Sealed Heir Awakens; From Corpse to Conqueror

Chapter 6: Bullet

The world exploded into chaos.

Lydia's warriors met the Abyssal Guard at the breach, and the impact of their collision sent shockwaves rippling across the compound. Silver light clashed against corrupt yellow, the energies tearing at reality itself.

Ethan stood frozen in the courtyard, watching as people fought and died to protect him. A woman he didn't know took a blade through the stomach, her scream cut short as she collapsed. A man unleashed a wave of Xore fire that immolated three attackers before a spear punched through his spine.

"Get him inside!" Lydia shouted, her hands weaving patterns in the air that created barriers of solid light. "Sera, protect my son!"

Sera grabbed Ethan's arm, but he pulled away. "I can't just hide while people die for me!"

"You can and you will!" She yanked him toward the main building with surprising strength. "Your death would make their sacrifice meaningless!"

An Abyssal Guard broke through the defensive line, sprinting toward them with inhuman speed. His eyes glowed yellow, foam flecking his lips, completely consumed by the corrupt power flowing through him.

Sera shoved Ethan behind her and drew a blade that hummed with silver energy. She met the guard's charge, her movements fluid and precise. The clash lasted three seconds. The guard's head hit the ground before his body realized it was dead.

"Move!" Sera commanded.

They ran toward the mansion. Behind them, the battle intensified. Ethan heard his mother's voice rise above the chaos, chanting words in a language he didn't recognize. The air pressure dropped suddenly, then a pillar of silver light erupted from her position, consuming a dozen Abyssal Guards in an instant.

But more kept coming. So many more.

They were ten feet from the mansion entrance when Ethan heard it, a sound like tearing fabric, followed by a sharp crack.

Time slowed.

Ethan saw the bullet streaking toward him from the rooftop across the courtyard. He could track its rotation, see the way it displaced air, and calculate its trajectory with impossible precision. It was aimed at his head, moving at over two thousand feet per second.

He was going to die. Again.

The Xore in his chest erupted with heat.

“Move,” the Echo commanded, and suddenly Ethan understood what the Xore had been trying to teach him since his awakening. Time hadn't slowed, his perception had accelerated. His body had always been capable of this speed, he just hadn't known how to access it.

He moved.

The world snapped back to normal speed as Ethan twisted sideways. The bullet grazed his cheek instead of punching through his skull, drawing a line of fire across his skin.

He stumbled, crashed into Sera, and they both went down.

"Sniper!" Sera rolled, putting her body between Ethan and the rooftop. "East building! Someone take out that shooter!"

More gunfire erupted. Bullets sparked off the courtyard stones, each one aimed with lethal precision at Ethan's position.

“The Xore showed you how to perceive faster,” the Echo said calmly while chaos raged around them. “But perception without action is useless. Feel the energy in your muscles. Direct it consciously.”

"How?" Ethan gasped, pressing himself flat against the ground as bullets whined overhead.

“Stop thinking. Just do.”

Another shot. This one is different and heavier caliber, coming from a different angle. Aimed at Sera.

Ethan moved without thinking. His hand shot out, grabbed Sera's shoulder, and pulled her aside with such force that they both tumbled ten feet across the courtyard. The bullet struck stone where her head had been a heartbeat earlier, leaving a crater the size of a fist.

Sera stared at him. "How did you"

"I don't know!" Ethan's heart hammered. His muscles burned, with potential. With power begging to be used.

The serpent-tattooed man appeared in the breach, stepping over the bodies of fallen warriors from both sides. His tattoo writhed across his skin, the serpent's eyes glowing with malevolent intelligence.

"Impressive reflexes for someone newly awakened," he called out. "But you're still just a child playing with forces you don't understand."

Lydia landed between them, her feet touching the ground with barely a whisper. Blood stained her dress, though none of it appeared to be hers. "Kael. I should have known Whitmore would send his favorite dog."

Kael smiled, revealing teeth that were too sharp. "Still bitter about the old days, Lydia? You could have joined us. Could have shared in the Master's vision. Instead, you chose weakness."

