Chapter 337: New Level of Mastery

For him to endure the overwhelming mind and body suppression on the Second Floor, he has to reach the Aspirant Supernal rank first. Only then would he be strong enough to roam—and find a Nightborn that was willing to get to know him.

Back then, he was reckless and paid dearly for it.

Now, he was an Aspirant Supernal.

Enough to roam the Second Floor without being suppressed, but he decided not to.

Kai is the First Son of the Primordial Night, and this was the House of Night, his own domain.

If he backed away and let others handle his situation in his own domain, then that would be a disgrace to himself, his siblings, and the Goddess of the Primordial Night. For that, Kai decided to handle this situation on his own.

He walked out of Noxian’s domain again.

Behind him, Noxian could only watch as he walked away without saying what he was going to do.

Kai continued onward into the darkness.

He didn’t need to look behind him as he knew Noxian would’ve followed him.

Not too long ago—Noxian had told Kai once that he wouldn’t leave his domain unless absolutely necessary. He sounded serious when he said that. And that seriousness told Kai that this was tied to his past.

One that made him the Slashing Ending.

Kai continued walking.

Even though the House of Night was impossible to map as it was ever-changing, there seemed to be purpose in his move. He walked away from Noxian’s domain until the distant silhouette of a big structure emerged.

As he got closer, the silhouette became clearer.

It was a massive boulder with a round summit and a staircase leading up to it.

Kai ascended the staircase.

Something about the boulder was special, as with every step he took, the darkness around him latched onto him harder, pressing against his skin, seeping into his pores, and bestowing on him an intense cold aura.

It clung to him like a second cloak, heavier with each stride.

And yet his movements were smooth—effortless, even.

Like he had already walked this staircase countless times before.

For the last few months, Kai had been training his mastery inside the House of Night.

Noxian was there to help, snapping him out of his trance whenever he went overboard—and the night began to swallow him whole. One method he knew for sure to increase his mastery over the night was by using it.

Make the night create things for him, make it dance for him, make it be his extension.

So, he had practiced short-range teleportation around Noxian’s domain, blinking from a spot to the next, testing the limits of how far he could stretch. He had channelled the night through his body in meditation, letting it flow through his veins like blood—feeling its cold settle into his bones.

He had also done other small tricks and minor manipulations.

Anything he could think of to deepen his connection with the night, thus growing his mastery.

Kai had done it constantly without pause.

He did it until the notion of calling out for the night made his head throb in exhaustion.

At that point, he would rest and repeat the cycle.

And then Noxian had added something else. Something that proved to be even more effective.

Noxian said that he had noticed the other Children of the Primordial Night bore odd marks— on their bodies, and those marks were tied to their cores. Kai had such a mark too, a mark that had formed after he reached the Aspirant Supernal rank.

But his was not tied to his core.

Just another characteristic of the Goddess that manifested physically.

It was superficial, a decoration at most.

So, Kai had begun meditating again. But this time—he channelled the night into his core, into his main Primordial Lock, to see whether there was any difference. And to his surprise, there was a significant difference.

As he continued this process, he could feel that something was forming inside.

A concentration of the night that grew denser with every session.

And with it, controlling the night became easier—more natural. Kai could now call the night to him on a whim. Normally, the night would slither down slowly at his call, but now it came down at double the speed.

Might not be instantaneous, far from it, but it was well-welcome progress.

But around a month ago, he hit a bottleneck.

He could feel whatever was growing inside was now as big as a marble, and it had also started to become solid. It was close, so close, but it wouldn’t form properly. It needed one last push, something that would complete it explosively.

It was how he ended up creating this boulder and staircase.

Kai took his time reaching the top.

He climbed slowly—basking in the darkness that was brushing against his body softly. It was the night praising him for deliberately getting closer to it. Nobody would look this high. Even the Nightborns around would need to climb the staircase to glimpse the top.

And as he ascended, even before he reached the peak, he could already see it.

A lump of darkness.

It hovered right above the summit, a massive sphere of concentrated night that pulsed with a quiet, patient hunger. It was the product of months of hard work—months of pulling the night at this very spot.

Gathering it into one massive lump while simultaneously increasing his mastery over it.

Kai had initially thought this accumulation was another form of his training.

