Chương 31: Cloud of Smoke

"I know I can't manipulate clouds yet. That's exactly why you're going to help me, right?" A wide, hopeful grin spread across Gray's face. Gozen swatted the air between them.

"I cannot teach what you do not have. You cannot manipulate clouds because that is simply not the power you possess, boy." Gray raised a brow.

"Then what is this?" He lifted his right palm. A thin, wispy plume of vapor trailed from his skin. Gozen mirrored the gesture. A dense puff of mist erupted from his hand.

"Look closely at the difference." Gray leaned in, studying the two floating masses.

"Yours looks thicker. Healthier, almost. The color is definitely different too. Yours is pure white, while mine is more of a charcoal-gray."

"Exactly." Gozen closed his fist, banishing his mist.

"Mine is a cloud. Yours is a C loud of Smoke." Gray scrunched his nose.

"Aren't those the exact same thing?" Gozen shook his head slowly.

"Clouds represent freedom. They embody calm and peace. Smoke mimics the shape, but its nature couldn't be more different. Smoke is toxic. It is chaotic. It suffocates."

"…Ivan," Gray murmured, the name dropping from his lips. Gozen gave a solemn nod.

"Clouds do not choke the life out of a man." Gray summoned his status sheet. He jabbed an accusatory finger at the glowing blue text.

"But the system clearly says Cloud Mastery. Shouldn't it say Smoke Mastery instead?"

"That is the unique circumstance I mentioned earlier." Gozen warped the ceramic gourd of sake back into his hand and extended it forward.

"You might want to take the edge off before I explain the rest." Gray held up both palms, firmly pushing the offer away.

"I'll probably just pass out if I drink any more of that fire. I need a clear head for this." Gozen shrugged his broad shoulders.

"Suit yourself." He guzzled down the remaining alcohol in one long gulp and stowed the empty vessel back into his spatial ring. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"The reason I kept pestering you about that black vapor was because of its origins. Tell me, does the skill description mention the Primordial known as 'Shroud'?" Gray offered a reluctant nod. Gozen grunted.

"The very first lesson you must learn in this new world is that absolute power never comes for free. The price of Shroud's power is immense."

"Well… what is the price?" Gray asked, his voice tightening.

"Your life."

"My life?" Gray shrieked. He scrambled backward and shot up from the wooden floorboards.

"Shroud is a bloodthirsty Primordial festering deep inside your soul," Gozen stated calmly, entirely unfazed by the boy's panic.

"He has already corrupted you. Eventually, he will take full possession of your physical vessel, using your flesh to walk this earth once again."

"Oh, is that all? For a second there, I thought it might be something serious— what the fuck!" Gray screeched at the top of his lungs, pacing frantically in a tight circle. Gozen held out a steadying hand.

"You don't need to worry about him immediately. This possession will only become a real issue when you climb to a much higher rank. At that advanced stage, your physical constitution will finally be resilient enough for the Primordial to steal your body without tearing it apart." Gray squinted at his supposed mentor.

"How can you be so calm about this? It's like he's an old friend of yours, and you're secretly hoping he replaces me!" Stolen story; please report.

"There is no use panicking over it now." Gozen waved a dismissive hand, entirely unbothered by the outburst.

"Your path is set. The only thing you can do is prepare to fight the possession when the time comes."

"But why me?" Gray demanded, his voice cracking. Gozen gestured toward the floorboards.

"Take a seat. I will explain everything. You deserve at least that much." Gray dropped back onto the hard wood. He took a slow breath. He needed to rein in his surging panic long enough to actually listen.

"To grasp the full scope of your situation, you need to know exactly who Shroud is," Gozen began.

"And you need to know the true history of the Primordials." Gozen turned his gaze toward the nearby window. His eyes grew distant as he immersed himself to dump the lore.

"A Creator forged this galaxy and all the planets scattered within it. Earth and Astoria were merely two marbles in its vast, cosmic collection. With the birth of Astoria came the Great System. And alongside that System came the Primordials." He leaned forward slightly, resting his hands on his knees.

