Solflare: The Painter's Secret

The grass in the courtyard pressed flat against the ground. The air around Hayes trembled and warped like summer stone heat.

Stone cracked. Embedded gravel lifted and hovered at his side.

"You die for destroying my left arm years back!" He dashed forward like a shooting star, the ground beneath him burning with lava.

Leon’s dual heart plummeted against his chest. The black cloth tore from his neck, spreading in a wide arc before him.

The mass of hovering stone slammed into the barrier. A concussive blast erupted, wiping the iron lanterns from their posts.

Smoke swirled. Lanterns spun through the air and crashed into the collapsed estate walls.

A wave of heavy dust splashed between them. Stone tiles cracked and flipped upward.

Sparks ignited in the air. Hayes’s cobalt boots skittered through the fractured ground, leaving burning marks on the floor.

Sharp air flew out of Leon’s mouth. He caught himself, placing his right palm on his heaving chest, panting.

A star-like glow appeared in the sky above the Baek estate. The mansion doors opened.

Smoke rolled across the courtyard in a low wave, pushing the curtains of the mansion windows backward.

Boots clicked against stone. Gyeong and several Skywardens moved out, forming an unbreakable shield around every mansion.

Cloth fluttered. Dust drifted upward in slow columns where the tiles had cracked, pulling at the tips of their white robes.

’When did the kid get this strong?’ Gyeong’s eyes widened. He shifted his gaze from the smoking Hayes to the one-legged, kneeling Leon.

Warm blood traced lines across Hayes’s forehead. He raised his right leg and slammed it hard on the ground.

Broken stones jumped upward like balls and froze before him.

The black cloth unraveled from its wall stature and wrapped around Leon’s neck. As Leon lifted his gaze to see the burning stone spinning before Hayes, a faint voice brushed his mind.

’He’s afraid of you, brother.’

Lily’s ghostly smile drifted through Leon’s head, causing the veins around his dual heart to heat up.

His god heart pounded heavily. A faint red glow seeped out, attaching itself to his human heart and pulling it toward the god heart.

Pain rattled through Leon’s vision. His soul seemed to tear away from his body.

A wordless scream tore from his throat. His grip on the hilt of the Hi-no-Kami loosened.

The sword rolled twice, catching the reflections of the smiling Skywardens and Hayes before hitting the ground.

Heat seeped from Leon’s right knee as he collapsed, lowering his head. The veins on his skin burned with a new wave of energy while the red glow vanished into his human heart.

Voices of his mother, father, sister, Liu Yan, An Lang, Wu Ze, Lieutenant Prince, and everyone he had known flashed through his head like a curse without a cure.

Skywardens pointed fingers at the kneeling figure, laughing as he screamed in pain.

They parted. Gyeong swung his robe aside and stretched his hand forward.

With every step he took, a wave of red glow snaked through the ground and seeped into Leon’s body, locking his muscles.

"You came here wanting to wipe everyone out, but here you are kneeling before us like a dog."

He exhaled, satisfied, and stopped by Hayes’s side. "I now know the reason the Cobalt Monarch always entrusted you to the Baek family."

He tapped Hayes’s right shoulder twice, then nodded before shifting his gaze back to the one-legged, kneeling Leon.

’Since you’re on your knees, let’s see how you handle my ten thousand mountain-blasting punches.’

A wide smile tore across Gyeong’s lips when he saw the Hi-no-Kami smoking and losing its energy on the ground like a dead tree.

’Or, why should I even waste such a precious skill on a useless being like the Storm?’ His chest heaved as he brushed his palms against his chest, making the yellow sigil on his right shoulder vanish.

The sleeves of his cloth swiped the burned ground as he crouched and wrapped his fingers around the hilt of the Hi-no-Kami.

Sparks ignited as the blade scraped across the floor, but Gyeong froze when he looked from the sword to Leon’s face.

The sky burned with red lightning as Gyeong straightened and moved forward, dragging the sword across the ground.

’This sword will be mine when I chop your head off with it.’ Gyeong glanced at his flickering reflection in the blade and smiled.

The sword slapped against his shoulder with a metallic click.

Chilled air brushed through Leon’s jet-black hair as he exhaled. The black cloth flapped around his neck as Gyeong’s shadow stretched above him.

Sweat trailed from his forehead to his chin. He cracked his eyes open and saw his own reflection in the raised blade of the Hi-no-Kami, smiling.

An Lang, Wu Ze, and Liu Yan’s faces flashed in Leon’s head when he saw the sword swung toward his head.

"We are with you, Leon Storm."

Just as the blade reached the skin of Leon’s neck, it froze. A massive wave of lightning tore through the sky, blasting both Leon and Gyeong into dust.

Hayes jumped backward, but the current of the wave slammed into the Skywardens, killing five in a row.

Twitching arcs and blinding black lightning filled the courtyard as the smoking dust began to coil together.

Warm blood dripped from Hayes’s eyes and nose as he slammed his palms on the ground and pushed himself up.

His mouth opened wide as he saw Leon’s body materializing in the black smoke in a flickering, digital texture.

His legs formed with tiny movements of smoke that dwelled upward like countless insects. As his head materialized, the shattered blades of the Hi-no-Kami and its broken hilt leaped from the ground, circling him.

The war disc that had melted due to the blast solidified and pulled toward Leon’s left hand.

"Go call Jade, the Overlord of the Shards, now!" Hayes screamed at the remaining Skywardens, keeping his splattered chest intact with his left palm.

Before he could turn back to the newly formed Leon, the five Skywardens blasted into pieces with a single click. Light lanced through them and shattered them in a nanosecond.

’What have I unleashed?’ Hayes’s knees buckled when he turned and saw Leon standing before him with sharp, blazing black and red eyes.