Chapter 43

The sky glows with soft lavender hues as the sun prepares to set over the frosted mountains. Shizuku, standing at the edge, stares out in silence. His glasses fog slightly with the cold.

Kalt XVIII walks up, arms crossed, still sore from the day’s unexpected “training montage.” His newly conjured silver-blue robes swirl slightly in the breeze.

Kalt XVIII
(casual, but curious)
Hey, Shizuku… I’ve been meaning to ask. You’re the Universal Emperor, right? Strongest being in the universe?

Shizuku
(tilting his head with a half-smile)
Mhm. That’s what they keep telling me.

Kalt XVIII
(pointing)
Then what’s the deal with those two other… beings you’ve got inside you?

Shizuku
(raising a brow)
You mean transformations?

Kalt XVIII
(nods slowly)
Yeah. Those. Why don’t you use them more often? I only saw you use one of them in a vision once—your hair was black and red, and everything around you looked like it was burning and glowing at the same time.

Shizuku exhales and takes off his glasses, cleaning them with his scarf.

Shizuku
(quietly)
Because they’re not power-ups. They’re who I become when the universe demands something more from me.
The first one you saw—Beastly Dragon Lord—it swaps my elemental foundation. Turns me into fire, light, yang, and earth. I lose access to my original affinities—water, dark, lightning, yin—temporarily, of course. It's brutal, instinctive… almost feral. My control’s refined now, but back then…

He trails off.

Shizuku
(softly)
Let’s just say it scared people. Including Alto.

Kalt XVIII
(staring wide-eyed)
And the other one?

Shizuku
(smiles faintly)
That one’s called Guardian Angel of Lightning. My hair turns gold and white, and I shift to a stellar-lightning core. It’s rarer. Happens when I hit a mental clarity that few ever reach. It’s not rage. It’s stillness. Like the eye of the storm.

Kalt XVIII
(awed)
Do… do you think I could ever unlock something like that?

Shizuku turns fully to face him, eyes sharp behind his refitted lenses. For a moment, the gentle prince is gone—replaced by the soul who commands the universe’s deepest tides.

Shizuku
(flatly)
Most people don’t even know they can achieve such a state. Even fewer realize it comes from who you are, not what you can do.

He pauses, then smiles, placing a hand on Kalt’s shoulder.

Shizuku
But I’ll say this, Kalt…
You have the potential. You just need to figure out which part of yourself the universe is waiting for.

Kalt looks down at his hands, still slightly shaking from the day’s events, but now steadier than ever.

Kalt XVIII
(quietly)
Then I want to find out. Not for glory… but because I want to protect them. My people. My friends. My… world.

Shizuku
(nods with pride)
Then your story’s about to get a lot more interesting.