Blackout Ascension: Return of Primordial Heir-Chapter 56: Will of Four

The morning sunlight glittering through the tall glass windows of the infirmary was usually a soothing welcome sight. Today, it just gave Kairos a painful headache. He opened his eyes slowly. The ceiling was painted with royal colors, but right now, the bright colors just made his stomach churn. His chest ached with a heavy, throbbing pain. It felt like he had swallowed a handful of crushed glass. That was the price of the time-stop. The System had warned him that using a dominion in a mana vacuum would drain his life force. The System had not been joking.

Kairos tilted sideways on the soft mattress and instantly regretted it. His muscles screamed in protest.

"Don’t move too fast," a voice rumbled from the next bed over.

Kairos turned his head. Terravarous was sitting up, his chest wrapped tightly in thick white linen. The giant looked tired, but his dark eyes were alert. He was carefully eating a bowl of plain oatmeal.

"I feel like I got run over by a merchant caravan," Kairos croaked, his throat was terribly dry.

"You fought four teleporting assassins from the old era," Terravarous spoke out logically, handing Kairos a cup of cool water from the bedside table. "You earned the right to be sore."

Kairos took the cup with a shaking hand and drank. The water helped clear his mind. He looked around the large, quiet recovery room.

Ignis was in the bed near the door. The arrogant royal was awake, currently trying to peel off a layer of medical tape from his ribs while muttering angry curses under his breath. He looked miserable. Without his fire magic to constantly regulate his body temperature, he was shivering under a wool blanket.

In the corner of the room, Luna Zephyros looked like a corpse. The silver haired boy was lying flat on his back, his skin looking like a shade of pale gray. He was breathing, but just barely. Dark purple shade swirled under his closed eyes. Soltheia was sitting in a wooden chair next to him, her head resting on the edge of the mattress as she slept softly, her fingers still holding Luna’s hand.

Kairos looked at his nightstand. Asteria rested there, clean and neat. He reached out and traced the edge of the silver blade. His finger caught on a tiny, jagged notch near the tip. The holy sword had chipped. The armor of the Black Mist Knights was tougher than anything they had ever faced.

Before Kairos could say anything else, the heavy oak doors of the infirmary swung open. Two elite palace guards entered the room. Their armor clanked loudly, breaking the quiet morning peace. They stopped at the foot of Kairos’ bed and snapped a crisp salute.

"Generals," the lead guard said, his tone was serious. "King Raezon requires your presence in the grand throne room. Immediately."

Ignis groaned loudly, dropping his head back onto his pillow. "Tell my uncle I am currently dying. I will schedule an audience for next week."

"The King was very clear, Lord Ignis," the guard replied stiffly. "No delays. We have orders to carry you if necessary."

"Nobody is carrying me," Ignis grumbled, forcing himself out of bed, wincing sharply as his broken ribs moving.

Kairos moved his legs over the edge of the mattress. His knees shook, but he secured them in place. He grabbed Asteria, sliding the damaged sword into its leather sheath, and strapped it to his back. It was a rule in the capital that nobody brought drawn weapons before the King, but Kairos was not going to let the blade out of his sight.

"Luna?" Terravarous called out softly, walking over to the far bed.

Luna’s pale eyelashes fluttered. He slowly opened his eyes, wincing at the bright sunlight. He looked at the guards, then his eyes slowly darted towards his friends. He gently squeezed Soltheia’s hand to wake her up.

"I heard," Luna whispered, his voice was raspy. He moved to sit up, but his arms trembled wildly. "Help me up, Terravarous. I cannot let the village boy face the King alone."

Terravarous carefully placed a hand under Luna’s shoulder, pulling the fragile-looking heir to his feet. Soltheia tried to argue, telling him to lay back down, but Luna just offered her a weak, reassuring smile.

The walk through the palace corridors took twice as long as usual. The pristine white marble halls felt oddly cold. Servants and lower nobles stopped and stared as the group moved. They whispered behind their hands. Just yesterday, these boys were the pride of the academy, arrogant and untouched. Today, they looked like veterans returning from a slaughter.

They finally reached the double doors of the grand throne room. The guards pushed them open. The room was vast, lined with tall pillars of gold and white stone. High windows allowed the streams of morning light, illuminating the crimson carpet that led straight to the upper dais.

Sitting on the golden throne was King Raezon. The King of Solaris was an imposing figure. He had the same burning red hair as Ignis. His eyes are identical to Seyana’s, were sharp and unyielding. He did not look like an uncle today. He looked like a ruler facing a crisis.

Seyana stood off to the side of the throne. She had changed out of her ruined festival dress and wore formal royal attire. She offered Kairos a worried glance, but she remained silent. Catherine and Velanor were also standing nearby, looking tense.

Kairos, Terravarous, Ignis, and Luna stopped at the base of the dais. They bowed respectfully, though Ignis let out a hiss of pain as he bent his waist.

"Rise," King Raezon commanded, his voice echoing through the hall.

They stood up. The King stared down at them, his gaze lingering on the bandages and Luna’s sickly pale face.

"My city guards found a plaza covered in gray ash and a collapsed festival tent," King Raezon said, his tone terrible and low. "They found my daughter and my niece standing in the middle of a war zone. I was told, a barrier sealed the sky, draining the mana from my capital. I want to know exactly what happened out there, and I want the truth."

