The creature rose higher from the flames.
Kel stood at the top of the ridge beside the stranger, staring down at something he was fairly certain no sixteen-year-old was supposed to fight.
Its four massive legs were covered in black armor that looked more like volcanic stone than flesh. Molten cracks glowed between the plates, and every breath pushed fire between rows of jagged teeth. Two horns curved backward from its skull, nearly as long as Kel was tall.
The creature lifted its head.
Its eyes found him.
Kel slowly looked at the stranger.
"You said I can't beat it."
"You can't."
"Then what exactly am I supposed to do?"
"Survive."
Kel stared at him.
"That's the whole test?"
"Yes."
The creature roared.
The ridge shook beneath Kel's feet.
Kel looked back at it.
"You're terrible at explaining things."
"So I've been told."
The creature moved.
Kel's Soul Qi screamed danger before his mind understood what was happening.
He jumped.
A massive claw tore through the ridge.
Black stone exploded beneath him. Kel hit the ground several feet away, rolled across the rock and forced himself back up.
The stranger was gone.
Kel stared at the empty spot.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Another roar answered him.
Kel ran.
There was no combination to build.
No opening to find.
No boxing exchange where Kel could slip a punch and counter.
The creature was too large.
Too powerful.
And somehow much faster than something that size had any right to be.
Kel stopped thinking about winning.
His Soul Qi reached outward.
Danger came from behind.
He cut left.
A claw smashed into the ground beside him.
Kel sprinted between two pillars of black stone. His Soul warned him again, and he ducked just before the creature's tail ripped through both pillars.
Stone exploded overhead.
Kel kept moving.
His Internal Qi reinforced his legs.
He pushed harder.
The creature followed.
Every few seconds, Kel felt its killing intent before the attack came. Sometimes that gave him enough warning to escape cleanly. Other times it gave him only enough time to make sure the hit didn't land directly.
A chunk of stone struck his shoulder.
Kel stumbled.
His Internal Qi tightened around the joint.
He kept running.
The stranger's words returned to him.
The test wasn't defeating it.
It was figuring out why he was still alive when it ended.
Kel hated tests like that.
He preferred questions with answers.
The creature roared again.
Kel felt danger from his right.
He moved left.
Wrong.
The tail came from the left.
Kel's eyes widened.
He crossed his arms.
The impact launched him through the air.
Kel crashed through a thin wall of black stone and hit the ground hard enough to empty his lungs.
For several seconds, he couldn't move.
Then his Soul screamed again.
Kel rolled.
A claw crashed down.
He scrambled away.
"You can fake intent?"
The creature answered with another roar.
"Of course you can."
Kel ran again.
Drako had already taught him this lesson.
Experienced fighters could lie with their bodies.
Apparently monsters could lie with intent too.
Kel stopped trusting the first feeling.
He listened deeper.
The creature charged.
Kel felt aggression.
Then beneath it—
decision.
Its eyes moved right.
Its weight shifted left.
Kel went right.
The claw missed.
Kel smiled despite himself.
"Got you."
The creature turned.
Kel's smile disappeared.
"Still running."
He took off.
The chase continued until Kel stopped knowing how long he'd been moving.
There was no sun here that behaved normally. The crimson sky burned constantly, and the heat never faded.
Eventually the landscape changed.
The creature slowed.
Kel didn't.
He ran another hundred feet before realizing the monster was no longer behind him.
He turned.
The creature stood at the edge of a wide stretch of black stone.
It stared at him.
But it wouldn't cross.
Kel breathed heavily.
"That's probably bad."
Then the pressure hit him.
Kel dropped.
Both knees slammed into the ground.
His hands followed.
He tried inhaling.
Pain tore through his chest.
Kel coughed violently.
The air felt like fire.
No.
Not air.
Qi.
External Fire Qi.
It pressed against every inch of his body.
Kel tried standing.
His arms shook.
He couldn't.
"What..."
Another breath burned.
"What is this?"
The stranger's voice came from ahead.
"The realm."
Kel lifted his head.
The man stood several yards away.
"You disappeared."
"I watched."
Kel glared.
"You keep saying that like it makes it better."
The stranger looked past him toward the creature.
"It wouldn't follow you here."
"I noticed."
"Do you know why?"
Kel looked around.
Then he finally saw where the chase had brought him.
His fear briefly disappeared beneath pure disbelief.
The Fireborne Realm stretched farther than anything Kel had ever seen.
Volcanoes towered across the horizon, some disappearing into crimson clouds. Rivers of lava cut through the land like glowing arteries. Entire mountains floated above the ground, surrounded by storms of fire.
