Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls

Kael descended alongside the creature for several seconds before pushing its body away with his feet. The mass of blood, arms, and faces spun inside the Well, striking the stone rings as it tried to seize him again. Kael used a Celestial Step against the creature’s own surface, turning the contact into momentum, and was launched toward one of the side walls. His feet touched the stone for less than a second. He adjusted his body, distributed mana through his muscles and joints, and moved again before gravity could pull him down.

The white light at the bottom allowed him to see the true scale of the place. The Well was not merely a vertical opening. Dozens of circular platforms had been built at different depths, connected by chains, rails, and mana channels. Thousands of vessels were attached to the walls, some empty, others containing faint lights. The transparent currents representing the consciousnesses rose toward the platform where Sylphie and the others remained. The red lines, on the other hand, descended toward the white core at the bottom.

The creature falling with him was still connected to those lines.

Kael drew his sword in the middle of the fall.

One of the hands formed from human bodies advanced toward him. He touched the wall with one foot, used another Celestial Step, and crossed the space between the fingers before they closed. When he reappeared over the creature’s arm, he drove the sword into the mass and used the blade as an anchor to slide along it.

The faces opened their mouths.

Different voices emerged at the same time.

"Door."

"Sun."

"Obey."

Kael tore the sword free and cut the first cluster of red lines still connecting that extension to the Well. The creature twisted, striking the wall with enough force to dislodge several empty vessels and send them vanishing into the darkness.

"You need to learn new words."

The mass tried to surround him. Kael did not retreat upward. He advanced directly between the arms, using short movements to cross the spaces opening among the fused bodies. Celestial Step was no longer merely a burst of movement. He could interrupt the displacement, brace himself for a fraction of a second against an inclined surface, and change direction before the creature reacted.

Kael reached the center of the mass.

There, he found a red core formed from dozens of overlapping seals. It was the point keeping the memories gathered inside that grotesque form. He did not attack immediately. First, he expanded his perception through the sword and confirmed that no transparent current passed through that region.

Only command.

Kael held the sword with both hands.

"There is no one alive inside you."

The faces looked toward him.

"We are everyone."

"No. You are only what they used to keep everyone imprisoned."

He cut the core.

Scarlet light crossed the mass from one side to the other. The red lines broke, the arms lost strength, and the faces began disappearing. The creature did not explode. It simply lost the structure holding it together and dissolved into enormous quantities of dark blood, burned memories, and ownerless shadows.

Kael continued falling.

The white light grew beneath him.

For an instant, there was no surface close enough to use as support. Kael sheathed the sword, aligned his body, and allowed mana to circulate toward his extremities. Celestial Step needed a point of impulse, but not necessarily solid ground. He compressed mana beneath his feet, created resistance for a fraction of a second, and used the discharge itself as support.

The movement slowed his fall and launched him toward one of the lower rings.

Kael landed on a narrow platform, slid several meters, and stopped in front of the Well’s true core.

The white eye occupied almost the entire opposite wall. It was not an organ attached to a creature. It was an opening in the structure itself, surrounded by pale roots that entered the stone and spread toward every level above. At the center of the pupil stood an incomplete human form without a face, arms, or defined legs. Only a white silhouette trying to acquire a body.

The voice came from every direction.

"You descended."

Kael breathed deeply. The arm that had once carried the mark was clean, but he could still feel the path it had left inside his channels.

"You called me."

"You answered."

"Do not confuse curiosity with obedience."

The silhouette approached the surface of the eye.

"There is no difference when the result is the same."

Kael looked toward the roots. The transparent ones carried fragments of consciousness. The red ones carried the command of the First Blood. The white structure surrounded both, keeping them inside a single system.

"Are you the First Blood?"

"That was one of the names."

"What is the true one?"

"I possess no name your language can preserve."

"Then I will continue calling you a problem."

The white surface rippled.

"You carry an authority belonging to no bloodline. A light capable of existing without blood, without root, and without master. For centuries, we possessed enough memory to think, enough blood to grow, and enough will to command. We lacked only a source that could not be exhausted."

Kael understood.

"You wanted my celestial mana."

"I want the principle that produces it."

"To escape this place."

"To stop needing this place."

The organization was not merely trying to awaken an ancient creature. It was feeding a structure that wanted to become independent. The Well had been created as an instrument of command, but after absorbing thousands of memories, it had developed a will of its own. The First Blood was not a person or a god. It was an intelligence constructed from hunger, obedience, and centuries of stolen consciousnesses.

Kael looked toward the transparent roots.

"Are they still alive?"

"Some."

"And the others?"

"They remain useful."

That answer was enough.

Kael lowered the sword until its point faced the ground.

"Then we have nothing else to discuss."

The white roots attacked.

Kael disappeared before the first reached his chest. He reappeared five meters to the right, cut a red root, and had to move again when three pale structures pierced the platform. The roots were not attacking randomly. They aimed for the channels the mark had passed through, trying to enter through his arm, shoulder, or mana center.

He crossed the platform in short movements, cutting only the red lines. The transparent ones drifted away from him like currents carried by wind. With every cut, part of the eye lost definition, but new roots emerged from the stone to replace the ones destroyed.

"You cannot cut an order already accepted," the voice said.

Kael avoided another root and struck its base.

"I never accepted it."

"You opened the door."

"To enter."

"You carried the mark."

"To find you."

"You answered the call."

Kael appeared in front of the eye and drove the sword into the white surface.

"To tell you to shut up."

The pupil closed around the blade.

A force struck Kael directly through his internal channels. The mark did not reappear over his skin. It emerged inside him. Red lines advanced through his mana center, trying to turn the previous connection into a complete command.

Kael lost his breath.

One knee touched the platform.

The voice became closer.

"Obey."

His body stiffened.

"Offer."

His right hand began opening against his will.

"Allow."

Celestial mana responded to the command and advanced toward the sword, ready to cross the connection and feed the white core.

Kael closed his eyes.

He knew that sensation.

Not the control itself, but the instant when his own body stopped following his decision. It was the same problem he had faced while creating Celestial Step. When he concentrated mana only in his legs, the rest of his body lagged behind the movement. Shoulders, spine, hips, and breathing did not act together. There was a distance between intention and execution.

The structure of the Well was using that distance.

Entering between thought and body.

Kael breathed slowly.

He did not try to push the command out.

He distributed his mana.

Legs.

Hips.

Spine.

Shoulders.

Arms.

Neck.

Mana center.

This time, Celestial Step would not be used to cross space. The principle was the same, but the movement would be internal. His entire body, every channel, and all his mana would respond to the same intention at the same instant.

The command tried to make him open his hand.

Kael contracted every muscle simultaneously.

The red structure hesitated.

"Obey."

Celestial mana exploded through his channels in a single coordinated pulse.

The command lines were expelled.

The white eye opened completely.

Kael raised his head.

"You spent centuries learning to give orders."

He stood, still holding the sword trapped inside the core.

"I spent my life learning not to obey."

Kael pulled the blade sideways.

A fissure crossed the white surface.