Chapter 301: Perion’s Situation

Kai entered Perion’s domain with cheerful skips.

Everything had been going well for him after the tournament—so there was nothing much on his shoulders right now. Of course, Professor Hera’s death was devastating, but generally, he was in a good spot.

Now, he was eager to see the big golem—Perion.

His first companion that he could summon into the waking world.

Noxian had helped him get the hand of the House of Night, but Perion was the one who really helped him survive, as he played a vital role in the Blood Rite, standing as both shield and sword when Kai had nothing left but the will to live.

Naturally, the bond between them was strong.

And he owed Perion more than he could ever repay, which was exactly why he wanted to aid Perion in growing stronger in the House of Night by establishing his domain on the second floor. It would be hard to do, probably, but it would be worth it.

But the moment he reached the center of the domain and turned to his right, his breath caught in his throat, and his steps faltered.

Right there, near the pond fed by a short waterfall, was Perion.

But the rock golem wasn’t sitting or standing.

His massive body hung weakly against the edge, slumped like a broken monument.

And what stopped Kai’s heart were the markings. Scars. Deep gouges carved across Perion’s entire rock body, fissures that spiderwebbed through his stone flesh like cracks in a mountain that had been hit by a powerful Legacy Skill or Imprint.

Kai’s eyes went wide, and he rushed forward without thinking.

He dropped to his knees beside the big guy—and reached out to Perion’s rocky head with his trembling hand. The scars were even worse up close. And he also realized that the scars had the same features as claw marks.

Jagged edges—and the depth of the fissures showed that they had been carved by something sharp and immensely strong. Something that had tried to tear Perion apart. It was clear to Kai that he was attacked.

Feeling the touch of Kai’s hand, Perion’s eyes flickered in their sockets.

A pair of weak orbs of light struggled to focus.

Seeing Kai, a low, stone-grinding groan escaped him—a sound heavy with pain and fatigue.

Kai’s chest tightened.

"What happened to you?" He asked, though his voice came out strained. "Who did this?"

Perion groaned again, a series of rumbling sounds that Kai somehow understood.

He was attacked. Someone, an aggressive Nightborn, had infiltrated his domain and attacked him. It was how he ended up in this state. Kai’s face twisted into a grim one as he remembered Noxian’s words.

Back when Kai first stumbled near the wooden house, Noxian told him to go on his way.

That alone made it clear that Nightborns stumbling into his domain was a rather normal occurrence. Nightborns could technically wander into another’s domain, and Noxian was fine because he was simply too strong.

Most Nightborns would probably hurry to leave after seeing Noxian.

Perion, in comparison, was not that strong.

Other Nightborns could simply enter his domain and attack him.

But why...? No Nightborns have the capabilities to grow within the House of Night. It was the reason why they attacked me during my Night Elevation—so growing stronger was not the reason behind this attack.

Kai’s brows furrowed together.

If this attack wasn’t driven by the greed to grow stronger—then he had no idea as to why the Nightborn would even bother attacking Perion. Is it for fun? Because of a misunderstanding? He didn’t know.

And then, Perion groaned again, telling him the rest.

"I... know this Nightborn?" Kai looked at Perion in surprise.

One Nightborn crept into his mind.

It was the wicked, hostile Nightborn that had tried to trap and kill him.

Hatred and spite were the fuels of this attack.

Somehow, that hostile Nightborn had found its way to Perion’s domain and done this.

Kai’s expression contorted—his features twisted into something hideous. It wasn’t only anger. It was fury; the kind that made even his bones burn and his body twitch. This attack was clearly a message.

A strike against him through the ones that were on his side.

He didn’t know for certain whether Nightborns could kill one another in the House of Night through means beyond his current knowledge. But assuming they could, then what he was seeing could’ve been worse.

Perion must’ve used everything he had to simply endure.

Survive long enough until the hostile Nightborn gave up.

Or perhaps the attack had only stopped after the hostile Nightborn sensed his approach.

Kai remembered how easily Perion had been obliterated in their first meeting.

Here, in his own domain, he should’ve been stronger—should have fared far better. But even that wasn’t enough. The Nightborn he faced was too foul, too terrible. Perion could only resist, not overcome.

Either way, this was an act of vendetta.

And Kai wasn’t going to simply let this pass.

"Just why didn’t you call me?" Kai asked in a helpless voice. "Give me a signal or something."

Perion groaned again, and his answer made it worse.

"...You don’t want to burden me? I never considered you a burden."

