Heir to the Ultimate Power

CHPT 2

Kael sprinted through the blinding downpour, clutching the low-grade Earth Spirit Herb tightly against his chest to protect it from the rain. The freezing drops slashed against his face, but his heart burned with a desperate hope that this tiny scrap could save his mother from her blinding pain.

He slipped on the slick cobblestones of the narrow alleyways, scraping his knees, but he scrambled right back up without a single second of hesitation. Every gasp of air felt like inhaling broken glass as he pushed his exhausted body past its physical limits to reach the courtyard.

He finally reached the isolated, decaying pavilion where the crown had hidden them away from the world like a shameful secret. He threw his weight against the rotting wooden doors of the small healing room, bursting inside with a breathless, desperate shout.

"Mother! I found something! I found a way to stop the pain!" Kael cried out, his voice echoing off the damp stone walls. The words died instantly in his throat as the sight before him ripped his entire soul into bleeding pieces. Princess Seraphina stood directly over the creaking bed.

Her slender hands were wrapped brutally around Elara's pale, fragile neck, squeezing the last remaining breath out of her. Two heavily armored imperial guards stood behind her, their unsheathed swords gleaming coldly under the dim light of a single flickering candle.

Seraphina held a golden vial in her other hand, forcing a thick, pitch-black liquid down his mother's throat. Elara thrashed weakly under the princess's suffocating grip, her eyes wide with terror as the lethal royal poison burned through her veins. She choked violently on the black fluid.

"Stop! Get your hands off her!" Kael screamed, his mind snapping into a state of absolute madness at the horrific sight. Seraphina casually tossed the empty golden vial onto the floor, letting it roll across the stone until it hit Kael's foot with a soft click.

She turned her head toward him, her beautiful face twisted into an expression of utter amusement and aristocratic boredom. "You are back early, Kael," Seraphina said, wiping a stray drop of black blood from her fingers with a silk handkerchief. "I am doing you a massive favor today."

"I will kill you! I will tear you apart!" Kael roared, his vision turning completely crimson as he lunged forward with bared teeth. "This useless woman has been an expensive burden on my palace resources for far too long," she continued smoothly, entirely ignoring his anger.

Before Kael could even step close to the bed, the two standard imperial guards intercepted him with blinding speed and brutal efficiency. One guard kicked him hard in the stomach, forcing him down, while the other pinned his arms violently behind his back on the cold floor.

They slammed his face hard against the freezing stone, locking him down so securely that he couldn't move a single inch. "Let go of me! Let me save her! Mother!" Kael shrieked, struggling against the iron grip until his joints popped in agony.

"Keep his head up," Seraphina ordered coldly, gesturing toward the guards with a flick of her wrist. "Let him watch his mother take her very last breath. Let him learn exactly what happens when trash forgets its place in this empire."

The guard pulled Kael’s hair back forcefully, locking his gaze directly onto the bed where his mother was convulsing in pure agony. Elara’s body shook violently as the concentrated royal poison dissolved her internal organs, her fingers clawing desperately at the air.

"Kael... my boy..." Elara gasped out, her voice a ragged, wet whisper as she stared at her son through a haze of tears. "Mother! No! Please, stop this!" Kael wept openly, his tears mixing with the pooling mud and blood on the stone floor.

"Take my life instead! Seraphina, I beg you, take me!" he cried. Seraphina walked over to him, stepping directly on his outstretched hand and grinding her leather boot into his bleeding knuckles. "Your tears are the only entertaining thing you have ever provided," she laughed.

A strange, monstrous heat suddenly ignited deep within Kael’s chest, burning away the restrictive energy of the heavy iron collar. It was the raw, primordial adrenaline of a son watching his mother get murdered. His muscles swelled with an unnatural, terrifying surge of physical power.

With a primal scream, Kael threw his shoulders back violently, shattering the bones in the standard guards' wrists instantly. He launched himself forward off the floor like a coiled spring released from tension, focusing entirely on the woman who had ruined his life.

Seraphina’s eyes widened in genuine, paralyzing horror as she realized her standard imperial guards had completely lost control. She tried to circulate her mana to defend herself, but before Kael's fist could connect, a towering figure stepped out from the deep shadows.

It was Commander Vance, her elite personal bodyguard, whose sole responsibility was ensuring the princess's absolute physical protection. "Know your place, you low-life dog!" Commander Vance roared, a massive layer of heavy green mana exploding around his thick fists as he intercepted Kael.

Vance swung a brutal, bone-shattering elbow directly into Kael's exposed chest, fracturing his ribs and throwing him backward across the floor. Kael crashed into the stone wall, coughing up a large fountain of dark, warm blood as he collapsed onto his hands and knees.

Commander Vance moved like a flash of lightning, brutally stomping his metal boot directly into Kael’s spine before he could even scramble up. Lin Xiao gasped for air, his vision blurring as the heavy boot pinned him ruthlessly back down into the dirt while the princess laughed.

"Look at you, crawling like a worm," Princess Seraphina mocked, letting out a sharp, arrogant laugh as she adjusted her silk robes. "You actually thought your pathetic rage could match royal power? Vance, break his legs so he can never stand again."

