Two weeks passed.
Dark stood alone on the balcony of the central tower. No guards. No advisors. No noise. Just the wind and the sky stretching endlessly across the fused world below him.
He didn't speak.
He didn't think in long strings.
Just quick flashes.
Destroyer Dark.
Sukojo.
Copi.
Sereon.
Enra.
Too many threats. Too many unknowns. His jaw tightened once.
Then the air behind him snapped.
No footsteps.
No aura warning.
No mana disturbance.
Just a fist.
A flaming, red-sparking meteor of a fist cracked across his left cheek.
The impact sounded like a mountain exploding.
Dark flew sideways off the balcony, crushed through a stone pillar, bounced across the courtyard, and slid to a stop with smoke rising from his clothes.
He pushed himself up slowly.
Dark: ...Tch.
Heat rolled over the courtyard like a wildfire waking up.
The stone underfoot glowed faintly.
The sky above shimmered red around the edges.
She walked out of the distortion in the air.
Kaelith.
No dramatic pose.
No announcement.
Just raw presence.
Red hair whipping behind her in waves of heat.
Eyes burning brighter than Enra's sunlight.
Aura exploding off her body with no restraint.
She cracked her neck once.
Kaelith: Get up.
Dark spat blood and stood.
He didn't answer her.
Kaelith stepped into the courtyard and every square meter of stone beneath her feet began to heat like it was about to melt.
Soldiers miles away felt the pressure and started sweating.
Kaelith: Two weeks and you are still this slow?
Dark's shadows twitched behind him.
Kaelith didn't wait.
She vanished.
Dark tensed.
She appeared directly in front of him, hand already buried in his stomach in a straight punch that folded him forward.
Kaelith: Too open.
She grabbed his face, slammed him into the ground, dragged him across ten meters of stone, and threw him into the air.
Dark flipped mid-air, caught his balance, and landed on the far end of the courtyard.
He exhaled once.
Dark: ...You done?
Kaelith: That was the warm up.
The flames around her expanded like a beast stretching its limbs.
Kaelith: Stop thinking. Stop hesitating. Stop standing there like you are waiting for permission.
Dark's aura surged.
Shadows cracked the ground.
Dark pushed himself upright, shadows gathering across his shoulders like smoke being pulled by instinct. His cheek still stung from her punch, but his expression stayed cold. He stepped forward once, grounding his stance, letting the air settle around him.
Dark: You want a fight. Fine.
He launched forward, his right fist tearing through the air in a straight line aimed at Kaelith's jaw. The punch carried enough weight to split stone, a compressed burst of shadow swirling around his knuckles.
Kaelith moved before the fist even reached her. She slipped beneath the attack like she was gliding through water and drove her knee up into Dark's ribs. The impact hammered into him with a sickening thud that forced the air out of his lungs in a rough exhale. His body jerked upward from the blow, ribs creaking under the pressure.
Kaelith: Too slow.
Dark twisted with the momentum, planting his hand against a broken section of the railing. He pushed off it and whipped his body in a half-spin, sending a sharp elbow toward her temple. His shadows sharpened around the elbow, turning the strike into a cutting blow.
Kaelith raised her forearm and blocked the elbow with a harsh crack that sent vibrations up her arm. She didn't flinch. Instead, she caught Dark's wrist mid-motion and pulled him toward her, slamming her forehead into his nose. A sharp burst of red sprayed the ground as Dark staggered back, gripping his face for a moment.
Kaelith: Don't get soft on me now.
Dark lowered his hand, blood dripping down his lips. His shadows pulsed violently. He vanished forward and reappeared beside her shoulder, swinging a heavy hook toward her ribs. The punch landed, twisting Kaelith's torso slightly from the force.
She looked down at the point of impact, unimpressed.
Kaelith: Better. But not enough.
Her hand shot out faster than Dark expected. She grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked his head downward. Dark reacted immediately, driving a shadow spike from his forearm upward toward her throat. Kaelith snapped the spike in half with her bare fingers, shards of shadow scattering through the air.
She then twisted his wrist sharply, forcing Dark onto one knee. His bones creaked under the pressure.
Kaelith: You think a little shadow trick will save you?
Dark snarled under his breath and used the position to his advantage. He kicked upward, driving his heel into the side of her thigh. The strike would have shattered a boulder, and Kaelith's leg shifted slightly from the force.
Kaelith's response was immediate. She stomped down on Dark's foot so hard the stone beneath them cracked. Pain shot through Dark's leg as she pinned him in place. Her palm rose, burning with mana bright enough to distort the air around it.
She slammed both palms into Dark's chest.
The impact detonated.
A crater erupted behind Dark's body as he was launched backward. His spine scraped across the balcony floor, ripping through tile and stone until his body rolled to a stop near the balcony's edge. Dust clouded the air.
Kaelith walked forward slowly, the heat around her rising, flames licking along her arms like they were alive.