Kai gritted his teeth and called the night again to heal Perion, but his control faltered. He was too exhausted from his earlier endeavours, and the darkness slipped through his fingers like water.

He bit his lower lip hard enough to draw blood and rose to his feet—fists clenched at his sides.

Around him, the darkness stirred, responding to his seething fury.

Even though he was planning to only talk with Perion for a bit before returning to the waking world, things had taken a turn, and he couldn’t simply leave. "If you’re in trouble, tell me. I’ll be angry if you don’t."

Kai spun and headed straight for the border.

Behind, Perion called for Kai and even stretched out his massive stone arm to reach Kai.

But he simply couldn’t.

Kai stepped out of Perion’s domain and stopped right beyond its edge—standing completely still like a statue. His body was rigid, and his face tilted down toward the mist as the profound silence of the House of Night pressed against him, as if it was waiting to see what he’d do next.

His fists were clenched so tightly at his sides that his knuckles had gone white.

And one could see a faint tremor run through his arms.

Not from fear or restlessness, but from the sheer force of the fury rolling beneath his skin.

Kai stood motionless for a good moment before a faint whisper escaped his lips.

"Answer me."

Just then, the darkness above stirred. It rippled silently like a beast roused from slumber, and Kai seized the moment, forcing his will into the void, reaching for the night—with everything he had.

Swish—!

A tendril of darkness answered and slithered down from the sky—coiling downward with an almost hesitant grace. It stopped still high in the sky, pooling like liquid shadow, and began to spread across the entire area, turning into an umbrella of darkness.

But before it could fully form, it fizzled out like the wind had blown it away.

Its edges frayed, the shape collapsed, and the darkness dissolved back into the void.

Kai’s teeth ground together in frustration. He could feel an immense strain behind his eyes, a dull, throbbing pressure that was already beginning to spike. After deleting the corpses with the night, his mind was simply too exhausted.

Even then, he called again.

Harder this time—more determined, and the night answered more slowly now.

Another tendril descended from above, but it didn’t pool or spread.

Instead, it stretched downward in a thin, focused line—moving towards his head. And along the way, it drank the darkness in its path, absorbing the shadows into itself. It looked like the tendril was siphoning the darkness around, but it didn’t grow larger.

It only grew deeper, more profound, as if the absence around was becoming alive.

Like the darkness it absorbed added something more to it.

Blood began to trickle from Kai’s nose. It slid over his lips, sliding the taste of copper into his mouth, and the pressure in his skull swelled. His mind felt like it was being crushed in a vice, the weight of the night pressed down on him with every inch the tendril advanced.

Even then, he didn’t stop.

Kai pushed harder, gritting his teeth until his face ached.

And finally, the tendril reached his head.

It didn’t pierce his skull. Instead—it curled around the curve of his head and slipped into his right ear. A voice rang. Not the voice of someone whispering into his ears, but an astral voice that directly echoed inside his mind like telepathy.

’Ending of Impersonation.’

Kai wanted to find the domain of the hostile Nightborn, but he simply couldn’t.

His control over the night wasn’t that strong.

Instead, he reached into the night to uncover the identity of the hostile Nightborn. And now, the name seared into his thoughts. The night always watched—whether it was in the House of Night or the waking world.

It always remembered everything that happened.

And now, it had given him the truth—the culprit reduced Perion to such a sorry state.

But he needed more.

Despite his control over the night already wavering, he didn’t release it yet.

He needed to know where it laired, where it hid within the vast, endless dark of the House of Night. Last time, Kai stumbled into its domain because he had used the night too freely—and the attention he’d drawn had led him straight into its domain.

After this, he doubted the hostile Nightborn would be lured to him the same exact way.

So, he reached out again, forcing his exhausted mind to bend the night to his will.

And the strain detonated behind his eyes like a white-hot star.

"Keuhk!"

Blood burst from his lips. His vision swam, and his legs buckled—forcing him to drop to one knee and his hand to slam against the cold, shallow water under the mist to keep himself from collapsing entirely.

His chest heaved, and the darkness around him seemed to pulse in sympathy.

From somewhere far away, laughter echoed.

A mocking laughter that slithered through the darkness and coiled around him, scraping his raw nerves like a fragment of glass. The fury that had shimmered inside him detonated all at once like an erupting volcano.

"I’m going to find you, you hear me?!" He roared—snapping his eyes left and right. "I’ll find you no matter where you are. I’ll find you no matter which patch of darkness you had crawled into. I will find you!!"

Kai’s roar echoed, but against the endless expanse, it barely reached anywhere.