Sub-section: "Before the Blades"
The scent of burnt stone still haunted Hatku.
Years had passed since the night Lyra betrayed him, yet the memory clung to him like a second skin—impossible to shed. He stood in the empty training grounds of his current realm, watching two novices spar. They reminded him of a different time. A different man.
A man who once believed in love.
Flashback: Before the Blades
Lyra had tasted like rain after fire.
He remembered that first kiss, shared beneath the twisted branches of an obsidian tree after a brutal match. Blood still crusted his lip; her hand trembled as she reached for his jaw, brushing it clean. Her eyes were violet, glowing in the dark like stars drowning in sorrow.
"You don't have to fight alone anymore," she had whispered.
And he believed her.
Their love had bloomed between battles—fast, desperate, and deep. They shared stolen nights in shelters carved from stone, warm bodies tangled in the cold, breathless laughter after surviving impossible odds. She used to hum while healing his wounds with her energy threads, fingers tracing the scar on his side left by a beast that almost killed him.
"You scare me sometimes," Lyra had told him once.
"Why?"
"Because I could fall for you. And you… you don't know how to stop falling."
Hatku had kissed her in answer, not knowing she was the one pushing him toward the edge.
They fought as one. Until the night she turned her blades on him.
The Betrayal
It was supposed to be rest. No matches, no danger. But he woke in their shared den with the distinct pull of his energy being siphoned from his chest.
Her hand hovered over him, drawing thin golden threads of power—his power—into her open palm. Her body was still warm from sleep. Her smile was gone.
"You were never meant to last," she said, eyes glassy and strange.
"Lyra," he breathed.
"I was supposed to drain a hundred before the UG noticed," she murmured. "You made me slow. Weak. Soft."
Hatku rose slowly, the sting of betrayal sharper than any blade.
She summoned her twin obsidian flame daggers—stolen powers, all of them, forged from lives she'd consumed. Her body moved like a storm, elegant and deadly.
Savage Battle.
She struck first, dashing through shadows, slashing his ribs open with a laughing snarl. He parried with raw force, his shadow blade catching her by surprise. They danced around each other—two souls colliding in fury and heartbreak.
"I gave you everything!" he shouted.
"You gave me power!" she screamed back.
At one point, she pinned him. Her dagger at his throat. Her body pressed to his, so familiar it shattered him.
"I could let you live," she whispered. "We could rule—together. Let me drain you slowly. Let me make you perfect."
Hatku stared into the eyes of the woman he loved… and saw nothing but hunger.
He drove his blade into her chest.
She choked on blood and betrayal. "I did… love you… once."
She died in his arms. The powers she'd stolen erupted from her body in a violent surge, fusing into Hatku with a scream that wasn't just hers—but his own soul breaking apart.
Back to Present
Hatku blinked.
The trainees were still sparring.
He stepped away from the training field and walked into the forest's edge, shadow blade pulsing at his side. The message from the UG echoed in his mind:
"Seek the Ultimate Being. End her. And the curse shall die with her."
Hatku had learned his lesson.
Love was a battlefield.
And this time… he'd be the last one standing.