Cities stood among them.
Not villages.
Cities.
Massive structures had been carved directly into mountainsides. Bridges stretched across molten rivers. Towers rose from black stone islands surrounded by lava.
Far above, lightning made of flame ripped through the clouds.
One burning bolt struck a distant mountain.
The entire horizon flashed.
Kel stared.
There were people here too.
Thousands from what he could see.
Some moved along distant bridges. Others crossed the sky using techniques Kel couldn't understand.
This wasn't a wasteland.
It was a civilization.
A world.
And every part of it was drowning in Fire Qi.
Kel tried reaching outward.
Nothing answered.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
The External Fire Qi was everywhere.
He could feel it pressing against him.
But he couldn't touch it.
Kel's fear returned.
"I can't use it."
The stranger's expression changed slightly.
Kel forced himself onto one foot.
The pressure immediately pushed him down.
"I can't breathe."
"Then stop fighting it."
Kel looked up.
"It's crushing me."
"Because you're trying to push against something larger than you."
"What else am I supposed to do?"
The stranger didn't answer.
Kel's hands tightened.
"Tell me."
"Figure it out."
Kel laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
"I hate you."
"Survive first. Hate me afterward."
Kel tried breathing again.
Fire Qi pressed into his lungs.
Panic started building.
He couldn't control External Qi.
He never had.
Harven had taught him how to sense it.
Dyrain had taught him how to fight around people who used it.
But whenever Kel reached outward, the world remained outside him.
Here, that weakness felt fatal.
He was standing inside an ocean of External Fire Qi without any way to swim.
Kel's breathing quickened.
"Get me out."
The stranger didn't move.
Kel looked at him.
"Get me out of here."
"No."
"I can't use this!"
"I know."
Kel froze.
The stranger had answered too quickly.
"What?"
The man watched him.
Kel stared back.
"You know?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"Survive."
Kel's anger flared.
"You know, eventually you're going to have to answer a question."
"Eventually."
Kel wanted to hit him.
The pressure made standing impossible, so that plan would have to wait.
Kel closed his eyes.
Internal Qi wasn't enough.
External Qi wouldn't answer.
That left Soul.
Harven's lessons returned.
Intent.
Emotion.
Presence.
Listen.
Don't force it.
Kel stopped trying to push against the realm.
He felt it.
Heat.
Pressure.
Movement.
Then something underneath all three.
A pulse.
Kel became still.
Another pulse moved through the ground.
His Soul answered.
Kel opened his eyes.
A spark rose from a crack beside his hand.
Then another.
Dozens followed.
Kel stared.
Nearby flames leaned toward him.
He immediately reached for them.
Nothing.
They weren't obeying him.
His Soul pulsed again.
The flames bent closer.
Kel's fear mixed with confusion.
"I'm not doing that."
"No," the stranger said.
Kel looked at him.
The man was watching carefully now.
"Then what is?"
"Keep going."
Kel almost argued.
Then his Soul pulsed again.
This time, something answered.
Not the realm.
A person.
Kel froze.
Then another presence answered.
And another.
His Soul Qi stretched farther than he intended.
Suddenly Kel felt people across the Fireborne Realm.
Most were distant and unfamiliar.
But scattered among them were presences that felt different.
Familiar without memory.
Kel grabbed his chest.
"What is happening?"
The stranger's expression had gone completely serious.
Then his Soul answered too.
Kel felt the connection immediately.
Stronger than the others.
A shared piece.
Like two flames carrying something from the same original fire.
Kel backed away.
"What are you?"
The stranger didn't answer.
Across the Fireborne Realm, members of an ancient family stopped what they were doing.
Some were warriors.
Some were elders.
Others were descendants scattered throughout distant cities and territories.
Great-uncles.
Great-aunts.
Cousins.
Branches of a family that had survived wars stretching back generations.
None knew Kel.
None had heard his name.
But their Souls recognized him.
An unfamiliar piece of something they shared had suddenly appeared inside the realm.
Family.
The realization spread faster than any message could have.
Confusion followed.
Every known branch was accounted for.
On Earth, only Harven remained.
There shouldn't have been anyone else.
Yet the Soul resonance was undeniable.
Far across the realm, ash fell like snow over a black desert.
A warrior stood alone atop a jagged cliff.
Ash-colored flames moved around his hands.
Then they stopped.
The warrior's head lifted.
The resonance reached him.
His body went rigid.
He had lived for more than a century.
He had survived wars that took his parents.
He had watched his brothers and sisters die.
For longer than Kel had been alive several times over, the Ashen Prince had known one truth.
He was the last surviving sibling of his immediate family.
