Chapter 141: The Weight of Purity and the Echoes of Betrayal
The battle was over. The adrenaline that had flooded Kai's system, allowing him to manifest the divine power of the Monkey King and unleash the cataclysmic fusion of water and Lumora, had receded, leaving behind a hollowed-out shell of a man. He lay on his back beneath the sprawling, gnarled roots of a massive tree at the edge of the Xander Ocean, the very picture of exhaustion. His clothes were in tatters, his body a canvas of fading bruises and shallow cuts. The massive, fatal wound on his chest from the spinosaurus's horn was gone, miraculously sealed during his transformation, but faint, pink scars remained like ghostly memories. Stains of blood, both his and his enemies', marked his face and arms. He took a long, slow, shuddering breath, the air tasting of salt, ozone, and his own spent power.
His mind, however, was anything but still. It was a whirlwind of questions, each more unsettling than the last.
How did I get this Monkey King transformation? The thought echoed, sharp and insistent. The Alhuwalia bloodline transformation is supposed to be the Oni Mode. Savage, brutal, monstrous. Not… this. Not a divine simian deity.
Fragments of memory, hazy and disjointed from the moment he'd been swallowed and teetered on the brink of true death, surfaced. A system notification. He'd been too far gone, too consumed by the acceptance of his end, to process it then. With a grunt of effort, he focused inward, pulling up his system interface, scrolling back through the logs.
And there it was, emblazoned in glowing script:
Bloodline purity < 100% = The Oni Mode
Bloodline purity = 100% = The Monkey King Form
The words hit him with the force of a physical blow. His breath caught in his throat.
"100% pure bloodline?" he whispered to the rustling leaves above, his voice raw with disbelief. "But… we had near to negligible bloodline purity. That's why Moon and I were exiled. That was the entire reason they cast us out, discarded us like garbage."
For years, that "fact" had been the bedrock of their identity, the source of their shame and the fuel for their struggle. It was the unshakeable truth of their past. Now, it was a lie. A colossal, foundational lie.
A terrifying, mind-bending possibility began to take root in his mind, a theory that challenged everything he knew about his own existence.
Is it… is it because of the bodies we get after we die? The thought was chilling. Their cursed immortality, the horrific month-long process of agonizing reconstitution in that other dimension—was that the key? Did that process somehow… purify us? Refine our bloodline to its absolute peak?
It would explain so much. It would explain why Moon, a natural brawler, had unlocked the Vajra Body—a form said to be the absolute pinnacle for Thunder element users, a body type so rare it had only been recorded once before in all of history, granted to the being who would later ascend to become the God of Thunder himself.
And it would explain his own Asphaleios Body. He had done deep, obsessive research on it during his studies. It wasn't a human body type. The records showed it had only ever manifested in high-order Hydrozoans, ancient, sentient water beings. It was the perfect vessel for wielding water energy, offering control and efficiency that bordered on the absolute. And now, he had it.
They weren't cast-offs. They weren't failures. Their exile, their suffering, their repeated deaths… had it all been a grotesque, unintended forge? A process that was burning away their imperfections and hammering them into something… perfect?
His thoughts then, inevitably, turned to the betrayal. Shi Xiao's cold, efficient attack. The words that had cut deeper than any blade: "Worm of the Bloodline."
How does he know about our relation to the Alhuwalia clan? The way he'd said it… it wasn't just knowledge. It was familiarity. It was as if he was deeply connected to them, but that was impossible. Ken Xiao's bloodline transformation was purely of the Xiao clan; the spectral wings were proof. So what is the connection? And if Shi betrayed us… does that mean Ken did too?
A cold knot tightened in his stomach. If Ken hasn't come to find me by now… then Moon and Ryo must have dealt with him. The thought was a small, cold comfort.
Pushing himself up with a groan, he willed a healing potion from his storage ring. The familiar cool liquid soothed his throat, and he felt its energy knitting together his minor injuries, the residual strain from channeling the immense power of his new form and the volatile Lumora element. A quick inventory check confirmed his fears: only one potion remained. He was running dangerously low on resources.
His path forward was clear. He had to find Daren. Stumbling through the shattered tunnels, now looking less like a covert facility and more like the patient, mindful design of some ancient, forgotten Shifting Expanse civilization laid to ruin by a war lost to time, he pressed on, ignoring the historical mysteries around him.
Then he saw it. The massive, still form of the gorilla. His pace quickened to a ragged run. And there, half-pinned beneath the beast's bulk, was Daren Hale.
Kai's analytical mind immediately assessed the scene. The gorilla was dead, its skull a ruin of punches and crushing impacts. Daren was alive, but his condition was dire. His breathing was shallow, his face pale, numerous wounds still seeping blood despite his Hale bloodline's natural resilience.
Without a second thought, Kai knelt. He pulled out his last, single healing potion. He didn't hesitate. He didn't consider saving it for himself. He carefully tipped the glowing liquid into Daren's mouth.
Several minutes later, Daren's eyes fluttered open. They focused on Kai, and a wave of profound relief washed over his pained features.
"Kai," he rasped, his voice weak but clear. "You're still alive. Thank god. If you hadn't been here, we both would have been dead a long time ago."
The statement made no logical sense to Kai. If he hadn't been here, there would only have been one person to die, not two. But he dismissed the semantic error; Daren was still disoriented.
"You need rest," Kai said, his voice flat with his own fatigue. "Take it. Even a small nap. You need to be at 100% if you're going to be any help."
Daren simply nodded, too weary to argue, and closed his eyes, focusing on drawing the healing energy deep into his body. The road to recovery was long, and the shadows of betrayal and newly uncovered truths loomed larger than ever.
To be continued…