Hidden Cave

Alex's feet pounded against the forest floor, each step sending tremors through his aching body. His breaths came fast and shallow, the residue of Limit Break still coursing through him like a double-edged blade, pushing him forward while threatening to tear him apart from the inside.

The golden lightning that once wrapped around him had dimmed, now barely a flicker, yet it clung to him like a stubborn ember, keeping his movements sharp and his senses heightened.

Behind him, the air seemed to groan under the weight of a colossal power. The castle, a distant silhouette against the night sky, erupted with bursts of blinding light and deafening thunder.

The clash of elemental forces raged on, shaking the ground and splitting the heavens. Fiery explosions illuminated the horizon, each detonation accompanied by shockwaves that rippled through the trees, their ancient trunks creaking and splintering under the strain.

Alex's heart clenched as he ran, every fiber of his being urging him to turn back. He could almost feel the battle's turmoil as if it were etched into the air itself.

The cries of warriors and the roars of unleashed power were faint but undeniable, carried to him in the wind.

A jagged lance of lightning tore through the sky behind him, illuminating the scene for a brief moment. Its brilliance cast long, flickering shadows through the forest as if the very trees were recoiling from the violence consuming the estate.

He clenched his fists, his nails biting into his palms. Each step forward felt like a betrayal, a retreat while his family faced their doom. But his mother's voice echoed in his mind, steady and unwavering: "Run. You cannot fall here. Go to the coordinates."

The memory of her voice steadied his resolve, yet his chest tightened with guilt. He could still see the image of his father facing the clan heads, his sister lying motionless, and his brother's lifeless form, the blood pooling beneath them.

Another massive detonation rocked the air, forcing Alex to brace himself mid-run. The ground beneath him cracked as a shockwave rolled through the forest, snapping branches and scattering debris. He stumbled, catching himself against a tree trunk.

A single thought burned in his mind: That battle… it's tearing the world apart.

The wind shifted, carrying with it the acrid stench of smoke and burning wood. Flames licked the distant treetops as the destruction crept closer to the forest.

Even from this distance, Alex could feel the sheer magnitude of the power being unleashed, the clash between titans rewriting the landscape with every blow.

Yet, he pushed on, forcing his legs to keep moving. The coordinates burned in his mind like a brand, his mother's last hope anchoring him to his path. But with every step, the weight of the estate's battle seemed to grow heavier, the echoes of destruction refusing to let him go.

"I'm not strong enough…" The thought slipped into his mind unbidden, bitter, raw, and new. But he swallowed it down, his jaw tightening as he pressed forward.

The night seemed endless, and the turmoil behind him relentless, but Alex knew one thing for certain: if he stopped, even for a moment, everything would be lost.

….

The forest was unrecognizable, transformed into a graveyard of shattered trees and scorched earth. The reinforcements halted as they reached the battlefield, their disciplined formation faltering as they took in the devastation.

"By the gods…" one of them muttered, his voice barely audible.

The scale of destruction was beyond comprehension. Trees had been reduced to splinters, their remnants scattered across the battlefield like discarded twigs.

The ground bore deep, jagged scars, some still glowing faintly with residual heat. Sparks of golden lightning lingered in the air, crackling ominously. The pungent tang of ozone mixed with the charred scent of destruction, suffocating and heavy.

At the center of it all lay their captain. The master pseudo-rank warrior, a man revered for his near-unmatched strength, was now a lifeless figure, his once-imposing form sprawled amid the ruins.

His armor, designed to withstand even the fiercest attacks, was cracked and burned, its protective sheen dulled. His sword, lay shattered beside him.

The soldiers exchanged uneasy glances, their disbelief mirrored in their wide eyes.

"This can't be…" one of them finally said, his voice shaking. "Captain Arden… defeated? Impossible."

"It wasn't just defeat," another added, crouching near a deep slash in the earth. "This… this was a complete defeat ."

"But who could have done this?" someone asked the question hanging heavily in the air.

"Who do you think?" came the grim reply. "We were tracking the boy, Alex."

That name hung in the air like a thunderclap.

