The sea was silent. Not peaceful—dead.

  As their boat drifted through the coastal waters of the Usuki Kingdom, Hatashi, Kaitara, Tiatsuri, and Sensei Hashiro could feel it. The ocean reeked faintly of poison, waves sluggish as though life itself had drained away.

  “This water…” Tiatsuri muttered, trailing his fingers along the surface. A second later, he doubled over, coughing blood.

  “Tiatsuri!” Kaitara grabbed him, her Takuda mark glowing bright pink. Healing energy flowed from her palms into his body, burning away the toxin before it could reach his heart. His ragged breathing steadied, color returning to his face.

  “Thanks, sis,” he said with a weak grin.

  “Thank Sensei,” Kaitara corrected firmly. “He’s the one who taught us how to awaken our powers.”

  Tiatsuri leaned back, smirking despite himself. “Then I owe him twice over.”

  Hatashi said nothing. His Devil’s Eye shimmered faintly as he scanned the poisoned tide. The current itself twisted unnaturally. This was no ordinary toxin—it was power, crafted and spread by a master.

  Their boat scraped against the remains of a coastal village. Houses leaned on broken beams. Nets hung empty, rotting where they’d been left. A fisherman appeared from the shadows, his eyes sunken but burning with desperation.

  “Usuki warriors,” he rasped. “The River King has cursed this land. He killed our ruler and poisoned the sea. Please… save us.”

  Without another word, the man led them to the edge of the river and offered his boat. He did not climb aboard.

  “This is as far as I can go,” he whispered. “If you fail, none of us will live.”

  The four warriors pushed into the mist. By the time the silhouette of a palace emerged, the air itself had grown sharp with frost. Ice crusted the oars. The world fell silent.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Inside the throne room, the River King waited.

  He sat on a frozen throne, his body broad and towering, skin pale blue, eyes like shards of glass. The ground beneath his feet was solid ice, veins of frost crawling up the golden walls.

  “You children should have stayed in your academy,” he said, his voice like cracking glaciers. “Now you’ll die here, forgotten beneath the ice.”

  Tiatsuri stepped forward, fists crackling with faint lightning. “We’ll free this land from your grip.”

  The River King smiled coldly. “Then perish.”

  He slammed his palm into the floor. The palace trembled. Thorned vines of ice burst upward, twisting like serpents. Frozen skeletons clawed their way from the ground, armed with jagged blades.

  "Water technique: ice emergence" The river king said then grinned.

  “Formation!” Hatashi barked.

  Kaitara moved first, fists glowing with Takuda light as she shattered skeletons with bone-breaking strikes. Tiatsuri’s power flared in arcs of blue lightning, tearing through the icy horde. Hatashi blurred across the battlefield, illusions multiplying until the air itself seemed filled with copies of him.

  “Dragon Technique: Inferno!” Hatashi roared. Flames swept across the skeleton army, melting them into puddles.

  The River King rose from his throne, unimpressed. “You think fire can melt a river?”

  He raised his arms. Ice vines shot from the ground, stabbing and whipping at impossible speed. One vine pierced straight through Hatashi’s chest. Blood spattered the frozen floor.

  “Hatashi!” Kaitara cried.

  But his body dissolved into smoke.

  “An illusion?” the River King growled, twisting to find him.

  The real Hatashi dropped from above, blade blazing. “Dragon Technique: Furnace Strike!”

  Fire engulfed the River King, his icy armor cracking and blackening. He staggered back, smoking and scarred, but still alive.

  “Pathetic,” he hissed. “I’ll kill the healer first.”

  His vines surged toward Kaitara.

  “Not happening!” Tiatsuri shouted, lightning exploding from his arms. His Takuda marks flared brighter—three blue diamonds now burned into his skin. The air trembled with raw electricity.

  Kaitara’s own energy answered, two glowing diamonds flashing to life as her fists blazed with scarlet light. Together, the siblings charged, striking in perfect unison. Their combined force shattered the River King’s defenses, sending him staggering.

  Hatashi appeared behind him in the same instant, Devil’s Eye glowing. His blade seared through the River King’s chest in a storm of fire using the Dragon technique: Furnace Strike.

  The tyrant crashed to his knees, smoke rising from his ruined body.

  “Tell us where to find Kaoru Akira—the Sun King,” Hashiro demanded.

  The River King laughed, bitter and broken. “I will never betray the feudal lords.”

  With a final surge of power, he drove a shard of poisoned ice into his own heart. His body froze solid, then shattered into a thousand pieces.

  The silence that followed was deafening.

  Kaitara lowered her fists, trembling. “Even in death, he refused to surrender.”

  Hatashi’s Devil’s Eye flickered, his expression grim. “Which means the others will be worse.”

  Hashiro’s gaze swept the room, sharp as a hawk. A shadow rippled along the wall—a cobra slithering into the mist. Its eyes glowed faintly before vanishing.

  “The Serpent Demon,” Hashiro muttered. “He’s watching us.”

  None of them spoke as they left the shattered throne room.

  But when they stepped outside, the silence broke. The villagers poured into the streets, weeping, cheering, showering them with gifts and praise. For the first time in years, the coast rang with joy.

  Yet Hatashi’s gaze drifted beyond the celebration. His Devil’s Eye caught only shadows far away—watching, waiting.

  The true war had just begun.