Kaelith: Come on, Emperor. Fight me like you mean it.
Dark lifted himself from the cracked stone, shadows crawling around him like living vipers. His breaths were heavy, but his eyes were sharper than ever.
Dark: You asked for it.
He rushed her again.
Shadows whipped out from his back like spears, stabbing toward her from ten angles at once. Kaelith pivoted smoothly, dodging three, breaking four with her fists, letting the last few scrape against her skin without leaving a mark.
She closed the distance in the blink of an eye. Her fist drove toward Dark's sternum.
Dark caught her wrist mid-punch, shadows swirling violently around his palm. He gritted his teeth, veins bulging from the strain.
Dark: You hit hard.
Kaelith leaned forward, her breath warm against his ear.
Kaelith: You haven't felt anything yet.
Her free hand shot upward, gripping Dark's throat. She lifted him clean off the ground with a single arm and threw him straight through a pillar. Stone collapsed behind him as he tumbled across the balcony.
Before he could recover, she grabbed his ankle and dragged him across the floor like a rag doll, slamming him against the wall hard enough to leave a crater.
Kaelith: Move your damned feet. Stop letting me throw you.
Dark coughed, shadows twisting violently as he stood again, dust falling from his hair.
Dark: You're insane.
Kaelith's grin widened.
Kaelith: And you need to get stronger.
She rushed him again.
Their fists collided.
The entire balcony shook.
The shockwave ripped outward, cracking the ground under their feet. Dust spiraled into the air. Dark was the one pushed back first, boots grinding through stone until he regained his footing. Kaelith didn't move an inch. Her grin sharpened.
Kaelith: Good. You are finally pushing back.
She stepped forward once.
The floor caved under her heel.
Dark had half a second to react before she appeared behind him, grabbed his collar, and hurled him off the balcony entirely. His body tore through open air, and just before he hit the ground below, Kaelith caught him by the throat and slammed him into the courtyard hard enough to uproot the tiles beneath them.
Kaelith: Lesson one begins now.
Dark shoved her hand aside and stood, shadows whipping behind him.
Dark: You think this is training?
Kaelith: No.
This is breaking you down so training can exist.
She grabbed Dark by the wrist and dragged him across the courtyard like a corpse. His boots left two long black streaks across the stone. He tried to dig his feet in, but Kaelith didn't slow.
The air around her twisted.
Heat surged.
The world... folded.
The courtyard flickered, and in one step Kaelith pulled Dark into a completely different environment.
A volcanic plane.
Black mountains rising like jagged blades.
Lava rivers carving glowing veins through the earth.
Ash falling from the sky like slow rain.
Dark stumbled to steady himself as the space warped fully into place.
Dark: ...This isn't part of the Empire.
Kaelith cracked her knuckles.
Kaelith: No. This is where I train. This world kills anything weaker than conviction.
Dark exhaled softly, shadows adjusting to the insane heat.
Dark: What now.
Kaelith pointed toward the far horizon.
Kaelith: Run.
Dark blinked.
Dark: Run?
Kaelith: Yes. Run until your lungs collapse. Run until you cannot stand. Run until you stop thinking you deserve rest.
Her aura spiked so violently the air screamed.
Kaelith: If you fall behind even once... I will drag you through the lava myself.
Dark stared at her for a second.
Then shadows rippled beneath his feet.
Dark moved.
He shot forward across the volcanic plain, heat blasting against his face as he carved a black trail behind him.
Kaelith was already on him.
She appeared beside him mid-run and punched him in the side, sending him skidding across a field of glowing magma rock.
Kaelith: Faster.
Dark dug his hand into the stone, ripped himself upright, and ran again, pushing his speed higher, shadows swirling to counterbalance the heat tearing at his lungs.
Kaelith kept pace like it was nothing.
Kaelith: You think your speed is enough?
You think your power matters here?
Move, Emperor. Move like something is chasing you.
Dark snarled under his breath and pushed harder, feet slamming into the ground as molten gravel sprayed behind him.
Kaelith watched with burning eyes.
Kaelith: Good. Now the second part.
She inhaled deeply.
The volcanoes around them erupted at once.
Columns of fire launched into the sky.
Magma rolled like tidal waves.
Kaelith pointed forward.
Kaelith: Survive.
Dark's eyes widened as a river of molten stone rushed toward him like a crashing ocean.
He didn't hesitate.
He dove forward, shadows forming platforms over the flowing lava. His movements grew sharper. Cleaner. More instinctive. Each second he adjusted to the crushing heat, the blistering air, the warped terrain.
Kaelith followed behind him, arms crossed, not running — walking — with the volcanic chaos bending around her like the world didn't dare touch her.
Kaelith: Lesson one. Survive the world.
Lesson two. Survive me.
Dark didn't look back.
But he felt her presence like a sun breathing down his spine.
He leapt across a fracture in the earth as another eruption tore apart the land behind him.
Kaelith smirked.
Kaelith: Good.
