I am the Only Son of Nyx

"What...?"

Kai stared in stunned silence, completely blindsided by what Layra said.

He knew now that she led a new group, one that she had recently founded after losing trust in her friends. But that didn’t change the odds. The students he had fought that night had been really strong.

Even if he fought that student with Perion, it still wouldn’t guarantee that he’d win.

It was hard to imagine someone like that losing.

Not because Layra was weak, but because he was simply too strong.

At least in his current state that night, the student was too strong.

Naturally, he thought she was only playing around.

"Fine," Kai waved his hand dismissively. "If you don’t want to tell me, then don’t. Go on, I’m in a hurry to meet with Dean Lanchester. I have somewh—"

His words got stuck in his throat when Layra took out a mask from the inside of her uniform. It was an emerald mask shaped like a hawk—and it glistened with high-quality material easily rivalling the red dragon mask he was wearing right now.

Layra switched her normal mask with the hawk mask before looking at Kai again.

"Seems like the fame and freedom got to you, Red Prince Kai..." Layra whispered—and there was a cold edge in her voice now. One that seeped into Kai’s heart. "Are you looking down at me? Do you have no confidence in me to win?"

Once Kai heard her cold voice, he realized that he had made a mistake.

She was being serious.

To his absolute surprise—she actually won the Sky Warrior Tournament and attained the title, Emerald Princess. "R-Really?" Kai smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "I’m sorry. This really caught me off guard. But I didn’t look down at you; I swear it’s not like that."

"Deborah," Layra called—turning her head slightly to the woman right beside her. "What do you think? Did he look down at me earlier?"

"I’m pretty sure he did," Deborah replied.

"Joana," Layra turned to the woman with colorful hair. "What do you think?"

"He’s looking down on you for sure, for sure. He’s a cheeky guy." She answered.

Every single time Layra called one of her new friends to ask about whether he looked down on her earlier, Kai could feel his heart shrinking. It was true that he was too quick in completely disregarding the possibility that she could’ve won, but that’s because he was surprised.

Not expecting to receive the news at all.

And finally, Layra turned to the well-built woman with piercing yellow eyes.

"What about you, Vafnia?" She asked.

"Just look at him sweating," Vafnia sneered. "He knew he was wrong."

"All of my friends agreed with me," Layra fixed her gaze at Kai again. "Are you still going to deny it? Are you really that shameless now to lie to my face? The ’Kai’ that I remember would never lie and make excuses."

"Okay, maybe I did." Kai raised his hands in surrender. "I’ll admit that."

"Good... I’m going to shoot you now, straight at your face."

"Go ahead, you can sho—Wait a second, shoot? What do you mean sh—?!"

Before he could even finish his question—a bow of sunlight materialized in Layra’s hand with its string already pulled back to its stretching limit. She stood in a perfect archer’s stance, back arched, shoulders squared, and eyes locked on Kai with the cold precision of a hunter.

And without wasting another second, she released the string.

Swoosh—!

The arrow spun the moment it was released, heightening its penetration power.

It came faster, drilling through air resistance like it was nothing.

Something that she had never used before.

Kai only had a second. No time to draw his scimitar. He threw his hands up and clapped them together in a desperate, last-moment catch. The spinning arrow slammed into his palms—but its length ground against his skin with vicious, tearing force.

His hands closed around it tighter, stopping it dead.

But the impact split his palm, and a single droplet of blood welled up on each palm.

It was bright against his skin.

"Layra, are you serious?!" Kai snapped the arrow with a squeeze—dissolving it into sunlight. "You aimed for my head! That could’ve killed me."

"If it were that easy to kill you, then you wouldn’t be able to survive until now." Layra sneered behind her mask and drew her bow again. "Besides, I already warned you beforehand. It did not come out of nowhere."

Kai barely had time to register what she said before the three students leaped away.

They cleared the field out of anticipation.

And as expected, the next arrow that Layra was creating hummed with power. It carried much more mana than the first one. It seemed she had no intention of stopping. Not after how Kai acted towards her.

Kai wanted her to stop, but he could tell that she wasn’t going to.

He clicked his tongue and drew his scimitar—its sharp edge made a ring as it was drawn.

Layra’s eyes narrowed as she loosed the next arrow. Unlike the first one, this arrow split mid-flight, becoming five. One went left. One went right. One came straight. And two arched over his head, curving in wide loops before turning back toward him.

All five spun as they closed, a converging spiral of death from every direction.

Kai stomped his foot.

Five black stars bloomed across the ground around him, encircling him like a dark formation.