Then Kel's Soul touched his.
The Ashen Prince stumbled.
His own Soul answered automatically.
The connection was stronger than what the others felt.
Much stronger.
Not cousin.
Not uncle.
Not distant descendant.
Sibling.
The Ashen Prince stared toward the horizon.
"No."
The resonance came again.
His ash flames erupted.
"Impossible."
He didn't know the boy's name.
Didn't know his face.
Didn't know how old he was.
But his Soul knew the relationship.
Somewhere inside the Fireborne Realm was a sibling he had never known existed.
The Ashen Prince moved.
Back near Kel, the stranger suddenly lifted his head.
He felt the prince coming.
Then he felt others.
Kel felt them too.
A growing number of presences had turned toward him.
His fear returned.
"Why does it feel like people are coming?"
"Because they are."
"Why?"
The stranger looked at him.
"Because of you."
"That explains absolutely nothing."
The stranger stepped closer.
"Your test isn't finished."
Kel stared at him.
"There's more?"
"You survived the beast."
The pressure around them increased.
"Now survive this."
Kel's eyes widened.
The stranger stopped restraining himself.
His Soul Qi opened.
The world changed.
Kel hit the ground.
He didn't even see himself fall.
One moment he was kneeling.
The next his chest was pressed against black stone.
His Internal Qi erupted instinctively.
Useless.
The stranger's presence covered everything.
Mountains shook.
Lava rivers surged.
The crimson clouds above them split.
Across the horizon, volcanoes erupted one after another.
Firestorms changed direction.
Every flame Kel could see bent toward the man.
The approaching presences stopped.
Across distant cities, Fireborne warriors turned toward the disturbance.
Some lowered their heads.
Others dropped to one knee.
Kel couldn't understand it.
The stranger who had been walking beside him, arguing with him and watching him run from monsters suddenly felt larger than the world around them.
Kel had felt Drako's Abyssal pressure.
He had felt Harven's Qi right before losing consciousness.
This was different.
Drako had felt like a monster standing in front of him.
Harven had felt like an overwhelming warrior.
This man felt like the Fireborne Realm itself had stood up.
Kel tried lifting his head.
He couldn't.
Fear flooded him.
Not embarrassment.
Not anger.
Fear.
Real fear.
The stranger's voice reached him.
"Stand."
Kel's fingers dug into the stone.
"Can't."
"Then the test ends here."
Kel's teeth clenched.
The pressure increased.
His Soul Qi shrank inward.
Every instinct told him to stay down.
Kel thought about Drako.
About being beaten until he could barely see.
About Solara refusing to leave him.
About Luno getting the civilians home.
About Roku escaping with the package.
About Harven telling him that strength wasn't always about winning.
Kel pushed.
His arms shook.
Nothing happened.
The stranger watched.
"Internal Qi won't solve this."
Kel knew.
His Internal Qi could reinforce muscle.
It couldn't make the mountain disappear.
Kel stopped pushing against the pressure.
Soul.
He listened.
The stranger's presence was overwhelming.
But it wasn't trying to kill him.
Kel felt the difference.
Authority.
Expectation.
Judgment.
The pressure wanted him down.
The man didn't.
Kel's Soul answered.
A pulse moved through his chest.
The fire surrounding them reacted.
Kel placed one foot underneath himself.
His leg shook violently.
The stranger's eyes narrowed.
Kel rose another inch.
Then another.
Blood ran from his nose.
His lungs burned.
His entire body screamed.
Kel kept moving.
The stranger increased the pressure.
Kel nearly collapsed.
He caught himself.
"No."
The word barely came out.
The stranger heard it.
Kel raised his head.
His legs trembled beneath him.
He wasn't standing because he had become stronger than the pressure.
He wasn't.
He stood because his Soul refused to accept the command his body had already surrendered to.
Kel finally reached his feet.
Bent forward.
Barely breathing.
But standing.
The stranger stared at him.
Kel forced a weak smile.
"That... all you got?"
The pressure vanished.
Kel immediately collapsed.
He landed on his back.
For several seconds, he simply breathed.
Then he started laughing.
The stranger looked down at him.
Kel raised one hand.
"Still hate you."
"I know."
Kel closed his eyes.
"Did I pass?"
The stranger was quiet.
Kel opened one eye.
"That's not a hard question."
"You survived the creature without trying to defeat it."
Kel waited.
"You entered a region saturated with enough External Fire Qi to crush someone unprepared."
Kel's smile faded.
"You couldn't command it."
Kel looked away.
The stranger continued.
"But instead of forcing a path that wouldn't answer, you listened with the one that would."
