The First Shackle

For the first time in three lives, Kilian discovered an addiction to meat and grease, tearing through the turkey tails with his eyes shut and his lips only pausing to make muffled moans.

At his right, Inyoka in his arm-sized snake form sipped potent alcohol through a glass straw.

"Mhm! Lord this is good. Sometimes, I can't help but wonder why men make life so complicated. Men are so greedy! They have everything within three square meters, yet want to reach so far beyond. Just like that idiot we just redecorated, why did he have to be so greedy?

Heir of a grand duke, lord of a mighty house, women left and right, and all the delicacies he could hope for, yet he still needed to oppress my girl. Who gave him the right? The audacity? The authority! I should have asked him so that I could split the blame. A pity. Inyoka, even if your sentience improves, don't become like men," Kilian urged between two turkey tails. In response, Inyoka hissed and bobbed his heads.

"Not like that bastard Klaus, such a clever man. For whatever reason, he wants me to hunt him, to experience grief, hatred, resentment, and aim it all at him. He knows that even if I'm clever enough to see through the ploy, I can't stop!

Inyoka, hatred is a disease. It clutches your heart, squeezes the air out of your lung, smacks you in the face every morning, and keeps your blind eyes aiming at its source even as you sleep!" Kilian thrice slammed his chest and snarled in a rare outburst of rage. His eyes went bloodshot, with the lilac iris shining in a brighter hue.

Stopping his booze drinking, Inyoka rubbed his heads against Kilian's arms, as if using his cold scales to cool his master's internal flames. Seeing this, Kilian sighed and patted Inyoka's back.

"Men, put no limits to their powers and they won't hesitate to terrorize their inferiors, oppressing them with no reason beside 'I can.' Do they really think there's glory in being a cunt?" Kilian lamented, closed his eyes, and alongside Inyoka, dove into the Hellforge. There, the brain-wiped witnesses lay in a corner.

Ignoring them, Kilian swept the Hellforge's chalky walls. Seven paintings adorned them, six of Viktor and Alina in various positions, and one of Klaus in the middle. Kilian drew them all in the last two weeks.

"This, Inyoka, is what we call obsession.

With too much power men lose their heart. Our peers become livestock. Our obsessions turn into demons, and our rage into madness. Even without Jezebel's blood, I was destined to reach this point.

But Inyoka, though I've never felt more free, or freer for grammar purists, it's time I snap out of it. I am a man, not a boy. Boys may grieve their losses, but men must learn to power through. The past is set in stone, but the future is mine," Kilian stated, and with a smile, stretched out his right hand toward the seven paintings. Cracking sounds unfurled, and the paintings burst into smithereens.

"Now, I realize that the first shackle is the self." As the words left his lips, Kilian felt chains snap within his chest, forcefully bringing him out of the Hellforge. Lilac dra surged from his body, and his eyes opened wide. Spreading his hands apart, Kilian released a long breath, pulling the overflowing dra back in through his pore.

Bypassing his physical form, Kilian's dra merged with his soul, becoming a single force. In that instant, he reached Archon-level dra control, thereby mastering the First Shackle—the Dra Shackle!

But that only was the beginning. Slamming his hands together, Kilian forced the lingering lilac mist out of his pores, freeing himself of the blood's aftermath, and regaining full control of his body and reason.

The mist gathered in an intangible orb, Kilian's hands flashed in esoteric gestures, and again his dra gushed forth, this time controlled and directed aimed at the orb. Like a maestro would a musical piece, Kilian weaved his dra, making the orb shrink, split, morph and harden in three lilac, thumb-sized crystals—Minor Fehl Crystals!

Granted they had enough power and understanding of the Arcana, magi could condense as many Elemental Crystals as their Unlocked Roots—a maximum of 48. Moreover, on top of dra requirements, they also needed three Minor Crystals to officially become High Emissaries. Kilian thus made his first leap as a true magus, going from top-level Lesser Emissary to low-level High Emissary.

Each Minor Crystal boosted the element's spell-power by 10%, Greater Crystals by 50%, and Divine Crystals by 100%. Fehl Crystals provided the same boost—but on all elements!

