Chương 41: Father

Gozen tore through the dense forest, his shoes tearing up mud with every stride. He'd forwent using his cloud behind, choosing to move low and hidden rather than risk being spotted streaking across open sky. But the moment he caught sight of the town, all thought of staying hidden fell away. A shadow swallowed the sky above him, and scarlet light spilled down, painting his skin in red. Gozen knew the technique the instant he saw it.

He'd watched his son practice this very combination back in Astorian Online, and had stood beside him and walked him through every step. He was the one who taught it to the boy in the first place. But never on a scale such as this. Gozen threw his palms toward the swirling mass overhead and reached for the clouds, trying to wrestle them under his own will. But DustHaven's fate was already sealed. A shower of needles made of blood plunged into the earth, and a sound like breaking glass tore through the streets.

The air turned thick with the smell of metal. Gozen bent his knees, and clouds gathered beneath his feet. He kicked off the ground and shot into the sky, leaving a trail of smoke behind him as he launched straight for the storm above. He punched through the lowest layer of cloud and crossed into the domain of blood. Smoke never blinded him. Cloud and mist were his domain, and he could always see clearly inside them. But this was different. The blood was too thick, too heavy, and it swallowed his sight whole.

He shut his eyes instead and reached out with his senses, feeling for every drop of water lingering inside the storm, until he found it: a single figure, floating alone at the center of it all. There. He shifted into his Wraith form and shot toward the figure at a speed too fast for the eye to follow. Within seconds, he skidded to a stop, and his son hung in the air right in front of him. The boy's arms were spread wide, and his whole body shook without stopping, every muscle locked in a violent tremor.

His face was ruined. Dark blood streamed from his eyes, trailing down his cheeks like gory tears. Gozen closed the distance and pulled his son into his arms, holding him close. The boy went limp at once, unconscious before his father even had him fully wrapped in his grip. Still holding him tight, Gozen dropped down out of the clouds. Only when he broke through the barrier below, and the town spread out beneath him, did he understand the true size of the massacre. It wasn't a town anymore. It was an ocean.

A sea of blood. The ground was soaked in a fresh layer of red, and the streets were lined with bodies torn apart beyond recognition. Once he landed, Gozen laid his son down with care, resting him against the remains of a wall. He raised a palm above his head and gave the order for the clouds to scatter. The domain obeyed, breaking apart into a fine red mist. Sunlight broke through at last, but it didn't feel like hope, the way sunlight was supposed to.

Instead, the sun illuminated the carnage and shed a spotlight on the gore. Gozen couldn't let his son wake up to this. He bent down to lift the boy into his arms, but the moment his hands touched his son's shoulders, the boy's eyelids began to flutter. He rubbed his eyes and slowly blinked them open. The first thing he saw was a severed arm lying beside him on the ground. He flinched back and scrambled away on his heels as the full weight of the massacre sank in.

Needles stuck out of the bodies by the hundreds, some driven in so deep only their tips still showed. Flesh had been stripped clean from bone in places, and the faces that remained were ruined past telling one from another. The boy let out a high-pitched scream that tore through the silence hanging over the graveyard the city had become.

"What… what happened?" the boy asked, his voice shaking as he looked up at his father, eyes wide and lost.

"What happened?" Gozen echoed, face twisting in rage, and he threw a finger out toward the ruin.

"You just slaughtered an entire city!" The boy shook his head hard and dropped his eyes to his own bloody palms.

"No, it wasn't supposed to happen like this. I blacked out halfway through the fight. They… they were going to kidnap me. This was self-defense, all of it!"

"Defense?" Gozen's voice cracked with disbelief.

"You call this defense?"

"I should kill you myself for what you've done!" The words tore out of Gozen raw and shaking.

"I knew it," Gozen whispered, all the fire draining out of his voice.

"I knew I should have shattered your core the moment you were born. I told your mother this burden would only bring you misfortune. Listening to her was a mistake." Gozen looked into his son's eyes, and his expression hardened. This was the last resort left to him. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. He raised his hand and wrapped it in a white aura. Curling his fingers into a claw, he began guiding it toward his son's chest.

"What… what are you doing?" the boy asked, brows furrowing in confusion.

"I'm only doing what's best for you," Gozen said, his voice calm now, almost gentle.

"So listen closely. I did all of this. If your core is shattered, and doesn't hold any spell storages, the Astarchs will have no proof you were ever capable of this kind of power. Do you understand me?"

"What? No! Why would you take the blame for me? There has to be another way! I… I know! I'll run away! The Gisaeng House will help me! Hwan told me that if I ever needed help, he'd be there for me! Please, Dad, anything but losing my powers!" The boy's voice cracked as he clasped his hands together, pleading.

"No! The matter is settled!" The words were absolute. This was the only way to save his son's life. There was no other choice left. Gozen crouched low before the boy and drove his claw straight toward his chest. But his hand only plunged into a twisted sheet of scrap metal from the building behind him. The boy had dissolved his own body into a white mist, slipping free of the strike just in time. His smoke form streaked through the air and came to a stop ten feet from his father.