Soul Qi stirred faintly inside Kel.
"And when my presence forced your body down, you learned the difference between physical pressure and intent."
Kel looked at him.
The stranger nodded.
"You passed."
Kel exhaled.
"Finally."
The man turned toward the horizon.
The approaching presences remained far away.
None had continued once his aura opened.
Kel noticed.
"They stopped."
"Yes."
"Because of you."
"Yes."
Kel slowly sat up.
"Who are you?"
The stranger didn't answer immediately.
Kel stared.
"No."
The man glanced toward him.
"We're not doing that again. You said answers after the test."
"I did."
"So answer."
The stranger turned fully toward him.
For the first time since Kel arrived, the man seemed to consider how to begin.
"My title is known throughout this realm."
Kel waited.
"They call me the Primordial Inferno."
Kel stared.
"That's dramatic."
The man's eyebrow rose.
Kel shrugged.
"You said title."
The stranger almost smiled.
Then his expression became serious.
"I ruled this realm before most of the cities you've seen existed."
Kel's smile disappeared.
The man continued.
"The warriors approaching us stopped because they recognized my Soul."
Kel remembered the pressure.
"You're the ruler."
"I am."
Kel looked around.
Then back at him.
"Okay."
The Primordial Inferno studied him.
Kel frowned.
"What?"
"That was not the part I expected to be difficult."
Kel's stomach tightened.
The Primordial Inferno stepped closer.
"Use your Soul."
Kel sighed.
"Again?"
"Once."
Kel let his Soul Qi rise.
The reaction was immediate.
His Soul resonated with the ancient warrior's.
Kel felt that same impossible familiarity.
The Primordial Inferno placed a hand against his own chest.
"Fireborne families share more than blood."
Kel listened.
"Pieces of the same Soul pass through a family line. The closer the relation, the stronger the resonance."
Kel thought about all the presences he'd felt.
"Those people..."
"Family."
Kel stared toward the distant cities.
"All of them?"
"Not everyone in this realm."
The Primordial Inferno shook his head.
"But many of those who answered you are."
Kel's mind struggled to process that.
He had grown up in Durnfield believing family was something other people had.
Now apparently he had enough relatives to start a small army.
Kel looked back at him.
"And you?"
The Primordial Inferno became quiet.
Kel's Soul pulsed.
The ancient man's answered.
The connection was deep.
Old.
Direct.
Kel felt his stomach tighten.
The Primordial Inferno finally spoke.
"I am your great-grandfather."
Kel didn't move.
The words didn't fit anywhere inside his head.
"What?"
"Your great-grandfather."
Kel stared.
"You're serious."
"Yes."
Kel looked at him from head to toe.
Then around the burning realm.
Then back.
"How old are you?"
The Primordial Inferno's expression flattened.
Kel raised his hands.
"That's a normal question."
"No, it isn't."
"It is when somebody says they're your great-grandfather and looks like they could still throw you through a mountain."
The Primordial Inferno almost smiled.
Kel didn't.
His confusion was already turning into something heavier.
"If you're my great-grandfather..."
He stopped.
The question hurt before he finished it.
"Then you knew my parents?"
The Primordial Inferno's expression changed.
Kel saw it.
"Who were they?"
"Kel."
"Who were my parents?"
The ancient warrior remained silent.
Kel stood despite his exhaustion.
"You said answers after the test."
"And you will receive them."
"Then answer."
"Not all answers belong to me."
Kel's jaw tightened.
"That's convenient."
The Primordial Inferno accepted the anger.
Then Kel felt something.
A presence.
Far away.
The strongest one besides the man standing before him.
Kel turned.
The Soul resonance hit him again.
Closer than the others.
Much closer.
Kel grabbed his chest.
"What is that?"
The Primordial Inferno looked toward the same horizon.
He already knew.
The Ashen Prince.
Kel's Soul pulsed.
The distant Soul answered.
Kel's eyes widened.
"Why does that one feel different?"
The Primordial Inferno didn't immediately respond.
Kel looked at him.
"You know."
"Yes."
"Who is it?"
The ancient ruler's expression became unusually complicated.
"A warrior who has lived more than a century."
Kel waited.
"Someone who believed every one of his siblings was dead."
Kel's breathing slowed.
He didn't understand yet.
The Primordial Inferno continued.
"When your Soul reached across the realm, his answered more strongly than anyone else's." Kel stared toward the horizon.
"Why?"
"Because the closer the family connection, the stronger the resonance."
Kel's eyes slowly returned to his great-grandfather. The answer arrived before the words did.
"No."
The Primordial Inferno watched him. Kel shook his head.