Now lesson three.
She clenched her fist.
Kaelith: Survive both at the same time.
A massive plume of fire crashed toward Dark — and at the same moment, Kaelith appeared right in front of him, fist already cocked back.
Dark reacted on instinct, shadows spiraling around his arm as he swung back.
Their fists collided again.
A ring of pressure exploded outward.
Kaelith grinned wide.
Kaelith: Now we begin.
The volcanic world didn't get a chance to react.
Because the moment her foot shifted, reality cracked under her heel.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
Dark saw her disappear. Not vanish — disappear — as if the space she occupied simply decided she no longer belonged to it.
Dark's instincts screamed.
Shadows wrapped around his spine as he pivoted—
Too late.
Kaelith's fist appeared against his jaw, already buried halfway into the strike.
The hit didn't throw him back.
It launched him.
The world blurred into a streak of red and black as Dark shot across the volcanic plain like a comet punched out of orbit. Lava waves parted around his body from raw velocity. Mountains cracked as his shockwave slammed into them.
Dark hit the ground.
The ground died.
He cratered through stone, through bedrock, through layers of earth until molten heat swallowed him whole.
He burst out of the lava instantly, shadows exploding off him as he stabilized mid-air.
His lungs burned.
His ribs screamed.
Dark: ...She's faster than before.
He barely finished the thought.
Kaelith appeared above him.
Not blurred.
Not teleporting.
She simply arrived there like she had always been there, and reality finally noticed.
Her foot came down.
Dark crossed his arms.
Impact.
A flaming shock crash sent him plummeting back down, smashing into the magma again. The eruption swallowed him whole as heat roared skyward.
Kaelith dropped into the lava after him, body glowing red-hot but entirely unharmed. She grabbed Dark's throat underwater and dragged him through the molten river like she was pulling a misbehaving child.
She hurled him upward.
Dark burst from the lava like a projectile.
Shadows snapped around his limbs, forming spears and blades as he countered mid-air. He swung a massive shadow tendril the size of a tower toward her.
Kaelith didn't dodge.
She grabbed the tendril, pulled Dark into her, and punched him in the sternum with enough force to bend space around her fist.
Dark's back folded, breath exploding from his lungs.
Kaelith: You rely on reaction.
She kicked him downward.
Kaelith: Reaction makes you predictable.
Dark hit the ground again — the earth bounced up from the force. He rolled, coughing violently as his bones stitched themselves back together.
Dark surged shadows upward, creating a massive dome to block her next strike—
Kaelith walked through the dome like it wasn't even real.
Not broke it.
Not destroyed it.
Walked through it.
His shadows shredded themselves trying to escape her aura.
Dark summoned a blade of pure darkness and slashed at her neck.
Her hand rose lazily.
She grabbed the blade between her fingers.
Two fingers.
The blade screeched, bending.
Dark's eyes widened.
Kaelith smiled faintly.
Kaelith: You cannot overpower me. So stop trying.
She snapped the blade.
The air howled.
Dark used the recoil, stepping with raw instinct and driving his knee into her ribs. Shadows curled down his leg, compressing force, amplifying weight.
His knee struck her.
Kaelith moved half an inch.
That was all.
Then her elbow came down on his back like a warhammer.
Dark's body collapsed into the stone, limbs cracking, shadows sputtering.
Kaelith crouched beside him, grabbing him by the hair and lifting his head.
Kaelith: Faster.
Fiercer.
Colder.
Her eyes burned with wildfire intensity.
Kaelith: Or every True Emperor in this world will eat you alive.
Dark slammed both palms into the ground.
A shock of darkness detonated, creating a black eruption that swallowed them both. Pillars of shadow burst from the ground, spiraling into a vortex.
Kaelith stood inside the storm.
Untouched.
Unmoved.
Unimpressed.
Kaelith: Good attempt.
Dark shot toward her again, body coated in shifting shadows that blurred his shape. His speed bent the air behind him, leaving black streaks of movement too fast to track.
He aimed a punch at her head.
Kaelith leaned slightly to the side.
The punch missed.
She flicked his chin with one finger.
Just one.
The force sent Dark skidding across the volcanic plane, tumbling through boulders and clouds of superheated ash.
He rolled until he finally forced himself to stop, panting, kneeling, shadows coiling tightly around him like armor.
Kaelith approached, flames rolling off her body in pulsing waves.
Kaelith: Dark.
You survived Destroyer Dark.
You survived Sukojo tearing apart worlds.
You survived Copi punching through existence like wet paper.
Her aura exploded.
Kaelith: But you will not survive the rest of this world if you train like someone hoping to get stronger.
She stepped forward.
Kaelith: Train like someone who will die if they don't.
The heat around them surged into a blazing inferno.
Kaelith raised both fists.
Kaelith: Now fight like the Emperor you pretend to be.
Dark rose.
Silent.
Focused.
To Be Continued.
End Of Chapter 1.