Leonidas woke to the taste of pain, the warmth of the arm sunlight.
The system notification blinked in the corner of his vision, patient as death: [PENDING: Accept Underworld Inheritance? YES/NO]
Leo tried to stand up. Pain shot through his body like lightning. Every single bit of his muscle felt like a hot metal iron was pressed against it.
He tried to stand up, ignoring the system's imminent message. Although he had seen it, the pain that was in his body made anything else a blur.
Karna hit like a collapsing star. Or maybe that was me hitting the ground.
He focused and examined his trembling hand. He saw his left hand flickering with black-red flame, right hand pulsing with golden light.
They splashed against each other, recoiled like oil and water.
Shit, damn it, why am I so weak? First, I was fighting with nuclear-level strength, and now I'm struggling to walk. Fuck this.
Lie down, examining his hand.
He tried to turn it off, yet it failed almost instantly.
Leonidas felt something about to flow down below.
Shit, I need to pee really bad, Leonidas thought in his mind.
He stood up and began to walk. On the first step, pain shot through his body.
On the second step, his Rift energy flared uncontrollably like a raging storm.
On the third step, flames and solar light covered both sides of the room as he almost screamed in pain.
Leonidas collapsed back onto the bed, laughing bitterly.
I survived a dragon. I fought Karna. And I can't even walk to take a piss.
He rested against the bed when suddenly the system rang with a weird sense of impatience. It was a reminder notification.
The text throbbed in rhythm with his heartbeat.
"No, no. Not yet," he whispered to the empty room. "I need to understand what I'm choosing."
Leonidas said this, ignoring the system.
The system disappeared like a warning ghost.
He remembered Grandpa's words—"Live your life the way you want."
He worked himself to death trying to live. Now he's choosing how to live again.
I will train to understand my strange powers before the Underworld claims me.
He forced himself to stand, pain shooting through his body, yet he didn't give up.
If he were to burn, he would do it on his feet. Both powers surged with fury before stopping.
Leonidas, through sheer determination, stopped the pain. He quickly covered both arms with cloths, trying to hide them from others.
He breathed heavily.
He left his room, seeing Arjuna.
Arjuna invited him to the Palace training hall.
Leonidas agreed. He followed Arjuna's directions, heading to the Palace training hall.
It was a private garden with stone dummies and meditation circles.
Morning mist clung to the ground.
He tried basic kata to gauge his newfound strength.
He tried it the first time—no magic, no Rift energy, just pure skill. The strikes were smooth, clean, and focused.
He tried again, trying to use his flames of annihilation, but the left flame surged, nearly making him drop the practice sword.
Leonidas tried to use Karna's powers. His right hand pulsed with solar energy. The wooden sword caught on fire almost instantly.
He slammed the burning sword into the ground in pure frustration, screaming, "Why is this happening to me? Damn it!"
"Destroying palace property before the honeymoon. Bold strategy." A beautiful female voice resounded behind him. Leonidas turned his head back only to see Bharati.
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She was tall, dark-skinned like polished mahogany, with sharp eyes that missed nothing, wearing training clothes, not a dress.
She moved like a dancer, but her hands were calloused. A fighter.
She was amused, not mocking. Curious, not dismissive.
"I heard my dear future fiancé was burning the Royal training hall," Bharati said, a hint of teasing in her voice.
"Well, you should know I was training. Actually, the burning was a bit of an accident."
Bharati moved forward, closer to Leonidas, making his heart skip a beat before he stepped back a bit.
"Then show me," Bharati said mischievously, picking up a wooden sword.
"I would not like to burn my future fiancé."
Bharati ignored Leonidas's words, rushing in.
What happened was not a spar but instead an absolute humiliation.
Leo attacked, tried to hold back and kept his ep powers contained.
Bharati dodged effortlessly, reading him like a book.
She countered him and disarmed him in three moves.
"You're fighting yourself more than me. That's why you'll lose," Bharati said, a hint of concern appearing on her face.
She sat, gestured for him to join.
"You have three powers inside you, don't you? I can see it. The way your Rift energy fluctuates," Bharati said.
"How did you—" Leo said, flustered.
"I'm not just a pretty princess for alliance building, Leonidas. My talent is reading Rift signatures. And yours is... chaotic. Beautiful, but chaotic," Bharati said as she smiled a little.
"You're trying to control them like they're tools. They're not. They're parts of you now," Bharati said.
"What do you mean?"
"Your black flames feel like... hunger. Consumption. They want to devour."
"The golden light feels... proud. Divine. It wants to purify," Bharati said, lecturing him.
"And the third one—" She paused, frowning. "The third one is watching me right now. What is that?"
She stood, offering her hand.
"Train with me. Every morning until the wedding. I'll teach you control. You teach me about those flames."
