The air around Kaito didn't just get hot; it began to vibrate. The golden-armored High Lord in the valley below felt like a distant memory as Kaito’s presence expanded, filling the ridge with a heavy, ancient pressure.

  "Look into my eyes, Raizen," Kaito commanded. His voice wasn't his own anymore. It was layered, echoing with the sound of a thousand burning suns. "Zero isn't the only one who can show you the past."

  I leaned in, and the world of the Dead Zone dissolved. The green forest and the stone fortress vanished, replaced by a sky that was a terrifying, crystalline violet.

  The Flashback: 10 Years Ago

  I was standing on a floating platform of white marble. Beside me stood a man who looked like Kaito, but he was taller, clad in armor made of living flames. This was Kaito’s original form—a High Commander of Zero’s home planet.

  Across from us stood Zero. He wasn't a voice in a head then. He was a being of pure, blinding light. But he looked exhausted. His aura was flickering, drained from the massive effort of the "Global Soul-Gathering."

  "It is done, Kaito," Zero’s voice boomed across the marble plaza. "I have gathered every human soul into the Nexus. Now, the Seven Kings will help me wash away the stains of their hate. We will give them peace."

  "I don't trust them, Zero," the armored Kaito said, his hand on a blade of fire. "The Kings speak of peace, but they smell of ambition."

  "They are all we have left," Zero sighed.

  Then, the sky cracked. Seven figures descended. They weren't gods; they were predators. The King of Minds stepped forward, his eyes glowing with a jagged, silver light.

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  "Zero," the King of Minds smiled. "You have done the hard work. You gathered the souls. Now... let us finish the 'Reset.'"

  Instead of a gentle washing of memory, the King of Minds raised a blade made of pure Zoryn-interference. With one brutal motion, he didn't wash the souls—he sliced them. He cut away the memories, the history, and the very identity of billions of humans in a single second.

  Zero let out a scream that shook the stars. He tried to stop the slice, but he had used too much energy gathering the souls. He was empty.

  "Betrayal!" Kaito roared, his flames erupting. He charged the Kings, but they were ready. The King of Hearts flicked a finger, and Kaito’s fire turned cold, suppressed by an overwhelming wave of emotional dampening.

  "You are obsolete," the King of Minds sneered.

  Zero, dying and desperate, looked at Kaito. "Forgive me, old friend. I cannot save our world... but I can hide you."

  Zero’s hands moved in a blur of Soul Manipulation. I watched in horror as he reached into Kaito’s massive, fiery soul and began to crush it. He reshaped it, shrinking it, folding it until it fit the dimensions of a human.

  At the same moment, on the Earth below, a nineteen-year-old boy had just died in a car accident. Zero swapped the souls in a heartbeat. Kaito’s ancient essence was shoved into a cold, human shell. A fake body was left behind on the marble plaza to trick the Kings into thinking Kaito was dead.

  "Live, Kaito," Zero whispered as he began his own transformation into a soul-parasite to find a vessel of his own. "Wait for the boy with the Golden Zoryn. Wait for Raizen."

  Present Day: The Dead Zone

  The violet sky shattered. I was back on the ridge, gasping for air. Kaito was standing there, his hand still on his lighter.

  "I wasn't born in Sector 4," Kaito said, his eyes returning to their normal brown, though a spark of that ancient fire remained deep inside. "I’m an alien in a dead man’s skin. And I’ve been waiting ten years for you to wake up so we can kill the men who lied to Zero."

  Shouta and Yuna stood frozen, their mouths open.

  "Now you know," Kaito said, looking at his human hands. "Earthlings have more raw Zoryn than my people ever did. That's why they want you drugged. Because if a human with your potential ever learns what I know... the Seven Kings are nothing but ash."

  To be continued…