CHAPTER 347: ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Author’s Note: Do Not Unlock Yet. Chapter Is Still Under Construction.

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Rhozan exhaled. "We found him. The one who arrived through the doors. The one the prophecy speaks of."

Akaruun finally rose with staff in hand, turning toward him with eyes like old embers.

"And how are you so certain, Rhozan?" His voice carried none of the awe Rhozan hoped to hear. Only fatigue and doubt. "How can you be so sure he is the Iruhun? The savior who will protect our people?"

Rhozan squared his shoulders. "Because the signs align. He passed through the eternal temple... passed through the challenges and arrived here. All the signs..."

"—The last one passed too." Akaruun’s voice hardened, cutting him off. "And he accomplished nothing. He died accomplishing nothing. His coming changed nothing. The prophecy spoke of salvation..." His eyes narrowed as he stepped closer. "And what deliverance did he bring? What miracle?" The priest’s staff tapped the floor coldly. "Nothing."

Rhozan clenched his jaw, but he remained firm.

"This time is different."

Akaruun scoffed. "Hope makes fools of us all."

"You’re wrong." Rhozan leaned in, lowering his voice. "Do you know how powerful one must be to hide their mana signature to such a degree? I cannot sense even a speck from him—not a flicker. That is not normal. That is mastery. That is someone beyond us."

Akaruun went quiet.

The smoke from the altar curled behind him, forming a wavering silhouette of an ancient Kahr’uun spirit, as if eavesdropping.

The priest studied Rhozan’s face, searching for hesitation. There was none.

"You will cling to every sliver of hope," Akaruun finally said, "even if it turns into ash in your hands. Even if it destroys us again."

"And you," Rhozan shot back, "hold on to no hope at all—despite being the priest of our people."

Akaruun gave a bitter laugh. "I hold on to reality more tightly than dreams. Reality says our doom was written by our own hands. We fractured the world. We awakened what should have been left asleep. And we are paying the price."

Rhozan stepped past him, eyes on the altar.

"That does not mean our people must perish," he answered. "Everything we did was for survival."

"Survival?" Akaruun repeated. "Or fear?"

Rhozan stiffened.

The priest walked around him, robes whispering across the stone. "Does the stranger know?" he asked quietly. "Did you tell him everything? About what we did? About the sin that birthed this prophecy?"

Rhozan didn’t flinch. "He doesn’t need to know everything."

Akaruun inhaled sharply, disappointed—but unsurprised.

"So you hide the truth," he murmured. "Just as our ancestors did."

Rhozan turned to leave.

"Hope," he said without looking back, "is all we have left."

"And lies," Akaruun replied softly, "always walk hand-in-hand with hope."

---

Morning in the Chamber of Clouds

Warm sunlight filtered into the room through the translucent stone panels as Victor’s eyelids fluttered open. The bed cradled him like a mother’s embrace, the blankets softer than anything he had touched in years.

He blinked slowly, adjusting to the brightness.

Then he froze.

Because—

The room was full of people.

Dozens of Kahr’uun servants—skin patterned with glowing blue markings, dressed in flowing vine-cloth robes—were filing in with trays of food. Massive trays. Towering platters. The aroma hit Victor so hard his stomach roared like an angry beast.

"What... the hell," he muttered, sitting up.

At the center of the chamber stood a long curved table carved from smooth blackstone. The servants placed dish after dish onto it:

slabs of shimmering purple meat that steamed as though freshly cut from a living beast

bowls of spiced orange grains that crackled with heat

nests of vine-fruits dripping bright silver nectar

plates of roasted winged creatures marinated in green fire-oil

a massive rib rack that looked like it belonged to something bigger than a truck

Victor stared, jaw slack.

One servant bowed deeply. "Iruhun," she greeted reverently. "Your breakfast is prepared."

"Iru— what? I’m—" He gestured helplessly. "I’m just a guy."

None of them reacted. Or maybe they refused to.

Another servant bowed. "Please, honored one. Eat. Strength is needed for the path ahead."

Victor blinked.

Strength for what path? Why did everyone keep talking to him like he was some chosen hero or divine guest?

But the smell hit him again, and with how long he had been starving out in the wilderness...

He didn’t need much convincing.

"Alright," he muttered, rubbing his hands together. "If this is a dream, I’m not waking up until I’m done eating."

