Darkness clung to him.
Kairo opened his eyes to the faint flicker of torchlight against stone. The air was heavy, damp, his body wrapped in agony from head to toe. Chains still bound his wrists, but even they felt distant, as though weighed down by exhaustion too deep to fight.
He was back in the cell. Alive.
Barely.
The echoes of the arena still rang in his ears — the faceless crowd, the screams of dying demons, the last thirty he had crushed before his body failed him. And above it all, that voice. That command.
"Enough."
The iron door groaned open.
Kairo forced his head up. A figure filled the doorway, massive and suffocating. His armor was forged from plates of black steel streaked with veins of molten fire. Horns jutted from his helm like jagged blades, and his eyes burned through the slit of his visor — twin embers of unyielding flame.
The general who had ended the trial.
He stepped into the cell, each footfall shaking the stone. The torchlight bent around him, as though refusing to touch his form.
"You should be dead," the general said, his voice low, rough as thunder dragged across stone. "Yet you are not."
Kairo's breath rattled. His crimson eyes met the general's flames. "Why… stop the fight?"
The general's head tilted, a faint echo of amusement in the motion.
"Because death is wasted on you. The ninety-nine would have torn you apart, and the crowd would have cheered. But you—" his gaze sharpened, molten eyes burning deeper — "you are not for the crowd. You are for the fire."
He leaned closer, his presence a weight pressing against Kairo's chest.
"Remember my name, boy. Veyrith. General of Ash and Iron. When the time comes, you will either stand at my side…"
The air seemed to burn hotter, the walls trembling with his words.
"…or you will be broken beneath my blade."
He turned, the sound of his armor scraping against stone. Without another word, he left, the door slamming shut behind him.
Kairo's head dropped back against the wall, his breath harsh, his body trembling. His crimson eyes burned faintly, even through exhaustion.
Another name. Another shadow in the gallery of gods and generals who sought to own him.
Veyrith.