"I chose humanity." Lydia's hands began to glow. "Something you abandoned long ago."

"Humanity is a cage." Kael's form blurred, and suddenly he was moving, crossing the distance between them faster than Ethan could track. "Let me show you what freedom looks like!"

They collided.

The impact created a shockwave that knocked Ethan and Sera backward. Lydia and Kael became a blur of motion, trading strikes that left afterimages in the air. Each blow contained enough force to shatter stone.

Ethan watched his mother fight, and for the first time understood the vast gulf between what he was and what she had become. She moved like water, like wind, like something that had transcended the normal limits of flesh and bone.

And she was losing.

Kael's corruption gave him an edge, his strikes were unpredictable, his movements twitching between human and something else. The serpent tattoo had spread across his entire body now, scales glinting in the firelight.

"Your son is weak!" Kael taunted, driving Lydia back with a flurry of strikes. "Barely awakened and already hunted. The Hardy bloodline ends tonight!"

"Never!" Lydia's power surged. She caught Kael's next strike and twisted, throwing him across the courtyard. He crashed through a garden wall, disappeared in a cloud of dust.

But more Abyssal Guards were pouring through the breach. At least thirty now, overwhelming the defenders through sheer numbers.

Sera pulled Ethan to his feet. "We have to get you out of here. There's a tunnel beneath the mansion"

"I'm not running!" Ethan yanked his arm free. "Everyone's dying because of me!"

"Everyone's dying to give you a chance to survive! Don't waste it!"

Kael emerged from the rubble, his body wreathed in yellow flames. The corruption was consuming him completely now, transforming him into something monstrous. His spine elongated, bones cracking and reforming into a serpentine shape.

"Enough games," he hissed, his voice layered with inhuman harmonics. "The Master wants the Xore , and I will not fail him!"

He moved.

This time, even Lydia couldn't track his speed. Kael appeared behind her, drove his clawed hand toward her back.

And Ethan moved.

He didn't think. Didn't hesitate. The Xore blazed in his chest, and suddenly he was there, between his mother and the killing blow. His hand caught Kael's wrist.

Time seemed to stop.

Kael stared at him, yellow eyes wide with shock. "Impossible. You couldn't have"

Ethan squeezed.

Bones shattered. Kael screamed, a sound that was more animal than human. He yanked his arm free, staggered back, cradling his crushed wrist.

"You... you broke through the sound barrier," Kael gasped. "Without training. Without control. How?"

“Instinct,” the Echo whispered. “In the moment of crisis, your body remembered what it was meant to be.”

Ethan looked down at his hands, trembling with power he didn't understand. He'd moved faster than thought. Faster than Kael. Fast enough to save his mother.

Lydia turned to him, her expression a mixture of pride and fear. "Ethan, you can't maintain that speed. Your body isn't ready"

The world tilted.

Ethan's vision blurred. Every muscle in his body screamed in agony. He'd pushed too far, too fast, and now his untrained body was paying the price.

He collapsed.

Through fading consciousness, he heard his mother's scream. Felt Sera catch him before he hit the ground. Saw Kael retreating, shouting orders for his forces to fall back.

And then, cutting through everything else, a voice. Cold. Female. Utterly commanding.

"This battle is over."

A column of silver light erupted at the breach, so bright it turned night to day. The Abyssal Guards screamed, their corrupt energy burning away like mist before the sun.

Through the light, a figure walked. Young, perhaps twenty-five, with long black hair and eyes like chips of ice. She wore white robes that seemed to shimmer with their own radiance, and power rolled off her in waves that made even Lydia take a step back.

"The Xore Academy has claimed this one," the newcomer announced. "Any who contest our right may face me. I am Selene Arkwright, Third Seat of the Inner Circle. Who dares stand against Academy law?"

Kael's remaining

forces fled.

Ethan's vision faded to black, but not before he heard his mother's whispered words:

"Thank the heavens. We're saved."