"Alex?" one of the elites scoffed, his voice tinged with derision. "You mean the kid? He's what… Advance rank? Maybe Expert- at best? You're saying he did this? To Captain Arden?"

"Look around you," the sharp-eyed elite snapped, gesturing to the destruction. "You think anyone else could have done this and slipped past us unnoticed? The captain came here to intercept Alex, and now the captain is dead. What does that tell you?"

"But…" the soldier trailed off, his gaze shifting to the broken glaive. "But Arden was one step away from Grandmaster rank. That's practically a demigod. A kid couldn't—"

"Couldn't, or shouldn't?" the sharp-eyed elite interrupted. His tone was cutting, but the doubt in his eyes betrayed his struggle to accept the reality before him.

"It doesn't make sense," another soldier said, shaking his head. "Even if he's strong for his rank, there's no way someone like that kid could…" He gestured helplessly to the lifeless body of their captain. "This kind of power—this kind of destruction—it's not normal."

"Exactly," someone else muttered.

A tense silence fell over the group, the weight of the suggestion pressing down on them.

"No," the vice leader of the reinforcements finally said, his voice firm but strained. "It's possible. Whatever happened here, was that boy. He wasn't a normal kid before. We are looking at a Higher god bloodline holder here and one of the strongest at that."

"But sir that like jumping two whole ranks…"

"Enough!" the leader snapped, silencing the murmurs. "We will not entertain these absurd notions. Focus on the mission. Spread out and find him, our priority is killing Alex."

As the soldiers fanned out to search, doubt lingered in their minds. They tried to deny the truth, to rationalize what they saw, but deep down, they all felt it—the nagging certainty that Alex had done the impossible.

….

Alex slowed to a halt as he reached the coordinates his mother had imprinted in his mind. His chest heaved with labored breaths, and his body still trembled from the immense strain of his earlier battles.

The sky above was an ominous gray, and the boundary between the Thunder Clan's domain and the sprawling territory of the Seven-Tail Fox beasts stretched out before him in stark desolation.

The land was barren and lifeless as if the very earth had been drained of vitality. Jagged rocks jutted out like broken teeth, and the occasional skeletal remains of trees stood as silent witnesses to the unforgiving environment. A biting wind swept across the plain, carrying with it the faint scent of sulfur and ash.

"This can't be right…" Alex muttered, scanning the area. It didn't make sense. Why here, of all places?

Then he saw it.

At first glance, it was just another outcropping of rock, indistinguishable from the countless others dotting the landscape. But as Alex approached, his heightened perception picked up the faintest signs of disturbance—a subtle shift in the texture of the ground, a faint groove in the rock that seemed out of place.

He knelt, running his hand over the rough surface. It was warm to the touch, unnaturally so. Following his instincts, Alex pressed his palm against the rock and channeled a faint current of his mana into it.

With a low rumble, the rock shifted, revealing a narrow entrance to a cave that had been expertly concealed. The opening was barely large enough for a person to squeeze through, and it was positioned at an angle that made it invisible from most vantage points. Even with his sharp senses, Alex knew he would have missed it entirely without the exact coordinates.

Cautiously, he stepped inside. 

The air grew cooler as he descended, the narrow passageway sloping downward into the earth. Darkness enveloped him, but the faint crackle of his lightning cast a soft, golden glow, illuminating the jagged walls of the tunnel. The space was tight, the air heavy with the scent of damp stone and earth.

After what felt like an eternity, the passage opened into a larger cavern. The walls here were smoother, clearly worked by human—or perhaps inhuman—hands. Faint symbols were etched into the stone, their meanings lost to time, but Alex could feel the ancient and unyielding power that lingered in them.

In the center of the cavern stood a wooden door reinforced with steel bands. Although it had no insignia or identifying marks, he felt an unusual sense of familiarity as he approached it. 

"This is it," he murmured, touching the door.

The moment he made contact, the cross-shaped earring his mother had given him pulsed with a faint warmth. A quiet click echoed through the cavern as the door unlocked and creaked open.

Then he took his first step, knowing full well that what was beyond those doors could change him for the better or for the worse.