Thought that being high up like this to get closer to the night would deepen his connection.

But when the bottleneck happened, when the marble inside his main Primordial Lock refused to solidify—he realized the lump might serve a greater purpose. An accident that would help him reach greater mastery over the night.

Or perhaps this was no accident at all.

Perhaps the night was happy with him and gave him hints on how to get closer to it.

Regardless, he was going to use it to make one final push.

Kai had been postponing this moment—ever since the bottleneck. It’d be a problem if he was being too hasty and realized soon that he hadn’t gathered enough to make the last push, one that would cost him months of hard work.

Now that the crisis in the waking world was done, the situation in the House of Night was growing worse by the day, and the lump of darkness had already gotten this big—Kai thought it was the right time to make the attempt.

It should be more than enough.

He sat at the heart of the spherical platform made entirely of darkness.

Every part of it leaned toward him as if he were a magnet for the night.

Around him, the air grew colder, still, as his heart pounded hard inside his chest with anticipation.

Kai closed his eyes and steadied his breathing.

Here goes nothing.

Once he was ready, he pulled the big lump of darkness towards him.

Slowly, the lump that was the size of a small house trembled. It resisted for a moment, as if it was testing his resolve, and then it finally moved. Kai pulled harder. His will wrapped around it like chains and dragged it closer.

Even though Kai was only pulling on the lump, it seemed like he was also pulling on the sky.

Strands of darkness from the night sky rushed down and swirled around the lump.

And then, he let himself be drowned.

Swoosh—!

Kai had expected the cold to be immense and braced himself for it, but the sensation still fully caught him off guard. He had never felt the night’s presence this strongly before—not even at midnight, when the night stood at its zenith, had it pressed against him like this.

It pressed against him from every direction, filling his lungs, veins, and thoughts.

And deeper still, the marble inside his main Primordial Lock began to tremble.

Kai’s other senses locked onto it and realized that it was absorbing the lump of darkness at an incredible pace. And then, it began to condense, shrinking rapidly—growing smaller until the mass of darkness started to solidify.

Eventually, with the sound of a bubble forming underwater, the marble turned into a gem.

A pulse of darkness expanded outward from Kai’s body.

Around, the night seemed to sway towards him instead of recoiling back.

Even the ground underneath his feet wobbled at the pulse, a recognition of its power.

Meanwhile, Perion and Kaelmorath looked up at the sky.

Both of them sensed it—a disturbance within the House of Night.

An event that rarely happened within this realm of absolute darkness and silence. Not a single Nightborn dared to cause a ruckus, lest they disturb the Final Night and draw attention from unwanted eyes.

Only a Child of the Primordial Night could do this.

And considering the closest one, the two could already tell the person behind this.

Across from them—Noxian also sensed it. He looked over his shoulder and stared into the far distance beyond his own domain. He stared into the void, his senses stretched outward, and then a pulse of darkness entered his domain and brushed past him.

It was cold but familiar, carrying the signature of someone he knew.

A smile crept across his face behind his mask—Kai.

Of course, Noxian knew that Kai had been training relentlessly in order to get back at that evil Nightborn. He was either meditating or right outside, using the night to do a myriad of things in order to push his mastery further with every session.

Noxian also knew about the bottleneck, as Kai had told him.

But neither of them had known the method to deal with it, to make the final push.

It seemed Kai had found it.

And the pulse grew stronger. Darkness washed over the domain—like a tide, and Noxian felt the night responding to Kai’s will more readily, bending to his command in ways it never had before.

His mastery had reached a higher level.

A level closer to the other Children of the Primordial Night.

"He’s been training even after his meditation. He had not stopped nor rested—I’m surprised." Noxian thought aloud, surprised. "He must have been doing something out there that I don’t know. He’s starting to really look like a Son of the Night."

Kai always returned to the waking world while he was out of Noxian’s domain.

So, Noxian had never seen him leave.

Never knew whether he took a break or kept training. And this disturbance made it absolutely clear that he had continued training out there. Perhaps he was training even harder, as solitude was known to make a monster.

Not to mention, the Ending of Impersonation gave Kai a closer—and more apparent reason to keep pushing forward. Kai had been hunting it for months, wanting nothing more than to tear it to shreds.

Now, he had the power to act.