He solidified back into flesh and broke into a clumsy run. His legs shook and refused to fully obey him, and all he could manage was an unsteady stagger away from the danger behind him. His foot slid on the blood slicking the ground, and he went down hard. He forced himself back up anyway and kept stumbling forward, continuing his futile attempt at an escape. Gozen let out a tired sigh and started walking after him, unhurried. A few seconds into the hopeless chase, the boy suddenly went still.

He stopped mid-stride, and his slouched shoulders snapped straight up into a stiff, rigid line, as if some invisible hook had jerked him back by the collar. The boy pivoted on his heel, turning to face Gozen in one smooth, mechanical rotation. His eyes, wide with fear only moments ago, had gone completely empty. He began marching toward his father. The possession ability immediately registered in Gozen's mind.

"EDWARD!" Gozen bellowed, his voice tearing through the ruined streets as his head snapped around, searching for the Psion. Ten feet above the ground, floating perfectly still, hung the third member of the Astarchs. Edward wore a spotless white suit, tailored sharp, and it stood out against the blood-soaked ruins below him. His pupils glowed faintly with a thin ring of violet light.

"Disengage your control!" Gozen shouted, fury cracking through his voice.

"You're going to damage the boy's brain! He's only twelve!"

"I've adjusted the output of my control, Gozen. The boy will be fine." Edward's voice carried easily across the ruined streets, calm and unbothered. That didn't matter to Gozen. A pair of twin daggers warped into being out of his ring, ivory white and tapered down into deadly points, their tips slick with a coat of purple liquid. Gozen phased out of sight, and a beat later, he reappeared behind Edward, mist still curling off the edges of his silhouette.

Gozen crossed his arms, guiding the daggers into a cross-slash aimed at the back of Edward's neck, and followed through without hesitation. Edward made no move to dodge. He simply stood there and let Gozen's attack land. The daggers sheared clean through Edward's neck, severing his head from his shoulders. But there was no blood. No resistance at all. Instead, white vapor began steaming out from the wound.

His severed head dissolved into a cloud of smoke, and within seconds, the rest of his body followed, folding into the same pale mist. Gozen recoiled. That was his own ability. The Wraith form, a power only the Mistveil could wield. He dropped back to the ground and swiveled his head fast, scanning for the psychic.

"I know what you're thinking. That wasn't your Wraith form, Gozen." The voice echoed from directly in front of him.

"You only imagined that it was. Your mind expected me to use a defensive spell, so I simply projected the one you knew best. My body was never there to begin with."

"I don't care about your mind games!" Gozen shouted, chest heaving.

"Release my son now, or I'll bury you right here, King!" Edward blinked into existence directly in front of him, hands folded neatly behind his back.

"I can only protect you and your son so much, old friend."

"Look around you." He spread his arms wide, gesturing at the ruin surrounding them.

"This is far beyond anything I can cover up. This wasn't some accident. Mikael will demand blood for it, and the boy will be executed."

"Please…" Gozen let his blades fall and grabbed Edward hard by the arms.

"I'll take the fall for all of this. He's just a child, Edward. He didn't know what he was doing!"

"Ignorance and innocence do not go hand in hand, Gozen." Edward pried Gozen's hands off his arms.

"I cannot help you this time. It's over." Gozen stared into Edward's eyes. He was a proud man, a legend who had never once bowed his head or begged at anyone's feet. But for his son, he was willing to throw away his pride and dignity. He would even stoop to shame and pettiness if that was what it took to save his child.

"Are you saying you won't save my son?" Gozen's voice sharpened, turning hard and accusing.

"Even after I saved your daughter's life during the attack on Quantis?" Edward smacked him across the face.

"Don't you dare bring my daughter into this!" Edward's voice dropped low, and a violent purple aura flared out from his body, crackling in the air around him.

"That's not the same thing, and you know it! She isn't a mass murderer!" Gozen lowered his head in shame. He dropped to his knees and bowed low, and tears ran down his face, falling onto the blood-soaked pavement beneath him.

"I… I shouldn't have said that. I'm desperate, Edward. Please, friend. I'm begging you. Save my son." Edward's stern mask cracked and fell away. His pupils trembled as he stared down at the top of the head of the strongest man in the world, who knelt there gasping for air between sobs. Edward raised an arm, and a pair of black nullstone cuffs warped into being out of his ring. The restraints hovered for a moment, then drifted down toward Gozen's hands.

One cuff clicked shut around his wrist, and it yanked his arm behind his back before the second cuff closed tight around the other. Edward turned to Gozen's son, and the purple light in his eyes deepened. The boy turned on his heel at once and jogged away from the city, past the blood-soaked streets, and straight into the dense treeline beyond.

"Do you have any last words?" Edward asked, his tone gentler now.

"A final message you'd like me to plant in his memory, before you let him go for good?" Gozen glanced over his shoulder, watching his son's back grow smaller in the distance, then shook his head.

"I'm okay," Gozen said quietly.

"Are you sure? His last memory of his father is going to be you trying to tear his core out of his chest. The boy will loathe you for the rest of his life." A smirk tugged at Gozen's lips.

"Then I've done my job. A father's role is to be the villain to his son. That's how they won't grow up soft!" He let out a booming laugh that carried through the town, the sound rough and hollow.