"These beings weren't granted classes by the System. They were the class. The Primordials served as the living progenitors of every path the Awakened wield today. The Creator intended for them to pass down their immense power to their spawn, and the Great System was designed to help them in that endeavor. However, the gods reproduced at an abysmal rate. They were stagnant. To fix this, the System summoned vessels from another realm to fulfill the Creator's grand design."

"…Earth," Gray whispered.

"Precisely." Gozen nodded slowly.

"Although the System didn't utilize the 'Natural Selection' death games during the early stages of the draft." Gozen's expression hardened.

"The gods grew furious when they saw their sacred powers bestowed upon the lowly humans. So, they retaliated."

"It was a total genocide. They slaughtered every summoned human in sight. The violence forced the System to intervene. It installed an absolute safeguard to shield humanity from the gods."

"The Primordial: Storm spearheaded the initial massacre. But the new barrier completely blocked him from continuing his slaughter. To get around this absolute law, Storm resorted to a drastic measure. He decided to have a child."

"A child?" Gray blurted out.

"How does having a baby skirt around the safeguard?" Gozen raised a hand to stall the questions.

"It will all make sense."

"Storm didn't orchestrate the genocide alone. His brother, the Primordial: Berserker, fought right beside him. Berserker eventually discovered a theoretical loophole to bypass the System's rules—to tear down the protective veil shielding humanity. To achieve this, they needed an ability exclusive to the Primordial Mist." Gozen tapped his chest.

"The class you and I possess originated from her. Mistveil is the absolute pinnacle of defense and evasion. Mist could construct veils, yes, but she could also unravel them. She was the key to tearing down the System's safeguard."

"But there was one massive flaw in their strategy. Mist was a strict pacifist. Her class possesses zero offensive capabilities by design, so participating in a bloody genocide was completely out of the question for her." Gozen's lip curled into a bitter scowl.

"The brothers eventually agreed upon a twisted solution. They would court her. If they couldn't convince Mist to join their slaughter, they would breed a weapon who could. They planned to train a child who would inherit the Mistveil powers, manipulating that offspring to slaughter humanity in her place," Gozen said. A heavy layer of absolute disgust laced his deep voice.

"Storm was successful. The brothers got far more than they bargained for, however. The newborn child didn't just inherit his mother's MistVeil class. He inherited his father's devastating StormWrath class as well. This made him the absolute first Hybrid—a child possessing a Dual-Class. The progenitor of Shroud." Gozen pointed a finger at Gray.

"The boy possessed the evasion and utility of Mist, fused with the devastating offense of Storm."

"But the phrase 'never do business with family' even applied back in that era. Eventually, Storm stopped pretending, and he truly began to love Mist. Her ideologies and gentle nature seeped into his violent heart, and his hatred for humanity faded away. He abandoned the plan of grooming his son into a weapon of war and chose instead to simply focus on being a loving father and husband."

"They were happy." Gozen's voice dropped a pitch.

"Until the day Mist was murdered." Gray's body went stiff.

"Berserker didn't appreciate his brother growing soft. He took it as a betrayal to him and their entire species. Berserker entered their home while Storm was away and killed Mist in cold blood. There was no fight. The esteemed evasion capabilities of the Mistveil were irrelevant when her guard was down around her brother-in-law."

"After Storm discovered her corpse, he confronted his brother. But Berserker told him he had 'no control' over his will and body, and all he saw was red during the murder, claiming that his hands had moved all on their own. Predictably, Storm snapped, officially igniting the Battle of StormRage." Gozen looked off into the distance, as if he were reminiscing about the aftermath of the battle.

"It is a historic battle in our records, as much as it is a calamity. The conflict raged for an entire week, scarring an entire region with the remnants of their mana. The land is covered in an un-breachable plume of smoke and Riftborn Kaisers currently inhabit it."

"In the end, there was only one winner. But it wasn't the brothers, as both of them died in the battle. They were just pawns, unaware of the chess match they had been involved in. The true instigator. The one who had been pulling the strings from the shadows was the Primordial Mind."