THE TRUTH BEHIND LUMINA

Shu wakes up in a completely dark area, his head still stinging from the impact of the last attack Radon had given him. The pain throbs at the base of his skull as consciousness slowly seeps back in, bringing with it the weight of confusion—how long had he been out?

He looked around and saw nothing but pitch black, the only source of light being a faint red shimmer in the distance. From that faint red shimmer, Shu instantly knew where he was—his kantar realm, the inner sanctum where his kantar spirit communicated with him at the deepest level.

With a grin, he called out to the red light saying, "LUMINA!" and instantly the red light appeared closer to him. It spoke, its voice seeming to come not from the light itself but from the environment around him, as if the very darkness were giving voice to the words. "Shu, it's been a while since we talked like this. I wish we could have this conversation under different circumstances, but this will have to do."

It then paused, and Shu looked at the ball of light. A hint of suspicion showed on his face, evident by the way his eyebrow arched as he said, "If I didn't know better, I would think you're trying to hide something from me."

Lumina, hearing that, quickly retorted, "Nonsense, why would I be trying to hide anything from my host? My purpose is to serve you and ensure you successfully fulfill your destiny of beating Shun."

Shu hearing this gave a little smirk, his limbs tensing as he gestured to Lumina, saying, "Of course, of course—and that's why you were messing with my kantar flow back when I was training with Hanz."

Lumina replied in a more agitated tone than previously, "I did that because the opponent you wanted to go up against almost killed you the last time."

Shu hearing this just sighed, scratching the back of his head as he said, "Yeah, yeah, that's the excuse you give, but we both know that wasn't the actual reason. After all, we both knew that if the Ox King had beaten me again, Hanz would have saved me." He then walked towards Lumina, his voice taking on an edge as he said, "I've been wondering about that for a while now, but I chose to let it slide. And now this. Lumina, if there's something you're hiding, spit it out."

Lumina, hearing this, scattered into smaller light pieces—about nine of them—and they all took form. Each had distinctive red hair and crimson eyes but appeared in different sizes, shapes, and genders. The figure in front of the others was the version of Lumina that Shu had fought during his training with Hanz.

The original version of Lumina stepped forward in front of Shu as it said, "The entire reason we are having this conversation is because we believe you are ready to know the truth. Previously, we wanted to put you out of harm's way because you were Kali's kid and we saw the love she had for you. We didn't want anything bad to happen to you and, in result, cause her distress."

Shu, meanwhile, didn't really fully process what Lumina had just said. His eyes darted around the nine figures in front of him as he muttered, "What the hell is going on here? Kantar spirits aren't supposed to be able to do this—it's just one spirit, isn't it?"

The main Lumina stared at Shu, dumbfounded, as it muttered, "You didn't hear a word I just said, did you?"

One of the others—a woman who looked to be about in her thirties, tall, with a fierce and bold appearance and shoulder-length dreadlocked hair—smirked as she said to the main Lumina, "I think you'd need to introduce who we are properly to him." Her face then grew serious as she muttered, "We really don't have that much time. His body is currently using the failsafe we installed to fight. That's not good, given the fact that this is a tournament."

The main Lumina responded with a sigh as it snapped its fingers in front of Shu, saying with a hint of irritation on its face, "Hey, idiot, are you listening to me?"

Shu, hearing the snap, came back to reality. Seeing he had regained Shu's attention, Lumina continued, "Since you can't let it go, the kantar spirit you know as Lumina is actually a collective consciousness of celestials that Shun wiped out." It paused before continuing, "It was our will to be avenged, merged with the prayers of you mortals, that led the Enkairadion to gain consciousness and write you into existence—and write us to be your kantar spirit."

It sighed as it said in a lower, slightly annoyed tone, "I'm still wondering why it did that instead of just rewriting everything that Shun did."

The female celestial then interrupted, saying, "You know why. That's why Shun simply can't kill the boy with the piece of Enkairadion he has with him. The only rule of the book is that it has to follow a story-like pattern."

Shu, hearing all this, stared in confusion. His face shifted to something that was almost like anger as he said, "So you guys didn't think to tell me about any of this until now? Really, guys?"

The main Lumina then responded, "You weren't ready to know that. After we fought and you defeated me, we still weren't a hundred percent in letting you become the 'saviour of the world' or whatever else the Enkairadion has written for you. But over these past few months, you've grown and shown us that you're more than capable of handling the burden that the Enkairadion has put on you. Even though in the end we were the ones who defeated Dracula, we have all decided that you're strong enough to deal with this burden. From now on, we are going to be completely transparent with you."

Shu, hearing this, calmed down a bit, but he was still visibly unhappy. The frown on his face was an obvious identifier. He then sighed as he said, "Sure, whatever. Just let me go back to the arena now. I'm pretty sure the fight will be over by now since I blacked out and all."

All nine celestials smirked hearing this. One of them—a young man who looked about twenty-five—said, "About that: we did set up a failsafe from when you were a toddler to keep you safe. If you were ever in danger and you blacked out, your subconscious would gain all our combat experiences and memories and try to neutralize the opponent before you woke up."

Shu, hearing this, stared at them with a confused look, saying, "Huh? What do you mean by that?"

The young man gave a nervous smile and waved his hand into the darkness, creating what looked like a screen that showed what was going on in the outside world. He then said, "I think it better we show you."

Shu looked into the screen and saw himself wielding his staff on a level that he couldn't possibly dream of—the movements precise, powerful, and utterly inhuman in their execution.

Radon charged towards Shu with astonishing speed, extending his claws to attack. Shu saw himself responding by rotating his staff at a very high speed, coating it with fire before throwing it in Radon's direction. The staff flew so fast that Radon barely dodged it, and the edge of the flaming staff narrowly scraped his ribs, making a tear that made him bleed.

Shu, using the nanosecond Radon had needed to dodge to his advantage, immediately appeared in front of him and threw a giant sphere of raw kantar at him. It exploded on contact, sending Radon flying into the walls.

The smoke and rubble cleared, and Shu from the screen could see himself walking towards Radon. He then turned back to the celestials, saying, "Send me back. It's not fair if I win this fight. I'm not even the one doing the fighting."

The main Lumina then nodded at Shu before saying, "Alright then. We just wanted to show you what actually happens when you pass out in the middle of a fight. We look forward to truly working with you from now on."

It then waved its hand, and Shu started fading away. He could feel himself drifting back into consciousness. Just before he fully woke up, he turned to the main celestial and said, "Wait, what should I call you then?"

Hearing this, the celestial smiled, saying, "We didn't lie to you when we told you our name. We are Lumina."

With that, Shu drifted back into consciousness, waking up to find himself grabbing Radon by the face. He immediately dropped him and leaped away, giving Radon distance as he said while taking a fighting stance, "Sorry about that. I wasn't myself for a bit. What do you say we take it back from the top?"