"Why help me?" Leo said while taking her hand.
"Because if you're going to be my husband, I'd prefer you don't accidentally incinerate our kingdom," Bharati said, a sharp smile appearing on her face.
"But what about the tournament?" Leonidas asked, confused.
"Oh, that, we just did it as a way to get money, though we did pay the winner some cash to hush up," Bharati said, a wide grin on her face.
She left him there, in the garden of stone dummies. For the first time since dying, Leonidas felt like someone saw him. Not the prince. Not the power. Just him.
Leo sat down in a meditation circle—cross-legged, hands on knees. Stop fighting. Start listening.
He closed his eyes.
He reached into the depths of his soul. He saw himself in a vast expanse. A glowing sun hung above the expanse, which symbolised the Rift core.
Leonidas saw three powers whirling and clashing like violent waves.
One was his original talent: a black-and-red flame that seemed to want to consume.
The second was Karna's talent: a bright sun similar to his Rift core.
Leonidas felt his essence say, ILLUMINATE. PURIFY. ASCEND.
The third talent—?????—wasn't there. It was more like a void.
Leonidas remembered Bharati's words and suddenly realised something.
The talents were not trying to consume each other.
Instead, they wanted to claim territory in his soul, and Leonidas would do just that.
Leonidas envisioned walls that separated each power from the other.
For the black-red annihilation flames, he shaped it from his memories of loss, of working himself to death, of burning.
For Karna's solar light, he shaped it from memories of his fight, of respect, of the sun setting on his grandfather's funeral.
For the shadow, he shaped it from... nothing. Because he didn't understand it yet. Just left it empty, waiting.
In the real world, he opened his eyes.
In his left hand, a black-red flame appeared, steady and controlled.
His right hand glowed with golden light, calm and powerful.
They didn't fight.
Leonidas stood up, punching with his right arm. Golden light shot out.
He conjured a flaming sword. It glowed with precision.
Suddenly, he felt shadows, dangerous shadows.
He felt it. intcentrumber.
It wasn't just watching anymore.
It was waking. Pain, sudden and sharp, shot through his chest like a bullet.
He collapsed.
[WARNING: Soul Strain Critical - 91%]
[Third power attempting manifestation]
[Recommendation: Accept Underworld Inheritance NOW]
[Time remaining: 6 hours]
[Failure to comply will result in soul fragmentation]
The system screamed like a blaring alarm.
Some Palace servants found him lying on the floor and quickly brought him to his room.
Leo lay on his bed. The pain had subsided, but the warning remained.
He stared at the system screen.
He thought about his grandfather.
His grandfather was living with cancer.
His grandpa's advice: "Live your life the way you want and never give up."
Leonid realised something in a new, burning determination in his eyes. Grandpa never gave up, even when dying. Leo can't either.
He thought about his death.
He worked himself to death.
He ran from grief by drowning in work.
He was given a second chance.
I'm not running anymore. I'm choosing my own path.
Leo sat up.
He looked at his hands—left black, right gold.
Three flames. Three parts of me. The one who lost everything. The one who took power. And the one who...
He didn't finish the thought.
"I accept," he said quietly.
[ACCEPTANCE CONFIRMED]
[INITIATING: UNDERWORLD INHERITANCE]
[BLOODLINE: FIFTH PRINCE OF ASH AWAKENING]
Pain. Not sharp. Deep.
Like his bones were being rewritten.
His shadow on the wall began to move on its own.
It rose. Separating from him. Before standing.
He watched, horrified, as his shadow bowed to him.
Then it sank back into place.
His left eye burned.
When he looked in the mirror, His left eye had changed. The iris was black with red cracks, like cooling lava.
His shadow: It was darker now. Too dark. Unnatural.
In the centre chamber of his soul, the third flame ignited. It wasn't fire. It was an absence. The flame that consumes light itself.
[INHERITANCE COMPLETE]
[TALENTS ACQUIRED:]
[FLAMES OF ANNIHILATION] (Original)
[SOLARIS: THE PURGING SUN] (Stolen from Karna)
[ABYSSAL SOVEREIGNTY] (Underworld Birthright)
[NEW ABILITIES UNLOCKED]
[WARNING: UNDERWORLD ATTENTION GAINED]
[WARNING: YOUR EXISTENCE HAS BEEN NOTED BY HIGHER POWERS]
Suddenly, a servant called him, urgency in their voice. "Prince, Arjuna requests you immediately. A Rift has turned black."
Somewhere deep beneath the earth, in a throne room carved from obsidian, a figure opened eyes that had not seen light in centuries.
"The Fifth Prince awakens," the figure said to the darkness.
"War," something answered from the shadows, "comes with him."
The figure smiled. It was not a kind expression.
"Good."
