves tangled in the same web.
Some parts of Moon didn't mind it. The banter. The sense of community.
But another part… couldn't breathe.
What they hadn't yet become.
---
They didn't care what others thought. They had built up thick skins over the years—first out of necessity, then out of choice.
But even the thickest armor couldn't completely silence the memory of helplessness.
Of that day.
Of being exiled by the very clan that was supposed to protect them.
Of being looked down on by elders and president who couldn't see past their own measuring sticks.
Of hearing whispers behind closed doors:
> "They don't have it."
> "No elemental dominance, no early awakening, no unique markers."
> "Send them away. Let the world sort them out."
That helplessness had festered like rot.
And they had vowed—never again.
---
Kai tilted his head slightly, staring at the endless dunes stretching toward the horizon. He spoke quietly, but his words held a blade's edge.
"I'm not going back to that version of myself, Moon."
Moon looked at him.
Neither of them needed to say more.
Because they both understood—
They weren't chasing power just to keep up.
They were running from the memory of being nothing.
The twin suns dipped lower, casting long shadows across the rolling dunes. Each step was slow, deliberate—sand crunching under their boots, grains slipping into their wounds and stinging like salt on open flesh.
The wind had died down, leaving an eerie silence. Just the rhythmic thud of their steps and the quiet hum of residual energy lingering in the air after the battle.
Kai walked slightly ahead, his white shirt stained gray by sweat, blood, and dust. After a while, he broke the silence.
"What do you think will unlock first?" he asked, not turning around. "Our bloodline… or those weird forms listed in the system?"
Moon didn't respond immediately. His blade, loosely held at his side, dragged faintly across the sand. The question lingered in his mind like a stone tossed into a still lake.
"I'd say... the body," he finally answered, voice calm but thoughtful. "Mine, at least. No offense, but where the hell are you gonna find water out here to awaken your Asphaleios form?"
Kai chuckled softly—dry, tired, but amused. "I don't think it works that literally."
He glanced back at Moon, a faint grin tugging at his lip. "At least, I hope not. Otherwise, I'm screwed until we find an oasis or a damn ocean."
Moon smirked faintly, the gesture fleeting. "Good luck with that."
They walked in silence for a few more minutes, their footsteps synchronizing out of habit.
Then Kai added, voice quieter now, "Honestly... I think our energy reserves will reach the threshold first. At this rate, the system's gonna unlock those strange forms—Poseidon and Dragon King—before the bloodline ever stirs."
His words hung in the air.
Not hopeful. Not excited.
Just… realistic.
Moon ran a hand through his damp hair, sweat mixing with sand and blood. "Maybe," he said, brushing off his blade. "I don't really care what unlocks anymore. As long as something does."
There was a hardness in his voice—like a man on the edge of belief, gripping the last fraying thread of patience.
He wasn't afraid of being weak.
He was afraid of standing still.
---
Kai's eyes flicked toward his system interface once more, hovering faintly in the air. He could still see the words burned into his mind.
> [Form: Poseidon] – Locked
Requirement: Insufficient Energy Reserves
The term Poseidon didn't make sense. Not yet. But something about it felt familiar. Almost… inherited.
Like a memory that wasn't his.
The same with Moon.
Dragon King.
Those weren't names the system had generated randomly.
They felt deliberate.
Intentional.
Kai shook the thought from his mind. "Still… if these forms really are a part of us, maybe they'll tell us more about who we are. Or what we were supposed to become. Maybe they can answer our question of resurrection "
Moon didn't answer. But his jaw tightened ever so slightly.
---
The sun dipped below the dunes.
Ahead, nothing but endless sand.
Behind them, the corpses of beasts.
Above them, infinite sky.
And inside them, power waiting to be born.
Locked.
Waiting.
He turned toward his brother. "Hey… are you joining the tournament too?"
Kai glanced over, surprised for a second by the shift, but then nodded. "Yeah. I looked into it a bit."
He adjusted the strap of his pack and continued, "It's not just a human thing. Every race in the multiverse participates."
Moon raised a brow, eyes narrowing slightly. "Every race...? How many are we talking here?"
Kai's lips curled into a faint smirk. "Infinite, technically. But only ten of them actually matter on the scale."
Moon blinked. "Only ten?"
Kai nodded. "Ten races dominate everything—culture, technology, cultivation systems, energy networks. They control about 95% of the multiverse's resources."
Moon let out a low whistle. "And humans? We on that list?"
Kai gave a single nod. "Seventh."
"Seventh…" Moon echoed, surprised. "Huh. Higher than I thought."
Kai shrugged. "We're unpredictable. Adaptive. Even among dominant races, humans have the broadest elemental range. We're the only ones capable of mastering any element… but only a rare few get beyond two."
"Tertiary affinities, right?"
"Yeah. One in ten million."
Moon grunted. "Figures."
He glanced sideways. "So... what are the top ten?"
Kai didn't respond right away. His eyes turned to the horizon, as if the wind might whisper the answer. Then, slowly, he began listing them—his voice calm, almost like reciting ancient scripture from memory.
Top 10 Dominant Races in the Multiverse:
1. Celestials – Masters of Time and Space. No one controls dimensions like they do.
2. Hydrozoans – Sentient water beings born from the Hydronexus, a region composed of dark matter and unstable gravity zones.
3.(1) Shura – Light-element warriors birthed in Heaven Realms. Swift, precise, and born to protect.
3.(2) Ashura – Their dark-element cousins of the race of Shura . Wild, chaotic, and fueled by raw instinct. The Shura wage wars. The Ashura end them.
4. Gandharva – Four-armed humanoids from the Sound Realms. Masters of vibration and frequency. Also known as the Speedsters of Space. A single footstep bends sonic fabric.
5. Demons & Angels – Born of ancient Chaos energy. They're not good or evil—just bound by balance and entropy. When they fight, laws of physics break.
6. Dragons & Phoenixes – Ancient apex beasts. High regeneration, limitless potential, but their bloodlines are diluted now. The pure ones are nearly extinct—and priceless.
7. Humans – Jack-of-all-trades. Capable of wielding any element. Rarely exceptional—but when they are, they surpass limits no other race dares approach.
8. Jinn- the Jinn wield terrifying soul-element powers. Masters of possession, memory-burning flames, and spiritual manipulation, they invade minds, twist emotions, and leave no trace but madness.
9. Titans – Towering, brute-force creatures. Insane stamina, massive energy reservoirs.
10. Mechas – An artificial species created from a forbidden alliance: Dragons, Humans, and Gandharvas. Half soul, half circuitry. Evolving AI minds, bound by honor codes.
---
Moon stayed quiet, taking it all in.
He had always known the multiverse was vast, but hearing it laid out like this… it made their journey feel both small and important.
"We're up against that?" he muttered, more to himself than to Kai.
Kai nodded slowly. "If we want to compete in the tournament… we're not just fighting for pride. We're fighting to belong."
Moon clenched his fists. "Then we better start unlocking something soon. Because I don't want to just exist in that arena, Kai."
He met his brother's gaze.
"I want to tear through it."
Moon said after a while " so the life of lesser species must be tough."
Kai nodded. "Most races haven't even left their planets. The advanced ones? They've set strict boundaries to avoid interfering with lower species."
"So... they probably don't even know about essence energy or the Shifting Expanse?"
"Exactly," Kai said. "Just like humans a billion years ago."
Moon's eyes narrowed as they climbed the next dune. "Then I guess it's time we shake things up."
To be continued…