Chapter 28: The Girl Who Danced With Storms
The battlefield still sizzled, awash in the afterbirth of lightning.
Smoke curled between splintered roots. Sparks clung to broken branches like the breath of gods. The wind had stilled—but the air vibrated with something deeper.
Something sacred.
And Vera stood tall in the center of it all.
Unbowed. Unbroken.
The Thunder Striding Wolf faced her, no longer snarling. No longer a predator. Its hackles eased, just slightly, as if realizing it stood not before a girl—but a mirror.
A storm given flesh.
It didn't fear her.
It recognized her.
And in that breathless silence, Vera was reborn.
The lightning didn't wrap around her anymore.
It was her.
Every spark that danced along her skin moved to the rhythm of her pulse. Her body glowed faintly, radiant, like dawn breaking beneath flesh. She was ethereal—no longer bound to the mud and gravity of the pit.
She was lightning.
I stood above, perched in the trees, watching her with narrowed eyes.
"Strange beast…" I murmured, voice like a whisper through rain. "Even now… it doesn't flinch."
Vera took a step.
And vanished.
Reappearing yards away in the blink of an eye.
She blinked. Looked down. Laughed.
"This feeling…" she whispered. "I'm weightless, I am lightening!."
She surged forward—again, and again—flashing through the clearing like a golden ghost. Her laughter rose like chimes in a tempest. There was no arrogance in it—only wonder. Only joy.
The wolf growled.
Its voice rumbled like thunder swallowed by mountains. Lightning gathered along its spine. It didn't hesitate.
It welcomed the second round.
"Magnificent," I whispered, smiling now. "A battle of tribulations. A rebirth through violence. Who will triumph—the girl reborn… or the beast born from thunder?"
The trees seemed to lean in.
Watching.
Listening.
Judging.
The wolf leapt, claws glinting.
Vera's blade slid into form, a piercing stance honed by instinct. Lightning condensed at the sword's tip into a sliver of white-hot Æth.
"Piercing Thunder first form ," she whispered.
The air cracked.
Raw Æth surged down the blade—wild, pure, electric. The wolf met her call. It reared up, standing like a two-legged titan. Its paws ignited with lightning. The earth beneath it fractured under the pressure.
They collided.
The claws came down—twin arcs of destruction slashing toward her skull.
She didn't panic.
She moved.
Bent—not dodged—her body folded like light refracted through crystal. One claw grazed her cheek. A line of crimson bloomed down her jaw.
She smiled.
"Thank you," she whispered.
The wolf faltered.
Its eyes widened—not from pain.
But shock.
And that's when her sword exploded.
A spear of radiant thunder burst forward, not toward the head—but the chest. The sacred mark. The heart of the beast.
SHHHHRAAAK-KOOM.
The forest screamed.
A tree behind the wolf detonated—splintered apart like dry leaves in a storm. Smoke poured from the wolf's chest in delicate plumes. A sizzling hole had burned clean through.
The beast staggered.
Then bowed.
Its knees gave way, slow and reverent.
It collapsed—not as a monster—
—but as a warrior.
Its eyes remained open.
It died watching her.
Vera dropped to one knee, panting, her blade still buried in the earth. Lightning still coiled around her, refusing to leave. She had become her element.
And she had won.
I descended from the tree, landing in silence.
"Vera," I called.
She turned, eyes gentler now—not dulled, but deeper. Calmer. The Æth around her flowed like a river unbound, no longer raging—but endless.
She fell to her knees in a bow.
She didn't speak.
"Haha… don't thank me just yet," I chuckled, walking past her.
I approached the wolf's body.
My eyes roamed it, thoughtful. "As I expected… just a pup."
Her gaze snapped toward me, stunned.
But before she could question it, I plunged my hand into the beast's chest. A sickening squelch echoed as I pulled out its core—a clear, crystalline pearl pulsing faintly with lightning.
Her breath caught.
"What does he want with that…?" she wondered silently, watching every motion.
I spoke into my soul.
"Vivi—those Jin worms. Tame them."
Inside me, I felt them writhe—resisting at first. Then—
"Master," Vivi replied. "The worms have been subdued."
A smile crept across my face.
From the tip of my finger, a tiny, translucent worm slithered out and entered the pearl without a sound.
Vera didn't notice.
She couldn't.
I turned toward her, voice low.
"In this life… I will not be betrayed again."
My tone sharpened.
"Vera, don't think that just because you passed this trial, you stand above the rest. You're still nothing. But I'm a man of my word."
Desperation flickered in her gaze.
But beneath it… something else.
Worship.
I stepped closer, holding out the core.
"Take this," I said. "Swallow it."
She reached out slowly.
Her fingers trembled.
She hesitated.
But only for a moment.
Then—she took it.
And swallowed it whole.
A beat of silence passed.
Then I laughed—low, triumphant, like thunder coiling through the canopy.
"Good," I said, lifting her effortlessly from the ground.
"From this moment on… you belong to me."
My grin widened, sharp and dangerous.
"If a single hair on your head is harmed… everyone will perish. Even if they are ancient deities or beasts born from the primordial chaos—they will all fall at my feet."
The words struck Vera's heart like thunder—raw, absolute, irreversible.
She stared up at me, her breath caught in her throat.
"Why does he speak like that?
Like it wasn't a threat…
…but a memory.
As if he's done it before.
As if he can do it again."
But before she could think further—
The forest howled.
A hundred cries echoed through the trees—groans, roars, shrieks. The pit was awakening again. Beasts stirred. Hunters rose. The balance had been shaken.
"It's time to leave," I muttered.
Vera looked up—expression blank. Distant.
I couldn't tell if she'd noticed the worm inside her. Or if she was paralyzed by the sounds closing in from every side.
It didn't matter.
She was mine now.
Without another word, I picked her up once more—one arm beneath her knees, the other at her back.
Then I leapt.
The trees became a blur of green and gold. Bark and wind rushed past as I bounded from branch to branch, covering vast distances with each breath. I didn't stop. I didn't slow.
Our destination wasn't the cave.
It was deeper.
Darker.
Toward the heart of the pit.
Where everything truly began
Somewhere in the voidspace , where roots whisper and dreams decay—
Vivi stirred.
"I am truly jealous," she murmured. "This one… she blooms like a weed. Not beautiful… but unstoppable."
A pause. A sigh of wind.
"I wonder what color her madness will be."