Solflare: The Painter's Secret

Smoke drifted in the air and mixed with the dawn clouds that stretched over the Qing clan’s compound.

Wet thuds rippled through the garden as the trees and vegetation that had been planted for countless years in the Qing grounds caught fire.

All the cattle, the horses, the donkeys, the rabbits, and any other breeding animal the Qing had slammed their gates open and stampeded onto the streets and into the bushes, screaming.

Blood trailed thin lines across the burnt ground and seeped into the rootlike cracks. Sharp coughs rasped as Hu Qing lay in his own pool of blood, with his left hand pressed on his chest, bleeding enormously.

The moment a cloth-flapping sound rippled above him, Hu Qing tried to raise his death sword, but ended up getting his fingers chopped off by a sharp, black, blazing blade.

"AHHH! FUCK!"

The blades of his death sword screeched against his Eclipse Overlord war suit before finally falling flat beside him like his own soul.

He pressed his left palm against his shattered ribs to stop the flow of blood, but it did not work.

Heat plummeted on him and melted parts of his indestructible Eclipse suit as Leon lunged forward and hovered above him like death itself.

Dirt was displaced as the base of Leon’s boots touched the ground. The flaming black halo cloth behind Leon dimmed and lowered itself around his neck after he exhaled once.

"Leon Storm." Hu Qing screamed heavily and rolled himself and began crawling away. "You won’t get away freely when you kill me."

He pushed himself forward using his shoulders, but his twisted leg caused him to pause with every two pushes forward.

"Who said I will run away?" Black fury flared out of Leon’s eyes as he squinted at the direction Hu Qing was heading.

Two feet away from Hu Qing was a red button that remained intact even after the wall it was tucked on had completely turned to ash.

Just as Hu Qing reached it, he pushed himself on his butt and began laughing cunningly. "There is a difference between Andrew Storm and you."

Blood gushed out of his eyes and nose after he coughed heavily. "Andrew was a man I hated for so many years, but never got the chance to finish him off with my own hands, since the Seol-Mujin official did that for me."

Hu Qing’s Eclipse Overlord war suit began to dissipate from him as the first morning light appeared in the sky from a distance and began chasing the dark clouds from the sky.

"I would want to see how you will stand against Zoe, if you kill me like you want." He shifted his gaze from Leon and focused on the sky, with a wide smile on his face.

Zoe’s face and all the stages of her transformation reeled in Hu Qing’s mind like a movie he can not delete. ’Zoe, take your Overlord form and do me the honor as my right-hand daughter.’

Following the last image of Zoe with a blazing Soul-bloom flashing out of Hu Qing’s mind, he gritted his teeth.

His eyes blazed with the last remains of his depreciated Eclipse power as he shifted a sharp gaze toward Leon. "Do it and let the world know the real you!"

A few distances away from Leon, the death sword that had been lying still hummed on the ground and whistled forward like a shooting star.

Just as the tip of the blade flashed in Hu Qing’s eyes, a wide smile tore on his angry face. ’Look after my family, Uncle Eleazar.’

He clenched his right fist into a ball and slammed it, pushing the red button inward.

A sharp, loud sound resonated from the deepest part of the ground and streaked into the sky like a jet, followed by a yellow glow.

The moment the glow vanished from the last dark cloud, birds scattered into the sky as the blue morning light overshadowed the dark.

A gust of wind blew all the trees at the front of the Qing clan as Leon walked out without a scratch.

A warm wind flashed on Leon’s face and caused his dark, glowing eyes to blink rapidly. His blackened war suit began to transform into gray as the rays of the morning sun fell on him.

Leaves tugged on his boots after the last piece of the blackened suit transformed completely, together with the Hi-no-Kami that had its blades dripping with warm blood.

The blackened war disc lunged toward him and began transforming as it reached Leon’s side. It slowly tugged itself on Leon’s back and hummed once.

Stone-grinding sounds rumbled as Leon set off from the Qing clan and began walking on the street on foot.

Leaves drifted at his sides like ghosts that had been set free until he vanished into the dark section of the street, which had not been touched by the sun from the day it got constructed.

...

Brown leaves drifted through the Qing compound as a gust of wind flew them upward.

They rolled, danced, and slowly landed on Hu Qing’s side like a curse.

Sharp air plummeted out of Hu Qing’s mouth every time a bloodied cough escaped him.

Saliva dripped down from his mouth as his head remained lowered like a defeated king.

The hilt of his death sword hummed and let out a burnt scent as the sweat on it dried up as the rays of the morning sun flashed on it.

Hu Qing’s face reflected in the smooth surface of the blade as the sun’s rays flashed on his face and moved to the sparkling reflection in the sword.

With every heartbeat, one of his life essences died. Pain rattled through his bones while the sharp death sword’s blade remained pierced in his left shoulder, right through his heart.

The moment he raised his head to fix his gaze at the glowing golden sun and pointed his hand toward it, the final beat of his heart pounded.

He remained static for a brief second before his body transformed into black ash and flew toward the blue sky, dancing.