Chapter 45: Eyes Beyond the Summit
The wind danced gently through the Emberlight cliffs, brushing the edge of the training platform where Kai stood.
Even now, hours after his spar with Ren and Vale, faint cracks in the stone still glowed with the echo of his restrained power.
He breathed in deeply — slow, steady — eyes closed, feeling the way the world moved around him.
Not just the flow of Ki. But the world itself. The shifting of weight. Of possibility.
Vale approached from behind. Her footsteps were light, but Kai felt the gravity of her presence anyway.
"You've changed," she said simply.
Kai opened his eyes. The sunset caught the edge of his irises, casting a strange glint — something too deep, too vast.
"Three months in solitude," he replied. "It has that effect."
"No," she said. "Not solitude. Something else. Something unnatural."
Kai didn't deny it.
He turned to face her. Calm. Collected. But the air behind his gaze stirred like a coiled storm.
"I need to know something," he said.
Vale raised an eyebrow.
"Are there any tournaments," Kai asked, "held outside Emberlight? Ones where Martial Emperors compete? Or stronger."
Vale was silent for a long moment.
"You just returned," she said. "You haven't even met with the council. No explanation. No apology."
"I don't owe them either," Kai said softly. "I owe myself something else."
He looked past her, toward the horizon — where the sky faded into storm-lit purple.
"A mountain isn't a mountain if it never climbs above the clouds."
Vale crossed her arms. "You want to fight. Not just anyone. But monsters."
Kai nodded once. "I need to see where I stand. And what needs to be broken next."
A faint smile tugged at Vale's lips. "There are whispers. Invitation-only exhibitions. Old dueling rites held between ancient sects that still follow the old code. Most of them don't care about rules — only survival."
"That's exactly what I want."
She studied him — not the way one observes a student, but how one gauges a faultline. How close it is to splitting open.
"There's one coming soon," she said at last. "Held in the Stormbell Cradle. It's unregulated. You won't be representing Emberlight."
"I'm not trying to," Kai replied.
"Participants are mostly Martial Emperors," she added. "A few Semi-Saints looking for prey."
"Good."
Vale looked him over again, more seriously now. "And if you die?"
Kai stepped toward her, the air folding subtly behind his stride.
"That reality does not exist"