Thus, Kilian had effectively boosted his overall spell-power by 30%, a significant boost. At the same time, his physique and senses had surpassed the low-level Archon tier. If he again faced that Desolate Knife Archon, in one breath, he could take his head.

---[Name: Kilian][Race: Human Fehl Mutant][Age: 18][Magus Rank: low-level High Emissary][Battle Prowess: mid-level Archon][Dra Reserves: 26,670][Knowledge Points: 872][Implants: Lv. 2 Cyberkinesis Chip][Mutation: Stage II Eye of Fehl][Innate Abilities: Eye of Distortion, Eye of Revelation][Unique Disciplines: Lv. 4 Fleshcrafting<>Lv. 4 Transmutation]---

Because he exhausted his kp to enhance his Cyberkinesis Chip, Kilian didn't have much left. At the same time, he'd learned from Jezebel that the past Hellforge owners all mysteriously vanished at various points of time. Needless to say, the knowledge only made him more careful with kp gains.

But as he prepared to stand up, Kilian saw the world around him spin, and he vanished to reappear in a secluded corner of his soul. There, Klaus sat across a wooden table, staring half-dazed at the purple sky. For indeed, following his level up, Kilian's soul went from flaming red to dark purple.

Without a word, Kilian summoned a chair and sat before Klaus.

"Impressive, you're just about to turn 19, yet already broke the First Shackle. You have not let me down, son," Klaus lowered his eyes onto Kilian and praised without reserve.

"You played a critical role in such an early success, father," Kilian leisurely replied, making Klaus' eyebrows arch up.

"W-what did you just call me?" He couldn't help but ask. In the six years they'd spent together, Kilian never once called him "father." Why now?

"As the saying goes, master one day, father always. Klaus, you're not merely my biological father but taught me the vast majority of the things I know. You taught me about the world, about men, how to control or kill them—when and why I should trust those that surround me. But most importantly, you've taught me that the world has no shortage of heroes, and more often than not, they fail it.

Only purposeful villains can create centuries worth of impact. If only for those, I should call you father," Kilian explained with a smile that even Klaus didn't know how to interpret.

"The core difference between heroes and villains?"

"Heroes react, villains drive."

"The first rule of survival?"

"Fairness is a boy's yearning."

"Mercy is…"

"A tool for the mighty, a weakness in the feeble."

"Practice is…"

"The mother of mastery."…

For half an hour, Klaus tested Kilian on the philosophy he'd imparted onto him, and was satisfied to see that Kilian remembered it all without exception. But at the same time, he seemed to stand above them, able to use what he liked and discard what he disliked.

"As expected of someone who wants my life. You surely do study me well. Almost a mini me," Klaus jested while staring into Kilian's hazel eyes with the warmth of an elder.

Undisturbed, Kilian shrugged and leaned forward.

"I never wanted to kill you. I wanted to ruin you. But now I feel like I've been looking at this the wrong way. Ruining you is for myself and has nothing to do with them. You've defined my existence for far too long, and I've grown bored of playing your games."

"So what will you do?"

"I cannot bring them back to life. Their souls are currently being wiped in the Aether Realm. Unless I can become an Astral Master before their reincarnation, there is no hope. But I can destroy the empire, destroy the four kingdoms, reverse the chessboard, and create a place—no matter how small—where infamy faces justice.

Monsters, abominations, the different, the rejected, all those slammed left and right by a fate they have no say in—yet struggle to overcome it—can breathe in peace and forge their destiny.'

Let's call it, the World of Freaks," Kilian declared, striking Klaus hard with the conviction of his words.

"Chimera. Though, I can feel that our fate nears its end. Months, years, who knows? But I'm afraid we only have one face-to-face meeting left.

So, from one villain to another, let me give you a final piece of advice. If you want to do the impossible, find the Altar of Eternity. There lies the power to make a reality of chimeras. As long as you fit the conditions, you can even bring them back." Klaus had just finished his words that Kilian snapped his fingers, making him vanish in a purple haze.

"And I know you will be waiting."

The Klaus in Kilian's soul was nothing more than a residue of the energies Klaus used to power the Eye of Fehl. Naturally, it couldn't resist.