Senjonng's eyes had seen power all his life.
Fire that could swallow armies.
Winds that could tear mountains apart.
Gravity that could bend the very ground into submission.
None of it surprised him anymore.
Power, to him, had long stopped being extraordinary.
It had become… expected.
And yet
As his gaze settled once again on the boy sitting beneath the distant tree.
Something inside him stirred.
A feeling he had not known in years.
Not awe.
Not fear.
Something older.
Something… remembered.
His fingers tightened slightly on the arm rest of his seat.
And without warning
His mind slipped into the past.
There was a time when the world spoke a different name.
Not Senjonng.
Not even the titles that followed him now.
But another.
A name that echoed across nations.
Kartos.
The youngest Sovereign Champion the world had ever seen.
He did not look like power.
That was the strange thing about him.
Kartos was lean, almost unassuming at first glance.
His frame did not carry the bulk of a warrior, nor the intimidating presence of a conqueror. His hair fell carelessly over his forehead, and his eyes his eyes carried something dangerous.
Not anger.
Not arrogance.
But an unbreakable certainty.
The kind that does not need to prove itself.
The kind that already knows.
Senjonng remembered the first time he had seen him.
A boy.
Barely older than the students performing now.
And yet
When Kartos moved, the world responded.
Not resisted
Responded
His mastery over elements was
unnatural.
Air bent around him like a loyal servant. Water moved with a grace that felt alive. Gravity itself obeyed his will compressing and releasing at his command as if the earth had chosen him as its voice.
But that was not what made him feared.
It was the fourth.
The unknown.
The power no one could name.
Aerial Lightning.
It did not behave like lightning.
It did not strike from the sky.
It existed in the air itself.
Silent.
Invisible
Until it chose not to be.
Kartos could summon it without warning.
A crack in the air, a flash that did not travel but appeared, and everything it touched ceased.
Not burned.
Not broken.
Ended.
Senjonng had seen it once.
Only once.
And once had been enough.
There had been a battle.
No
A massacre.
A thousand fighters.
Skilled.
Trained.
Armed with power and pride.
They stood against Kartos.
And for a moment, it had looked like a fight.
For a moment.
Then
The air shifted.
Gravity collapsed beneath their feet.
Winds tore formation apart.
Water turned against its own masters.
And the lightning
That silent, merciless force
Fell without warning.
When it ended
There was no battlefield.
Only silence.
A thousand fighters
Gone.
And Kartos stood alone.
Unharmed.
Unshaken.
Unchanged.
But even he
Even Kartos
Had met something he could not overcome.
Senjonng's gaze darkened slightly.
The memory deepened.
There had been a threat.
One that did not belong to any nation.
One that did not follow the rules of power.
Its name had been whispered only in fear.
Varyon, the Null Sovereign.
He was not a master of elements.
He was something else.
Something far worse.
Varyon possessed a power that no one had seen before.
Or since.
He could erase power itself.
Not block it.
Not defend against it.
Erase it.
When fire was cast at him it vanished before reaching him.
When gravity tried to crush him it dissolved into nothingness.
When lightning struck it simply… did not exist anymore.
He did not fight power.
He denied its existence.
And that made him untouchable.
To the ten nations
He was not just a threat.
He was the end.
Because if power meant nothing
Then everything built upon it would fall.
Empires.
Leaders.
Champions.
All meaningless.
Varyon did not seek to rule.
He sought to undo.
To return the world to somethin empty.
And that was why Kartos had stood against him.
Not for glory.
Not for victory.
But because someone had to.
The battle between them was never witnessed fully.
Only fragments remained.
Stories broken by time.
Some said the sky itself had torn open.
Others said the earth had stopped responding.
But one thing was certain
When it ended
Varyon was gone.
And so was Kartos.
No body.
No proof.
No memory left untouched.
It was as if the world had chosen to forget him.
Or had been made to.
Only a few remembered.
Only those who had seen enough to never forget.
Senjonng was one of them.
—
"The power we see
He murmured quietly to himself.
always brings the enemy we cannot defeat."
The words faded into the present.
The crowd cheered.
Another student had completed their demonstration.
Senjonng blinked once.
The present returned.
But his thoughts did not.
They lingered in the past.
In memory.
In loss.
And slowly
His gaze moved again.
Toward the tree.
Toward Arin.
There was something there.
Not power.
Not yet.
But something…
Unfamiliar.
Unsettling.
Familiar.
Confusing.
Why does he feel…
Senjonng's breath slowed.
…like a question I already know the answer to?
He wanted to stand.
To walk.
To ask.
But something stopped him.
Not fear.
Not doubt.
Something deeper.
As if a line had been drawn long ago
One he could not cross.
Not yet.
"Impressive control," Senjonng said aloud, turning slightly toward Director Yonsai as another student finished their display.
Yonsai bowed slightly.
"Our students strive for excellence, Sovereign Champion."
Senjonng nodded.
Then, casually—
Almost too casually—
He asked:
"That boy."
Yonsai followed his gaze.
Arin.
"Sitting alone," Senjonng continued, "why is he not participating?"
Yonsai's expression shifted slightly.
"Ah… him."
A brief pause.
"He is the only student in the academy who possesses no ability."
Silence.
For the first time that day
Senjonng's composure cracked.
None?" he repeated softly.
Yonsai nodded.
Yes. No elemental affinity. No measurable power."
Senjonng looked back at Arin.
Longer this time.
Deeper.
As if trying to see beyond what was visible.
Yonsai, noticing the change, frowned slightly.
Is something the matter, my lord?
Senjonng did not answer immediately.
Inside him, something did not align.
Something refused to make sense.
A boy with nothing… does not feel like this.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
Then
A faint smile appeared.
Not of amusement.
But of realization.
Or perhaps
Of curiosity.
"Interesting," Senjonng said quietly.
Very quietly.
Yonsai did not understand.
But he felt it.
Something had shifted.
Far from the stage
Under the tree
Arin watched the performances.
Fire.
Wind.
Water.
Gravity.
Each display more controlled than the last.
Each student more confident.
More certain.
More… complete.
Arin leaned back slightly against the trunk.
And whispered to himself
"Why am I… like this?"
His voice was soft.
Barely there.
"Even the weakest among them has something.
He looked at his hands.
Empty.
Still.
"God… if you were going to make me part of this world
He paused.
Then smiled faintly.
A tired smile.
"At least give me a place in it."
The wind passed gently through the leaves above him.
But it did not answer.
And on the stage
Senjonng continued to watch.
Not the strongest.
Not the loudest.
But the one who had nothing.
Because sometimes
What appears empty…
Or something different