"I'm not hiding anything!" Rin shouted, voice strained with fear and confusion. "I don't know what you're talking about!"
His body trembled, his knees slightly bent,not out of combat readiness, but sheer tension. His instincts screamed at him. Everything about Valen, from his expression to his calm voice, felt wrong. Calculated.
Valen floated a few feet above the ground, his arms crossed, eyes like spears. "You're a terrible liar, boy."
Rin gritted his teeth. "I swear… I'm not lying. I'm your blood."
Valen chuckled. Slowly, his boots touched the ground again. The world around them had warped, the forest vanishing like smoke, revealing a dead, empty plain. Mist rolled along the edges, as if they had been cast into a world outside of time.
"You keep pretending," Valen said softly, "but I see you."
He raised a hand and pointed at Rin's chest.
"The body can be forged. The blood can be refined. But the soul... the soul remains true. Yours isn't of the dragon race. It isn't even from this world."
Rin's eyes widened. His mouth opened, but no words came out.
"When you finish purifying the blood, the next step is the soul. At my level I can easily tell your soul is not from the dragon race."
He took a step forward, and Rin instinctively stepped back.
"Where are you from? What is your goal?"
"I… I…" Rin stuttered. His heart was racing now. Faster than his mind could follow.
Valen's presence thickened, pressing down on him like the sky itself was collapsing.
"I thought so," Valen said, almost amused.
He stepped back.
The air screamed.
In an instant, the entire island convulsed. The skies darkened. The last remnants of greenery vanished. Trees, hills, all gone,flattened, erased. The earth became an endless slate of cracked stone.
And from the cracks,they came.
Twisted creatures. Dozens. Hundreds. Crawling, shrieking, malformed beings with mouths where eyes should be, arms like blades, and eyes that bled light. They shifted shape, sometimes humanoid, sometimes insectoid, sometimes impossible.
Rin froze in horror.
Valen rose into the sky, his arms spread wide. "Let's see your tricks boy."
The monsters screamed and surged toward Rin.
He forced himself to move. Dragon form and hus armor he used everything he has.
He killed the first.
Dodged the second.
But the third gouged into his thigh.
The fourth tore his shoulder.
They came from all sides. He swung wildly, his vision blurring. He fought back, shouting in pain and rage.
He cut down dozens, but they didn't stop.
His left arm was bitten off. A claw ripped his leg open. One of the monsters dove into his stomach, tearing flesh and muscle.
Blood soaked the ground.
His vision faded.
But Rin didn't stop. Not again. Not like before. If I die, I fight until my last breath.
One lunged at his face,he headbutted it to death.
Another tore into his ribs,he screamed and drove a broken blade into its skull.
But eventually, he fell.
His body was barely more than bones and torn flesh.
As the last monster raised a claw to finish him—
A pulse of energy wiped them all out in an instant.
BOOM.
A wave of light.
Silence.
Rin lay on the ground, covered in blood, unable to move, his breathing shallow.
Valen descended slowly, floating down.
He crouched next to Rin, brushing a blood-slicked strand of hair from his face.
"Valiant effort," he said softly. "But you didn't think I'd let you die that easily, did you?"
He tapped Rin's chest with two fingers. A wave of golden energy surged through his ruined body, halting the bleeding. Tissues stopped tearing. But nothing healed completely. Just enough to keep Rin alive. Barely.
Rin's lips trembled. His eyes fluttered, barely able to stay open.
Valen stood again, towering over the broken boy.
Then, he laughed.
A low, cold laugh.
"How stubborn," he said with a grin. "Look at what I'm doing to you… and you still won't talk."
He turned away, then flew upward,higher, higher into the sky.
The wind began to tear at Rin's skin.
The pressure increased.
Higher.
Rin's skin began to peel. The outer layer blistered and cracked. His blood boiled. He couldn't scream. Couldn't move. Every cell in his body screamed death.
Then Valen, high above, clenched his hand.
And stopped it all.
He descended once again, eyes narrowed.
"You're not ready to die yet," Valen said coldly. "I'll keep you alive... just a little longer."
He crouched beside him once more. "Next time, when I ask you a question, you will answer. Or the soul you're hiding will be torn from your body and laid bare before this world."
Valen knew rin couldn't even talk but he continued to ask questions.
The last thing Rin saw before losing consciousness was Valen's eyes,burning with ruthlessness and hunger.