He approached the table, eyes shining.

It was a feast. A festival. A buffet fit for emperors.

And it was all for him.

Victor reached for the first piece of shimmering purple meat—and before he even took a bite, he swore he saw faint steam rising from it in the shape of a beast’s head.

He grinned.

"Now this," he whispered, "is how a man should wake up."

Little did he know that outside his peaceful morning feast, two Kahr’uun men argued over his fate—one clinging to hope, the other warning of doom—while the truth of an ancient catastrophe loomed, waiting to resurface.

And he was at the center of all of it... whether he liked it or not.

---

---sss

A shadow suddenly appeared behind him—

"It’s over!"

Commander Aiz had sped through the flames and his halberd was already swinging down before Victor noticed his presence.

Victor’s eyes widened.

His Shadow Blink had already been used thrice, evading Aiz initial attacks so he couldn’t use it for the next five minutes in the meantime.

The halberd’s descent felt like a mountain falling.

If it hit, he’d be shredded and vaporized in one go.

"Time for that..."

He pressed his palm together, causing qi to surge through his meridians.

His skin began to gleam before hardening into bronze.

"Iron Vein Flow!"

A radiant bronze sheen coated his body as his muscles swelled. His body vibrated with metallic resonance as the halberd struck him dead-on.

A shockwave erupted, splitting the landscape. Rocks flew like bullets.

Victor was thrown backward several meters, carving deep grooves in the scorched ground but he was still alive.

Commander Aiz blinked in disbelief. "You possess many tricks."

"Yeah," Victor coughed as his lips curved into a smirk. "and a serious lack of self-preservation."

He burst forward again and the sound of blades clashing rang through the air.

This time, he didn’t bother evading the heat.

His bronze-hardened skin shielded him enough to fight at close range. He met Aiz blow for blow, using Phantom Mirage Step to multiply his afterimages, darting around in ghostly flashes.

Clang!

Clang!

BOOM!

The halberd cut through two illusions, only for Victor to appear behind him with his palm coated with icy frost.

Frost Bloom Palm!

His strike landed clean on Aiz’s back. Frost bloomed across the commander’s armor, white veins racing over molten red.

The Drakenar commander only faltered momentarily.

Victor didn’t waste a heartbeat. He unleashed Shadow Crescent Strike, tracing a half-moon arc of darkness that phased through Aiz’s armor and sliced open the ground beneath.

The attack hit him directly on the skin after phasing through his armor and for the first time, Commander Aiz stumbled.

But it wasn’t enough. It was almost like Aiz wasn’t damaged at all.

The commander’s fiery aura surged again, melting away the frost. "Pointless tricks... this is as far as you go!"

The halberd began to buzz violently, absorbing the surrounding magma until its blade was nothing but pure molten light.

"Oh no," Victor whispered.

Before he could react, the halberd came down with intensity, spitting the air in half.

The world erupted as a powerful fiery explosion swept across the vicinity.

Boom!

Victor was flung hundreds of meters across the air, crashing through pointy rocks protruding out of the ground and a few architectural constructs.

He slammed into the ground repeatedly, ricocheting across it as part of his bronze coating blasted off.

He spat blood as his figure vanished into the distance.

Meanwhile, at the wall, Elyra had tried multiple ways to break through the magma wall to no avail.

Until the mage class students tried to join forces.

They linked hands, combining their mana and casting a spell that formed large domes of energy.

Fifteen mages were able to create a barrier strong enough to get fifty students across the molten curtain. Any less and it would be too weak to hold.

Unfortunately, the number of mages present here were only about thirty in number so the students would have to go in groups of two and the mages would have to return repeatedly to get the others behind through.

The heat was immense and several mages were already on the verge of fainting but they held firm, getting each other through one batch after another.

Elyra waited behind with her sword drawn just in case. She wanted to be the last one to get through.

And now, only around thirty students remained.

Just then, a thunderous crash echoed causing the surroundings to tremble.

This was unmistakably the sound of Victor being hurled across the air by Commander Aiz initial powerful attack.

After he had sent Victor flying to only God knows where, he turned his burning gaze toward the magma wall, realizing what was happening.

And then he moved.

To call it speed was an understatement. Every step he took, turned his figure into a blur. He was only walking and yet he was still so fast.