"With pleasure, Your Highness," Commander Vance sneered, picking Kael up by his tattered collar and delivering three devastating punches straight into his face. Kael’s head snapped back violently, blood spraying from his split lips and broken nose as the guards cheered.

"He is about to be beaten to death right in front of his mother!" a guard jeered. Kael lay slumped at Commander Vance's feet, his face completely ruined. But deep within his bone marrow, the terrifying, dormant primordial energy felt his physical crisis and exploded like a volcano.

Fueled by an unadulterated, monstrous rage, Kael’s eyes suddenly snapped open, glowing with a bright, terrifying golden fire. He grabbed Commander Vance’s descending boot with his bare, bleeding fingers, completely halting the heavy stomp in mid-air.

"What? How do you still have strength?!" Commander Vance gasped, his arrogant smile freezing as he felt an immense pressure wrap around his ankle. He tried to pull his leg back, but Kael's grip felt like a vise made of solid iron, completely unmovable.

Kael stood up slowly, the raw, ancient power within his blood completely healing his broken ribs in a matter of seconds. With a terrifying roar, he twisted his hands, instantly snapping Commander Vance's ankle into shattered fragments and making him scream in pure agony.

Kael lunged forward, driving a rapid succession of brutal, golden-infused punches directly into the personal bodyguard's chest and face. The heavy impacts echoed through the pavilion like loud claps of thunder, violently shattering Vance's mana shield and crushing his ribcage completely.

Commander Vance crashed heavily against the opposite stone wall, his body slumping down into a mangled, bloody heap. He lay there gasping in shallow, ragged breaths, beaten to the absolute brink of death and entirely unable to stand up for his princess anymore.

Seraphina backed up against the bed, her face turning completely pale as her protection was utterly dismantled before her eyes. "Vance! Get up! Guards, protect me!" she shrieked, her voice trembling with a sudden, overwhelming terror as Kael stepped forward.

He drove a bone-shattering strike squarely into Princess Seraphina's beautiful, arrogant face with the heavy weight of his newly awakened power. The impact echoed through the small room like a thunderclap, breaking her nose and shattering her jaw instantly.

Seraphina didn't even have time to scream before she slumped heavily onto the marble floor, her body sliding into a pool of her own blood. Her elegant hair ornaments shattered into useless glittering dust around her completely ruined, deeply unconscious face.

"The princess! He knocked out the princess!" the standard guards panicked, entirely forgetting about attacking Kael as they checked her pulse. Kael ignored them completely, crawling on his hands and knees over to the bedside where his mother's convulsions were slowing down.

"Mother, look at me, please look at me!" Kael begged, his voice breaking into a desperate, soul-shattering sob. "I'm right here. The monsters can't hurt you anymore. Please don't leave me all alone in this world."

He desperately closed his eyes and tried to push his internal energy down into her chest, hoping to use the magical healing power that had just mended his broken ribs. He wanted to force the black poison out of her body, willing his newfound strength to save her life.

To his ultimate, paralyzing surprise, the warm golden light in his veins completely vanished, leaving his hands cold and empty. The immense power was totally gone, and his body instantly crashed back into its usual, weak, and powerless state.

He gasped for air as a wave of extreme exhaustion hit him, realizing that his pure, monstrous fury had only temporarily stimulated his dormant bloodline power. He stared at his trembling hands in absolute despair, wondering if he would ever have such incredible strength anymore.

Elara’s eyes fluttered open, the dark tint of the royal poison already clouding her pupils, but she managed to look at him. She reached up with a frail, trembling hand, her bloody fingers gently brushing against his bruised cheek one last time.

"Kael... listen to me very carefully," Elara whispered, her chest heaving as she fought through the suffocating pain to speak. "My time is completely gone, but you must know the truth about what they did to us. Your father, General Raith, was murdered by the royal family."

"It was all a lie, a brutal deceit to steal his glory," she wept, her grip on his sleeve tightening. "They envied his legendary power and feared his influence over the people. A young, powerful female warrior named Kira witnessed the entire murder happen."

"The royals held you at swordpoint, threatening to butcher you if we spoke a single word," she whispered weakly. "They forced me to beg Kira to feign ignorance, to stay silent, and to enter forced solitude in the northern wastes. Kira gave up her freedom to keep you alive."

"They married Seraphina to you solely to use a dark, manipulative magic to drain and steal our family's power lines," she gasped. "They realized your bloodline was dormant, so they decided to eliminate us both today. Promise me... you will survive..."

"I promise, Mother!" Kael screamed, squeezing her hand tightly as tears poured down his face. Elara smiled one last time through the blood, her head slumping lifelessly to the side against the stained pillow. She flatlined completely, her chest stopping moving forever.

A loud, soul-shattering scream of pure agony tore from Kael’s throat, shaking the wooden rafters above as he threw his body over her corpse. The standard imperial guards finally managed to hoist the bleeding, unconscious Princess Seraphina onto their shoulders and fled.