Leonidas stared at his hands until sunrise.
Left hand: Black marks that pulsed like a heartbeat that wasn't his.
Right hand: Golden light that didn't belong to him.
Karna still hadn't woken up.
Three days since the tournament. Three days since the tubes. Three days since Leo had taken something that might have cost a man his life.
The healers said "coma."
Leo called it what it was: his fault.
It was early morning. Healers were changing shifts.
Leo slipped in, his hood up.
He went into Karna's room.
Karna's room was small and sterile, with only one bed.
Monitors were tracking Rift energy, heartbeat, and soul stability.
Karna looked WRONG.
Skin grey, lifeless.
The golden aura is completely GONE.
Breathing shallow, mechanical.
On his hands, where golden marks used to be, now just faded scars.
Leo sat beside the bed.
He didn't speak at first.
Just... watched.
I did this. He let me win, and I took everything, Leonidas thought.
"Your Highness! You shouldn't—"
"Will he wake?" Leo asked, his voice scratchy.
"We don't know. Talent transfer isn't supposed to do THIS," the nurse said.
"It's like his soul was drained, not just his talent."
"We've never seen anything like it."
Leonidas said, his voice waning, "There must be something—"
The healer noticed Leo's hand. Her face suddenly went pale, as if she had seen a ghost. "Your mark. That's not... that's not Rift corruption."
"What?" Leo said, confused.
"That's older. Much older. I need to—I should—" the healer said, slowly backing away.
The healer quickly ran away from Leo, fleeing from the scene.
Leo looked down at his hands.
The black marks were MOVING now.
Shifting, rearranging.
Forming patterns he didn't recognise.
Ancient symbols that made his eyes hurt to look at.
The system rang out.
[Bloodline Recognition: PENDING]
[Soul Strain from foreign divinity detected]
[Recommendation: Visit subject Karna in 6 hours]
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[Current Status: Subject may not survive compatibility rejection]
Leo whispered to the still unconscious Karna, "I'm sorry. I didn't know. I didn't—"
Suddenly, a voice rang from the doorway. It was Arjuna's.
"He chose this, Leonidas," Arjuna said.
They talked in the hallway.
"The healers are talking. About your mark," Arjuna said.
"I don't know what it is," Leo said.
Arjuna said, his eyes circling Leonidas, studying him. "Neither do they. But they're scared."
"Rift corruption doesn't scare them. They see it daily. This? They ran to the temple. Started praying."
"To whom?" Leo asked cautiously.
"The old gods. The ones from before Rifts."
He pulled out a worn book from his coat.
"I've been researching. Your mark matches something in the ancient texts."
He showed Leo a drawing—a spiral pattern with a scythe symbol.
"It's called the 'Sigil of Thanatos.'
Thanatos. The name struck Leo cold. That was from Greek mythology —Earth. The god of Death himself.
"You think I'm connected to... a god?" Leo asked carefully.
"I think you're not telling me everything about who you are. Or maybe you don't know either. Two days until you face my father and the court. Bharati is waiting in the garden. She has theories. Whatever you are, Leonidas, figure it out fast. Because if you lose control in front of the nobles... I won't be able to save you."
The system notification pulsed.
[Time until court demonstration: 2 DAYS, 14 HOURS]
[Time until Second Prince arrival: 6 DAYS, 15 HOURS]
[Current Divine Heritage: 15% UNSEALED]
[WARNING: Unstable]
Leo walked toward the garden, questions burning in his mind.
Thanatos. God of Death.
His mark. His power.
Who was he? Really?
And why did his shadow smile when he thought about it?
It was still morning.
Leonidas walked into the meditation garden only to see Bharati fully ready.
Bharati had prepared ritual circles.
Leo arrived to see:
Silver ritual circles drawn in the dirt. Leo recognised them as Greek patterns.
Black candles were placed at cardinal points.
Crystal focusing arrays.
Bharati was in full training gear, talwar at her side.
"You're late. We have two days," Bharati said.
"I was—" Leo said.
"Visiting Karna. I know," Bharati said with that charming smile.
Her expression softened slightly.
"He chose this. Don't dishonour that choice by failing now."
Leo nodded. He then entered the circle.
The training started.
"Show me the cycle. Like we practised yesterday," Bharati said.
Leo sat in meditation.
He entered his soul-space.
He saw his three chambers: Black-red flames, Solar light, Abyssal centre.
He attempted the cycle: Underworld → Annihilation → Solar → Underworld.
First attempt started well.
Black energy flowed into red flames.
Red flames converted to solar light.
Solar began to feed back—
BREAK.
Black energy SURGED, trying to consume everything.
Leo screamed in agony. It broke his meditation.
"What happened?" Bharati said, her voice sharpened with alarm.
Leo said, gasping, "It won't... won't stay balanced. The Underworld power is getting STRONGER."
Second attempt: Same result.
Black energy was more aggressive this time.
It almost consumed the Solar chamber entirely.
Leo barely managed to stop it.
The third attempt was somehow worse.
The Underworld power didn't just consume.
It SPOKE.
A voice, ancient and cold, spoke. "STOP FIGHTING WHAT YOU ARE."
Leo jerked out of meditation, blood running from his nose.
Bharati used her talent.
Her eyes were glowing, reading his signature.
She went PALE.
"Leonidas... your signature. It's not human anymore."
"What?" Leo asked.
"Yesterday, it was chaotic but recognisable. Today it's..."
She struggled to find words for what she saw.
"It's DIVINE. I'm reading divinity."
"What does that mean?" Leo said. A sweat bead ran down his head.
"It means you're not Underworld-touched. You're Underworld-BORN."
"We need to try something different," she said. "The cycle assumes you're human, trying to control divine power. What if you're divine, trying to remember how to BE divine?"
"I don't understand," Leo said, tilting his head to the side.
"Stop controlling. Start ACCEPTING," Bharati said with confidence.
"Let the Underworld power do what it wants. Trust yourself."
"That's how people get consumed," Leo said.
"Or awakened. We're out of time. Try," Bharati said.
Leo entered meditation again.
This time, he didn't try to control.
He allowed the black energy to flow freely.
It surged, threatening to consume his other talents.
It flooded the Annihilation chamber.
It crashed into the Solar chamber.
Everything should have collapsed, but—
It didn't.
The black energy wrapped around the solar light.
Not consuming. Embracing.
The two powers merged.
Creating something NEW: Eclipse energy.
In the real world:
Leo's left hand had black flames with a golden core.
The right hand glowed with golden light, black-edged.
His shadow stood behind him independently.
Its eyes opened—pure red.
Bharati stepped back.
"Your power level just tripled. And your signature... It's stabilising. But Leonidas, whatever you just did—You're not human anymore. Not even partially."
Mid-training, a system notification screamed.
[CRITICAL: DIVINE HERITAGE BREACH DETECTED]
[Automatic Unsealing: 15% → 34%]
[WARNING: Identity concealment failing]
[BLOODLINE RECOGNITION: MANDATORY]
[Initiating: ORIGIN PROTOCOL]
"What? No, wait—" Leo said.
But it was too late.
Everything went BLACK.
Leo's consciousness was pulled somewhere else.
Somewhere dark.
Somewhere that smelled like endings and tasted like night.
The Underworld didn't ask permission.
It claimed its own.