He closed the vast distance between him and Elyra in only a few seconds.

Elyra’s eyes widened as she yelled to the fifteen mages who had just returned from beyond the wall of magma. "Quick get them through—!"

She thrust her sword forward, unleashing a torrent of emerald light.

The attack swept forward, ripping through the air but with a single wave of his hand... the attack disintegrated.

Commander Aiz appeared before her with his halberd raised high.

The very air bowed under the pressure. When the weapon came down, the landscape screamed.

Elyra barely managed to raise her sword in time to block.

Boom!

The moment their weapons collided, the force drove her knees deep into the ground.

Her sword vibrated violently, and she felt her arms go numb while she held it up to block.

Her mana armor flickered as the heat from commander Aiz presence, seared her green skin green, black.

Her feet sank deeper into the crater forming beneath her as blood trickled from her nose but yet... she continued to hold her sword up with both arms to prevent the halberd from going any further.

Commander Aiz then proceeded to extend his other hand toward her, in a bid to grab her.

But before he could—

Two bronze-clad arms wrapped around his torso from behind.

Victor’s hoarse voice rang out. "Sorry, hot stuff... she’s not on your menu today."

Then he looked up at Elyra with a grim expression. "Go!"

He activated Shadow Blink.

The world warped. In the blink of an eye, both he and Commander Aiz vanished, reappearing far across the battlefield, away from the students and the mages.

The commander’s roar split the sky. "You dare—!"

Victor smiled weakly as blood dripped from his lip. "I dare, yeah. It’s kinda my thing."

As magma rained around them and the fortress loomed faintly in the distance, Victor steadied himself for what might be his last stand.

Boom! Bang! Bam!

In a few moments, the sounds of clashing rang out once more.

Victor’s chest heaved continously as his bronze coating flickered like a dying ember.

His entire body ached, burns crawling across his arms and his qi reserves thinned with each breath.

Commander Aiz figure loomed over him him with his halberd dragging long streaks of fire across the scorched ground.

Every time their weapons clashed, sparks rained down like stars dying in fury.

Commander Aiz’s voice thundered like a volcanic eruption. "You are but an insect prolonging its suffering!"

Victor gritted his teeth and smirked before spitting blood to the side. "You’ve got one thing wrong, tin can..." he voiced hoarsely but defiantly. "I’m not prolonging my suffering—just buying time for you to watch your failure."

With a roar, Victor leapt into the air, flung his sword up and slammed his palms together. "Frost Bloom Palm II!"

An explosion of azure frost burst forth, clashing with Aiz’s magma aura in a hiss of vapor and light.

For a brief instant, the temperature dropped sharply, frost crept over the commander’s crimson armor before melting away under his sheer heat.

But Victor was already in motion. He twisted in midair, grabbed his sword back and inhaled deeply — "Tidal Surge Strike!"

He activated a technique from his white dragon legacy and swung his blade.

A wave of heavy water current, surged out of his sword and swept across the terrain, crashing into Aiz’s halberd with the force of a storm tide.

The impact shook the entire surrounding, sending waves of molten debris flying across the field.

Meanwhile, at the fortress, Elyra’s voice pierced through the disturbance. "Everyone—move!"

Dozens of students sprinted up the fortress stairways, weaving between obstacles to tye best of their ability.

The red runic circle above was getting closer and closer, the higher they rose.

Soon, they arrived at the top of the fortress and Elyra was at the forefront.

"Get to the window! Form groups! Use your spells, your wings, whatever you have and get to the circle!" she barked.

"You heard her? Go! go! go! To the circle!" Felix yelled to the others as he grabbed a closeby student and activated a warrior skill that launched him into the sky.

Unfortunately, for many, the massive red circle was still far too high. A lot of these students were D to F ranked, after all. They were the weakest of the first years.

Elyra frowned as her eyes darted between the terrified faces of awakened students.

She then proceeded to turn, swung her sword, and cleaved a massive section of the stone staircase clean off.

Gasps erupted.

Without hesitation, she jumped down, caught the massive slab midair.

It was over sixty feet long.

She leapt back to the top, moved towards the window and hoisted it upward with both hands.

"GO!" she screamed.

The students didn’t need to be told twice. They scrambled up the stairway like ants on a branch, ascending toward the blinding crimson circle above.