I am the Only Son of Nyx-Chapter 41: Stone Ending

Kai still knew little to nothing about an Ending.

All he knew was from Noxian that an Ending is a part of a Nightborn’s essence, which only he and the other children of the Final Night could learn. It was the end version of a particular mastery or understanding, unique to each Nightborn.

In order to complete the Ending, Kai needed to exactly do the work the Nightborn had to achieve that Ending.

Like the Perfect Slash Ending, in order to complete it, he was forced to endure the sensation of rigorously intense training in the slashing motion—for a hundred years. So that regardless of his condition, his slash would be perfect.

It was Noxian’s own experience before achieving that ending.

Kai felt every struggle.

Muscles are burning from micro-tears. Bones breaking. And the mental toll was the worst.

Continuing to train despite wanting to quit put his mind through a long, hazardous odyssey.

Kai wondered what the way would be to fully complete the Stone Ending.

Perfect Slash Ending is straightforward, but Stone Ending? What could it possibly be?

But considering what he went through with Noxian, the one with Perion would be easy.

He was dead wrong.

Perion didn’t say anything to him. Didn’t give him a condition. As soon as Kai asked to know about his name completely, the entire dominion shifted sharply from stony plain into a raging ocean, with Kai standing right at its center.

"What the hell do I need to do here?" Kai looked around.

All he could see was the endless ocean and storm.

Back with the training with Noxian, at least he knew exactly what the end result would be.

His mastery of the slashing motion.

But in this moment, he was clueless as to what he needed to do.

"Am I supposed to only endure this?" A violent wave hammered him from behind, slamming his face against the boulder, giving him a concussion. And then the ocean pulled him as it receded, trying to drag him away, making his grip slip further. "Or is there somewhere I need to go? But where?"

It was only then that a surge of information seeped into his skull.

He saw visions.

Something that was thrust into his mind forcefully.

At one second, he was in the middle of the raging ocean. Now, he’s standing on a stone plain.

It resembled Perion’s dominion, but harsher and more barren.

Not a single sign of life could be seen.

Before him was a colony of rocks, dozens if not hundreds of them, that stood at the heart of the stone plain. A congregation of mute sentinels beneath a sky that cared nothing for their endurance. Days and nights blurred into a single, merciless rhythm.

Light and dark flickered like the dying breaths of a forge fire.

Time did not pass so much as it battered them.

Days passed into months. Months bled into years. Years into centuries. Kai watched as the ages wheeled past in a harsh sprawl, and the rocks endured what they could. Rain came first. Not the gentle rains that coax life from soil, but torrents that lashed the plain with fury.

Each droplet is a chisel against ancient stone.

Then the sun, harsh and indifferent, dragged its heat across the land, swelling the rocks.

Some cracked open with the sound of a snapping bone.

Like they were alive.

Violent winds followed, scouring the plain with sand and grit, carving hollows into the rock surfaces. Some rocks buckled, and their sides shattered—as the remaining pebbles were dragged away by the wind.

Winter descended like a blade.

Frost seized the cracks, prying them wider with the patience of something that had forever to wait. And when the humid seasons came, roots crept into the wounds, threading through the fractures like veins.

With every shift of the season, the colony diminished.

One by one, they fell. The harsh plain swallowed them, as plains do.

But one rock remained.

It stood where the colony had once gathered, its surface scarred by a thousand seasons—its shape worn but unbroken. The rain had beaten against it. The sun had scorched it. The winds had carved at it. The winter had frozen it. And even the roots tried to pry into it.

Still, it refused to hollow. Refused to crumble.

The rock endured. In fact, it was even growing bigger and stronger.

And then, one morning, Kai looked up and watched the sun rise.

Something was different.

The light that spilled across the plain wasn’t harsh anymore, but softer. Tender. Where once there had been only stone and dust, grass crept forth in quiet waves. The air, once thick with harsh world, carried only the scent of damp earth and new growth.

Once a merciless void, the sky was now blue and endless.

Eventually, with the bath of warmth from the sun—and tenderness from the world, it gained something more than endurance.

It gained a soul.

Perion finally emerged, the rock that has endured all.

Like a dragon that hatched from a massive egg, it clawed open from the rock and emerged.

Kai took in the sight with marvel, staring as Perion climbed out of the rock—and unleashed a thunderous roar across the entire world. An announcement of his birth. And before Kai knew it, he returned to the harsh ocean.

"No... You’ve got to be kidding me," His eyes widened at the realization.

For him to complete the Stone Ending, he would need to endure being ravaged by nature.

It sounded impossible.