Kairos felt Luna moved slightly beside him. They had not discussed a cover story. If the King knew Kairos had a system that stopped time, he might lock him away as a dangerous anomaly. If the King found out Luna had cracked a forbidden Cosmic Lock, the Zephyros heir would be branded a heretic and executed. The primordial rules were absolute.

Kairos stepped forward. He took a deep breath, fighting the ache in his chest.

"We were attacked, Your Majesty," Kairos said steadily, "By an assassination squad. Eight of them."

"Eight assassins trapped the finest young Generals in the world?" The King asked, raising an eyebrow. "Who sent them? Rogue mercenaries? Spies from the borderlands?"

"They were not human," Luna said, his voice was weak, but it carried perfectly across the quiet hall. "They wore ancient armor. They bled dark mist. They teleported through the shadows. They were Black Mist Knights."

A mudane silence fell over the throne room. Even the royal guards standing by the doors felt uncomfortable. Raezon’s jaw tightened. He gripped the golden armrests of his throne so hard his knuckles turned white.

"Black Mist Knights are a myth," the King stated, though his voice lacked its usual confidence. "They are ghost stories of Void Era written in the Dawn Era to frighten children. They do not exist."

"They exist," Ignis snapped, forgetting his manners. He pointed a bandaged finger at his own chest. "One of those myths catapulted me across a stone balcony like a ragdoll. Another one cut Terravarous’s back open. They are real, Uncle."

King Raezon looked at Terravarous. The giant nodded slowly in confirmation. The King sat back, his eyes narrowing. He looked at the four battered boys standing before him. "If you faced eight shadow phantoms from the Void Era... how are you standing in my throne room right now? The legends say a single Knight could slaughter an entire battalion of regular soldiers. You four are strong, but you are still students."

Kairos felt a bead of sweat crawl down the back of his neck.

"We got lucky," Kairos lied smoothly. He reached over his shoulder and pulled Asteria from its sheath, holding the dull silver blade out for the King to see. "The dark barrier drained our natural magic. Ignis and Terravarous were crippled. But my sword is a relic. It holds its own holy light." Kairos hid the truth that Seyana gave that sword.

King Raezon leaned forward, inspecting the blade from afar. "The holy light disrupted their dark mist," Kairos continued, building the lie carefully. "Whenever I hit them, the light burned away their shadow magic. It forced them to become solid for just a few seconds. It made them slow."

"And the teleporting?" King asked. "How did you track enemies that move through thin air?"

"That was me," Luna interrupted. He stood a little taller, hiding his exhaustion behind his usual lazy smirk. "I am the Night Emperor, Your Majesty. Shadows are my domain. I used my base mind magic to track the ripples they left in the dark. I called out their positions, and Kairos used the holy sword to finish them. We fought them together. It was close, but we broke their anchor, and the barrier collapsed."

It was a brilliant cover up. It sounded logical. It relied on their known abilities and the natural properties of the silver sword. It hid the frozen time and the infinite mana.

King Raezon stared at them for a long, quiet minute. The tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife. Seyana held her breath.

Finally, the King slowly loosened his grip on the armrests. He let out a sigh that made him look ten years older.

"The Royal Astronomers reported a massive spike in corrupted mana just before the barrier fell," the King murmured, almost to himself. "If what you say is true... the old texts in the Restricted Archives are not just history. They are a warning."

King Raezon stood up from his throne. He walked slowly down on the carpeted stairs, his crimson cape wavering behind him. He stopped right in front of Kairos. He was a tall man, but Kairos did not look away. He met the King’s eyes with quiet strength.

"You saved my daughter yesterday," the King said softly, his voice meant only for the boys to hear. "You saved my nephews, and you saved thousands of innocent lives in that plaza. For that, you have the eternal gratitude of the Solaris Crown."

Kairos bowed his head slightly. "We did our duty, Your Majesty."

"No," King Raezon corrected him. "Your duty was to attend classes and clear dungeons. What you did yesterday was wage a war."

The King turned and looked at Ignis, Terravarous, and Luna. He saw the bruises, the bandages, and the exhaustion. But he also saw the hard resolve in their eyes. They were no longer boys playing a dangerous game. The fire of real battle had forged them into something different.

"The era of peace is officially over," King Raezon declared, raising his voice so the entire hall could hear. "If the shadows of the Void Era are moving against us, the kingdom must prepare. I am locking down the borders. I will summon the High Council. We will mobilize the standing army."

He looked back at Kairos. "You four are no longer students of the academy," the King said firmly. "Effective immediately, you hold the active rank of Vanguard Generals. When the shadows return, you will be the blade that strikes them down. Do not fail me."

"We won’t!" Kairos promised.

"Good. Now go rest. You look terrible." The King waved his hand, dismissing them.

The group bowed one last time and turned to leave. As they walked back down the crimson carpet, Kairos let out a slow, quiet breath he had been holding in his burning chest. They had survived the interrogation. Their secrets were safe.

BOOMM!!

But as the oak doors of the throne room closed behind them, Kairos knew the truth.

The King was mobilizing an army of ordinary men with iron spears to fight ancient phantoms made of mist. It was a noble gesture, but it was useless. Regular soldiers would just turn into gray ash.

When the true eclipse finally arrived, and the Fallen Monarch stepped out of the dark, it wasn’t going to be an army that saved the world. It was going to be four battered teenagers with too many secrets, holding the line until their bodies broke.

Kairos gripped the hilt of Asteria. He was ready.