Blackout Ascension: Return of Primordial Heir-Chapter 71: Ashlands

The air in the capital tasted like ash. Kairos Vedaryan walked through the dusty training yard of the Solaris Palace. He had packed a single leather satchel with bread, dried meat, and a simple water skin. He wore his travel boots and a dark cloak over his simple tunic. Asteria was strapped carefully at his back. The holy silver blade was dull, resting quietly in its leather scabbard.

He didn’t want a grand farewell. He just wanted to leave before the Fallen Monarch decided to send a horde of shadows to tear the city apart looking for him.

"You are sneaking out like a thief, village boy."

Kairos stopped. He turned around. Ignis and Terravarous were standing near the weapon racks. They looked exhausted. They were covered in dirt and sweat from trying to cast magic in the thin air.

"I am not sneaking out," Kairos replied quietly. "I just didn’t want to interrupt your training. How is the fire?"

Ignis sighed, holding his bruised right hand and snapped his fingers. A tiny, pathetic spark of orange flame flickered to life, lingering weakly on his thumb for two seconds before the cold wind blew it out.

"It is pathetic," Ignis grumbled, dropping his hand. "I feel like a child holding a candle. The mana is so weak that drawing it from the air gives me an instant headache. If I want to make a concentrated blue fire, I have to drain my internal core. I can maybe swing the blue sword three times before I pass out."

"Three times is enough if you aim for the neck," Kairos stated.

Terravarous walked forward. The giant placed a heavy hand on Kairos’s shoulder. His dark eyes were filled with quiet respect.

"We know why you are leaving, Kairos," Terravarous rumbled, his voice becoming serious. "We heard the dark god say your name. You are carrying the target on your back to keep the capital safe. It is a burden." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"It is my sword," Kairos said, reaching back to touch the hilt of Asteria. "The shadow commander wanted the silver splinter. He wants to break the light. I cannot stay here and let the citizens burn because of me."

"Just don’t die out there in the waste," Ignis said, folding his arms to hide his genuine worry. "Luna is already taking a long, annoying nap in the infirmary. If you die, I will be stuck fighting these ugly monsters all by myself, and I refuse to do all the lifting."

Kairos offered a faint smile. "I won’t die. I am going to find the immortal watcher. I am going to learn how to use this system without destroying my heart."

"Find the ghost," Terravarous nodded. "We will hold the walls of Solaris. We will keep Seyana safe. You have our word."

Kairos gripped the giant’s forearm in a warrior’s handshake, then did the same with Ignis. They were his brothers in arms. They had bled together on the Great Dam. They didn’t need a long, emotional goodbye. They understood the brutality of the Great War.

****

Kairos turned and walked away, heading toward the royal stables. Ten minutes later, he was riding out of the high iron gates of the capital. He rode a sleek, gray wind horse. But the beast did not hover smoothly over the cobblestones like it used to. Without the magic in the air, the horse was forced to use its hooves, galloping against the ground. The world had become much larger, and travel had become much slower.

Kairos didn’t ride east toward the Sylphyros forests, or west toward the Zephyros mountains. He rode straight north, heading into the empty plains known as the Ashlands.

Before leaving the palace, Kairos had retraced his steps. He had sneaked back into the basement of the Restricted Archives. The iron door was still broken from when he had ripped it open. The library was empty and silent.

Kairos had walked to the spot in the dusty aisle where Librarian Jovian had crushed him and Luna with terrifying gravity.

He had searched the floor. He knew the ancient immortal hadn’t just vanished. Jovian wanted Kairos to find him. The old ghost had told him to harmonize with the divine energy. He had left a breadcrumb.

Underneath a loose stone tile in the aisle, Kairos had found a torn piece of yellowed parchment.

It didn’t have a map. It just had five words written in faded black ink.

The First Temple. The Ashlands.

****

So, Kairos rode north. He rode for three days. The landscape slowly changed from the green plains of Solaris into a harsh, barren wasteland. The ground turned into dry, gray dust. There were no trees, no rivers, and no birds in the sky. It was a dead zone. The air here was even thinner than in the capital. It felt suffocated by the lingering taint of dark magic.

On the afternoon of the fourth day, Kairos’ horse collapsed. The poor beast whined loudly, its legs giving out from magical exhaustion. Kairos smoothly jumped off the saddle before the horse hit the gray dirt. He gently stroked the beast’s neck, offering it a few drops of water from his leather skin.

"Rest here," Kairos whispered to the horse. "I will walk the rest of the way."

CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

He left the beast behind and continued on foot. His boots crunched loudly against the dry earth.

Inside his mind, the blue digital interface flickered.

[WARNING. ATMOSPHERIC MANA CRITICALLY LOW. SYSTEM CONNECTION UNSTABLE.]

Kairos ignored the buzzing static in his head. He didn’t need the system to walk. His base Endurance was 82. He marched for hours without needing to stop for breath. He relied on his raw strength.

As the sun began to set, painting the cloudy sky in bruised shades of purple and red, Kairos heard a sound. It was a wet, scraping noise coming from behind a large pile of gray boulders to his right.

Kairos stopped walking. He didn’t draw his sword immediately. He just stood still, his crimson eyes narrowing as he listened to the harsh wind.

A mutated beast slowly dragged itself out from behind the rocks. It was a Mana Aberration. It was alone, separated from the main swarm that had attacked the Neutral Zone. It looked starved and desperate. Its bulging muscle was torn in several places, and the black mist leaking from its jaws was thin.

The beast sniffed the cold air. It lacked eyes, but it could sense the warm heart standing just thirty feet away.