From each one, thick needles of pure darkness erupted, shooting upward at equal or perhaps even greater speed than the arrows. They met the arrows mid-flight—five impacts, five precise shatters—and the arrows burst into motes of fading light.

And then the black stars faded again.

On the side, the three students gasped at how easily Kai blocked Layra’s attack.

Many would struggle against it, as the arrows not only split, but could also bounce and follow the target. But those things didn’t matter to Kai. It seemed he was aware of her abilities—and knew exactly what to do to counter them.

"Summoning those black things in a fraction of a second? Even an Aspirant Supernal wouldn’t be able to do that. It’s too fast."

"No, he already summoned them the moment Layra drew her bow. His body reacted without needing to be told. Instinct. I could see why Layra spoke about him highly."

"Lesser Angel or not, he’s a Red Prince, alright."

"Don’t say that. Layra would be angry if you call him Lesser Angel."

"Right... Sorry, sorry."

Kai didn’t listen to them at all; his gaze was locked onto Layra.

"Stop this, I’ll apologize pro—" He paused, noticing something else inside Layra’s eyes. This wasn’t about how he looked down on her. This was something else. Or at least that’s what he read from her eyes. "It’s not about me... Why are you doing this?"

"Yes, it’s not." She answered calmly. "I want to see how strong you really are."

It started with the Blood Rite.

Layra had always been weaker than Kai. He was stronger mentally—and also physically. Ever since the Blood Rite, she had gone through her fair share of trouble. She never stopped trying to grow stronger.

Now, those efforts had borne fruit as she had won the Sky Warrior Tournament.

She was now the Emerald Princess.

And now, she wanted to see how she would fare against Kai.

Layra knew Kai had endured something similar to her—perhaps worse, given he was a Lesser Angel. It was all proven by how she’d witnessed Kai defeating multiple students at once, then kept fighting against more than a dozen without pause that night.

But still, she has the blood of Apollo inside her veins. The blood of an Olympian God.

That should be reason enough to close the gap between them.

"Show me the power that won you the Red Prince title." She drew again—the bow of sunlight pulsed more violently. Golden mana coursed through its entire length, and then formed one solid, golden arrow with a spherical glowing tip. A new Legacy Imprint. "Sun-kissed Arrow."

Kai’s eyes narrowed.

He wasn’t planning to fight Layra at all by coming here—but seeing the willpower behind her bright amber eyes, there was no chance that he could refuse her request. "Just once. Shoot me with everything you got."

Almost instantly, Layra put everything into her arrow.

Golden mana seeped out of her body and streamed into the humming arrow.

For a Supernal of Apollo, the amount of mana that she exerted was absurdly high.

And it also made Kai realize one thing.

She had already reached the Aspirant Supernal rank, too.

Kai’s lips curled into a faint smile at the realization. And since Layra wanted to see how strong she was compared to him, it would be rude for him not to go all out. If she wanted to see his power, then he would show it.

Darkness devoured his eyes, turning them into black marbles.

He then stopped suppressing his mana.

He allowed his main Primordial Lock to crack open—and the mana that had been coiled and contained within him erupted like a flood of shadow. Dark energy surged through his body—seething from every pore until it wrapped around him like a second skin.

Swoosh—!

"What... what’s this?" Deborah’s face was drained of color as she stared at Kai. Her eyes were wide with shock. "The air—it’s trembling." She looked at the dark mana coiling around his strong frame and felt its pressure settle onto her shoulders like a physical weight.

"He’s an Aspirant Supernal, too," Joana squeaked—her voice cracked as she dropped to one knee, unable to stand against the crushing force of his aura. "But the amount of mana he has... this is beyond two hundred points. It might be three hundred!"

"Three... Three hundred?" Vafnia whispered in horror as she tried to remain standing.

Kai let his dark mana run free, and the ground beneath his boots cracked.

Across from him, Layra’s breath was caught in her throat.

"So much power..." She muttered as her arms began to waver and her legs began to tremble. It was hard to keep her posture steady—in front of such an enormous amount of mana. Even the light of her bow and arrow wavered. "There’s still so much gap between our strength..."

Before this, she could feel that she was still weaker than Kai.

Something about him made her feel like that.

Even if that was the case, the gap shouldn’t be too wide.

But this moment proved that, after everything, she was still far weaker than Kai.

"What’s wrong?" Kai raised his dark-glazed hand and gestured for her to attack. "Attack me."

Layra bit her lower lip, raised her aim, and tried to steady herself despite the pressure.

And with great effort, she unleashed her arrow.

Boom—!