Kai wasn’t a rock. He was a living being that could get sick, and once broken, might not leave behind anything. But once those negative thoughts seeped into his mind, he remembered that he was no ordinary person.

Inside the House of Night, he has power.

He gritted his teeth and climbed the boulder. Clawing his way to the top bit by bit.

Enduring being battered would be easier if his focus weren’t split like this.

"Raarggh!"

Kai shouted at the top of his lungs, but his voice was feeble against the vast ocean, drowned by the rain before it could travel more than a few feet. Lightning flashed across the sky, a flash of blinking white, and each rumble that followed was like Zeus in Olympus laughing at his futile attempt.

But he drew in the night.

A siphon of darkness coated him and lessened the burden on his body.

It was only when the night lent him its aid that his vision was clear enough for him to realize that across from him, there was a figure. Perion stood not far away; his entire body submerged in the ocean, only his head breaking the surface.

He was watching Kai endure.

No emotion could form on his stone face, but Kai could sense his feelings.

Perion was feeling profound gentleness as he watched Kai struggle.

For Perion, this was his story. His origin—before birth. Sacred. And Kai realized he had been approaching this situation, this opportunity, all wrong. It wasn’t meant to torture him. It was meant to make him understand what shaped the Stone Ending.

And he has to be thankful for this opportunity.

He braved the rain and learned the value of persistence. He bore the scorching sun and found purpose in its fire. He resisted the wind and discovered comfort in its speed. He greeted the winter and understood sovereignty in its stillness. He observed the lush as it grew from within his body and grasped the full meaning of life in its reach.

Every time the pain overpowered his mind, he called the night to help him heal.

It was a training of the mind and inner body.

Once his mind shifted and he viewed this process as an opportunity, the miracle started.

And by the end of it, he came out stronger.

By the end of it, the Inner Strength of Stone manifested within him.

...

"Let go of me, please!"

A student cried out as she was roughly dragged by the hair by Layra. She looked up with tear-stricken eyes, clutching at Layra’s hands, begging her to stop. "Please don’t do this... I don’t want to die. Please!"

"Layra!" Another student, a guy, traced the walls weakly. His right arm was hurt from the way he held it. "Layra! Let Namira go. Don’t fucking do this! Team Coeus surrounded the hill already. No more way for us to sneak through them!

"Just..." He panted heavily, still trying to pursue Layra. "Just wait a little bit longer."

"Wait?" Layra stopped and turned, eyes wide in madness. "Wait?! Until when? Until all of us die of starvation?! What do you even think would happen if we wait? That ends tonight. I’m going to hunt, and she’s going to be the distraction.

"Some of us are meant to be sacrificed." She added ruthlessly.

Layra dragged the female student out of the cave and into the moonlight.

But the guy didn’t give up.

"I’ve really talked with a student from Team Crius," the guy confessed as he followed them outside. "The Lesser Angel. He’s far more capable than he seemed to be. I’m sure if we wait a little bit longer, there will be a chance for us to slip out of the hill."

Despite the guy’s desperate persuasion, it fell on deaf ears.

Layra kept going.

Some of the other students who could still walk also came out of the cave.

All of them were saying the same thing. That they should wait a little bit longer.

Some even offered to keep watch themselves—tracking Team Coeus’s movements for any gap they could exploit. Even though Layra had fallen to this state, they still saw her as their leader. She was the one who had kept them alive.

It was she who resisted Team Coeus.

Just that, Team Coeus has too many High Angels for them to realistically beat.

And as for their second High Angel, she died during the first encounter with Team Coeus.

Another student stepped forward.

"One or two more days. It’s harder on them than you," He looked at the other students who were weaker than Layra. Far weaker from malnutrition. "What’s waiting a few more days would even do to you?"

Still, Layra didn’t listen to him and kept going.

It forced his hand to leap over her and barred her way.

"Stop it," He said sternly. "Everyone is desperate here, and I completely understand why you are acting like this. But please. For the sake of the entire team, calm down for a moment. I’ll try to get berries for you. Just hold out a bit longer."

"Move." Layra stared at the man with an emotionless gaze.

Her voice was final.

One could hear a clear intent behind it that if the student doesn’t move, then she wouldn’t be merciful anymore. And seeing that the man has no intention of moving, both her hands oozed with a glowing light.

Mana.

And a magnificent bow manifested.

She dropped the female student and glared at the man.

"Fine, I changed my mind," Layra’s words made the students feel more at ease, but the devil smirk that bloomed on her face a second later froze their smiles. "Instead, I’m going to kill all of you and feed you to Lion."