The sky was split in two.
Gusts of icy wind whipped the fields of the Scarlet Rain Kingdom, while lightning lit up a landscape of gray mountains and flooded rice fields. It was a night that even the elderly feared, one of those where ancient spirits wake up.
In the middle of that storm, a young man ran through the mud.
His name was Yun Che, and every step he took took him away from the small town where he had lived all his life.
The water hit his face, and the blood mixed with the rain that descended from his forehead.
"Why...?" he murmured between gasps. Just because I refused to give up the talisman...
In the distance, a group of boys advanced with torches. Among them, Yun Hao, his cousin, son of the patriarch of the Yun Minor Clan. An arrogant boy, with the pure lineage of the clan and an elementary spirit of fire.
Yun Che, on the other hand, was the adopted one. The one without lineage. The one who only had a borrowed name and a talent that was barely enough to condense a qi thread.
"Yun Che!" his cousin's voice rose between the thunder. Give me back that talisman and maybe it won't break all your bones!
Yun Che gritted his teeth and kept running.
Even when the cold cut his breath, he refused to look back.
If I catch him, I'll kill him, Yun Hao thought, while his body burned with a reddish glow.
A circle of flames formed under his feet.
The Qi of the Crimson Spirit manifested itself, wrapping his right arm.
Suddenly, an igneous silhouette materialized behind him - a Spiritual Armor in the shape of an incandescent phoenix. The flames danced around him as if the fire itself was breathing.
Yun Che turned around, just a second. That vision reminded him of everything he didn't have.
The divine blood that did not run through his veins, the respect he had never received, the family that was not really his.
"Why do you always...?" he whispered.
But the ground broke under his feet. The mountain that bordered the forest collapsed by the force of the lightning that had just fallen.
The ground gave way, and Yun Che fell along with tons of stone and mud into a deep crack.
Yun Hao stopped at the edge of the precipice.
He only managed to see the blue glow of thunder disappear in the darkness.
"Hmph... if he survives, he won't do it for long," he spat.
The storm roared harder, covering all traces of the fall.
⸻
🌧️
When Yun Che opened his eyes, everything was silent.
A drop fell on his cheek. It wasn't rain... it was water seeping from the stone ceiling.
He was inside an underground cavern, deep and humid. His breathing raised ancestral dust.
His whole body hurt. He tried to move, but a burning went through his side.
He had survived... miraculously.
"Where am I...?" I murmured.
My voice resounded, strangely amplified.
The air was full of old Qi, so dense that I could smell it. A metallic aroma, similar to blood mixed with lightning.
This is not a simple cave.
I could barely get up. In front of me, among the shadows, something shone.
A stone wall covered with inscriptions stood at the bottom of the cave. In its center, a dark sphere floated, pulsating with a crimson glow that beat like a heart.
It was scary... but it was also attractive.
It was as if a silent voice whispered to me to come closer.
"Come... son of the forgotten blood..."
I stood still. That voice was not human. It was deep, ancient... as if it came from another era.
I took a step, then another. The air trembled with every movement.
When touching the surface of the stone, the ground was illuminated with golden symbols.
The floating sphere trembled, and suddenly a torrent of energy descended on me.
"Ahh!" I shouted, falling to my knees.
An indescribable force entered my body, tearing me inside. I felt my soul burn.
The glow expanded, forming a circle that covered the entire chamber.
"For a thousand ages I have waited... a sleeping blood... a dignified soul..."
The voice resounded again, clearer this time.
What are you...? -I asked mentally.
"I am that which the gods feared to look at... the eye that saw the end of heaven."
The glow became crimson.
I felt something opening up inside my head, an impossible vision: destroyed worlds, falling gods, oceans of light and darkness.
And in the middle of everything, a golden eye, vast as a sun, that observed everything.
The pain broke me in two.
My vision turned white. The eye was compressed, spiraling, until it merged with me.
I felt that it penetrated my soul, staying behind my own eyes.
"AAAAH!!"
The scream resounded throughout the cave.
A golden mark appeared on my forehead, and the surrounding Qi stirred like a hurricane.
The roof shook, the stones floated, and the rain filtered through the upper crack in the form of a waterfall.
When everything calmed down, I was lying on the floor, panting.
My hands were shaking.
The air around me was completely still.
I could see... too much.
The rocks, the drops, the flow of Qi moving between the air particles.
Every detail was like a luminous thread that extended to infinity.
"What... is this?"
"You have awakened a fraction of my gaze," said the voice, soft but resonant inside my mind. "The Eye of the Fallen God now dwells in you."
"Why do I...?"
"For your blood does not belong to this kingdom. The inheritance that your parents hid in you recognized me."
I was silent.
My heart was beating wildly. I didn't fully understand, but a part of me knew that nothing would be the same again.
Suddenly, a distant sound broke the silence.
They were voices. Yun Hao and his, looking for me.
I looked at the crack where I had fallen. Through the rain that kept falling, I could clearly see his silhouette... even miles away.
The Eye of the God shone for a moment, and then I saw something else: his flow of Qi, the pulse of his life, the cracks in his spiritual armor.
"So... that's what you hide," I whispered.
The Eye showed me its weak point: an invisible fracture in the chest of its spiritual armor, right where the fire was densest.
An unknown sensation ran through me.
I don't hate... but an icy calm, a certainty.
Next time we see each other, I won't be the one to run away.
I closed my fist and looked towards the exit of the cave.
Outside, the storm continued, but the fear had disappeared.
Every thunder now resonated like an echo of something bigger.
Something I had chosen.
"Remember this, bearer of my gaze," whispered the divine voice before fading.
"The power to see... is also the power to decide what deserves to be seen."
⸻
The rain slowly stopped.
The dawn began to dye the horizon of the Kingdom of Scarlet Rain.
Yun Che emerged from the crack, covered with mud and dried blood, with his eyes narrowed.
On his forehead, the golden mark shone faintly under the light of dawn.
His pupils, once dark, now reflected a deep golden glow... as if they contained the same dawn within them.
The Eye of a God had awakened.