"No."
"Kel—"
"I don't have a brother."
The Primordial Inferno's expression remained steady.
"The Soul does not care what you know."
Kel looked toward the distant presence again.
The resonance came once more. Sibling. His body understood something his mind rejected.
"Who is he?"
"The Ashen Prince."
Kel swallowed.
"Does he know me?"
"No."
That answer came immediately. Kel looked back.
"He didn't know you existed."
The Primordial Inferno looked toward the distant ash plains.
"Neither did I."
Kel became still. The ancient ruler continued.
"No one here did."
Kel's confusion returned.
"Then how am I your great-grandson?"
"That is one of the questions we need answered."
"You don't know?"
"No."
Kel laughed once in disbelief.
"So the ancient ruler of the Fireborne Realm doesn't know how his own great-grandson exists."
"Correct."
"Great."
Kel rubbed his face.
"Finally something simple."
The Primordial Inferno ignored the sarcasm.
"As far as this realm knew, your parents and their children were lost in the wars."
Kel lowered his hand.
"The Ashen Prince survived here."
The ancient warrior continued.
"And on Earth, only one Fireborne remained."
Kel already knew the name before he heard it.
"Harven."
Kel froze.
The Primordial Inferno looked directly at him.
"You know him as Captain Harven."
Kel stared.
"Harven is Fireborne?"
"Yes."
Kel took a step back. Pieces of his life suddenly felt wrong. Harven's reaction to his Internal Qi. The secrets. The things he always seemed to know. The way he'd watched Kel whenever something changed.
"Why didn't he tell me?
"I don't know."
Kel's anger rose.
"You know him."
"Yes."
"How?"
The Primordial Inferno looked at him for a long moment.
"That answer belongs to Harven."
Kel hated that answer even more than later. He turned away. The Fireborne Realm stretched before him. Cities. Mountains. Flame storms. Family.
Somewhere out there was a brother more than a century old who hadn't known Kel existed. Somewhere throughout the realm were great-uncles, great-aunts and cousins whose Souls had recognized him before any of them knew his name.
And standing behind him was his great-grandfather. The Primordial Inferno. Kel looked at his hands. The nearby fire leaned toward him. Still, when he reached for the External Qi inside it— nothing.
Kel frowned.
His great-grandfather noticed.
"That bothers you."
"I'm surrounded by fire."
"Yes."
"I apparently come from a family that lives in fire."
"Yes."
Kel tried again. Nothing.
"And I still can't use External Qi."
The Primordial Inferno's expression became serious.
"That bothers me too."
Kel looked up.
"You don't know why?"
"No."
Kel hadn't expected that.
The Primordial Inferno stepped beside him.
"But I know something else."
"What?"
"Your Soul reached farther through this realm today than it should have."
Kel listened.
"The realm's fire responded to you without being commanded."
The ancient ruler looked toward the flames.
"And you survived pressure that should have kept someone at your stage on the ground."
Kel waited.
"None of those things make your inability to use External Qi disappear."
The Primordial Inferno looked at him.
"They make it worth understanding."
Kel nodded slowly. Then his legs gave out.
The Primordial Inferno caught him by the arm.
Kel groaned.
"Can the next family lesson involve sitting?"
"For now."
"Finally."
The Primordial Inferno helped him toward a ridge overlooking the burning world. Far across the realm, the Ashen Prince remained where he had been ordered to stay. He could still feel Kel.
The name was new. The Soul wasn't. A brother. A sixteen-year-old brother from Earth. Impossible. Yet alive. The Ashen Prince closed his eyes.
For the first time in more than a century, the place inside his Soul that had gone silent after losing his siblings had answered someone. He didn't know Kel. Kel didn't know him. Neither understood how the other could exist. But eventually they would meet.
For now, Primordial Inferno had ordered him to wait. So he waited. Back in Durnfield, Kel's unconscious body remained surrounded by harmless flames. Harven sat beside him. For most of the night, the fire had moved gently.
Then every flame suddenly bent in the same direction. Harven stood. A second later, the flames surged high enough to fill the room with heat. Harven's expression changed. He knew what that reaction meant.
Kel wasn't alone anymore. Someone from the family had found him. Harven stared at his nephew.
"Guess the secret's out on one side."
Kel couldn't hear him. His consciousness remained somewhere impossibly far away, sitting beside a great-grandfather he'd met before knowing who he was, surrounded by relatives he'd never known existed and sensing an older brother who had spent more than a century believing Kel could not exist.
His first test in the Fireborne Realm was over.
The questions it created were only beginning.
End of Chapter 50 — Into the Fireborne Realm