SCREEEE...!

The Aberration let out a gurgling shriek and charged forward.

Three months ago, a lunging Aberration would have terrified Kairos. He would have panicked, relied on Terravarous to block it, or used his Dominion to freeze time.

Today, Kairos just sighed. He reached over his shoulder and gripped the leather hilt of Asteria. He unsheathed the silver blade. It was just a sharp piece of metal.

The mutated beast crossed the distance in seconds, leaping into the air with its jagged purple jaws opened wide, aiming to bite Kairos’ head.

Kairos didn’t dodge backward. His Agility was sitting at 95. His reflexes were entirely inhuman. He simply stepped one foot to the left.

The massive beast moved helplessly through the empty air where Kairos had just been standing. Before the monster could even hit the ground, Kairos twisted his hips and swung Asteria with brutal physical force. He poured every single ounce of his 88 Strength into his shoulders.

SLASH!

The dull silver blade hit the beast’s ribs. Kairos didn’t rely on magic to melt the flesh. He used pure, overwhelming energy. The blade shattered the monster’s thick bones instantly, carving a massive canyon through its torso.

The Aberration crashed into the gray dirt, its body severed in half. It didn’t even have time to scream. The corrupted flesh hissed out, instantly disintegrating into a pile of ash that blew away through the cold wind.

Kairos didn’t even breathe hard. He flicked the sword to clear the dust and smoothly sheathed it.

"Your form is too rigid." The raspy, echoing voice startled Kairos. He spun around, his hand instinctively reaching back to the hilt of his sword.

Sitting casually on top of the gray boulders, blending in with the shadows, there was Librarian Jovian.

The old immortal looked the same as he had in the restricted library. He wore faded gray robes that looked like they hadn’t been washed in a century. His face was wrinkled, carrying the profound sorrow of a man who had watched the world end once before.

Hovering still in the air next to Jovian’s shoulder was the cursed book bound in black iron chains. The Fallen [ ]. It pulsed with a toxic energy, reacting to the gray ash of the dead aberration.

"I killed it in a single swing," Kairos argued, frowning at the old man. "My form was perfectly fine."

Jovian slowly shook his head, looking down at the teenage boy with critical eyes.

"You killed a starving, mindless dog," Jovian corrected him. "You used wasteful muscle. You swung the sword like a lumberjack chopping a tree. If you swing like that against the Fallen Monarch, he will simply catch the blade with his bare hand and snap it in half. Your physical stats are high, but your technique is barbaric."

Kairos let go of his sword hilt. He had spent three days riding and walking through a wasteland just to be insulted by a ghost.

"You told me to find you," Kairos said, crossing his arms over his chest. "You left the note in the library. You told me my system is a fragment of the Primordial Laws. You told me I am using it wrong."

"You are," Jovian agreed smoothly. He lightly hopped down from the high boulders, landing on his feet without making a single sound. The gravity aura he had used in the library was hidden. He walked toward Kairos.

"You survived Level 2 of the system," Jovian noted, circling Kairos like a predator inspecting a meal. "You used Temporal Acceleration at the Great Dam. I felt the ripple in the timeline from here. It was loud. It was messy. You barely survived the physical recoil, didn’t you?"

Kairos didn’t lie. "My muscles felt like they were melting. My lungs burned. If I had stayed in the accelerated state for ten more seconds, my body would have torn itself apart."

"Because you are a mortal vessel trying to channel divine speed," Jovian stated, stopping right in front of Kairos. "You pulled the holy light from the sword into your blood. That was a good first step. It created a temporary buffer. But a temporary buffer is not enough to fight a god. You need to make the buffer permanent."

Kairos frowned. "How do I do that?"

Jovian turned and pointed a gnarled, weathered finger toward the horizon.

Kairos looked past the boulders.

In the distance, partially hidden by the swirling gray dust of the Ashlands, stood a long, ruined structure. It was built from pure black stone. Giant, shattered pillars skewered up toward the bruised sky. The roof had collapsed. It didn’t look like the elegant marble of Solaris or the natural wood of Sylphyros. It looked brutal, heavy and ancient.

"That is the Temple of the First Seal," Jovian whispered, his raspy voice filled with reverence. "It was built during the Void Era, long before the modern kingdoms were even a thought. It is the exact location where the ancient gods merged their souls to create the Primordial Laws."

Kairos stared at the ruins. He could feel a strange pressure radiating from the black stones, even from a mile away. His muted digital interface buzzed wildly with static in his mind.

"The modern world is starved of magic right now," Jovian continued, his eyes filled with seriousness. "The dam is leaking. The air is thin. But inside that temple, a tiny, residual spark of the original gods still remains. It is the purest magical pressure in the mortal realm."

Jovian turned back to Kairos. The old man didn’t look grumpy anymore. He looked terrifying.

"I am not going to teach you sword stances, Kairos Vedaryan," Jovian declared. "I am going to throw you into the absolute center of that temple. I am going to crush you with the pressure of the First Seal. You will either learn how to merge your mortal soul with the Primordial system, or your body will explode into a thousand pieces of bloody ash. There is no middle ground."

Kairos looked at the old ghost. He thought about Seyana standing alone with an iron crown. He thought about Luna trapped in a coma. He thought about the terrifying, demonic voice of the Fallen Monarch echoing across the world, demanding his death.

Kairos didn’t hesitate.

"Then let’s go," Kairos said simply, walking past the immortal watcher and heading straight toward the ruins.

Jovian watched the young boy march toward his possible death without a single trace of fear. For the first time in a thousand years, a faint, genuine smile touched the old librarian’s wrinkled face.