The Grand Hall of the Aetheleon Palace was a chamber steeped in silence, yet it felt as though the very air were screaming. Thousands of eyes—ministers in their flowing jade robes, magistrates with their iron-rimmed spectacles, and elite knights clad in shimmering spirit-armor—were pinned to the center of the hall. There, amidst the ancient stone and flickering purple torches, sat a king-sized bed from a world of steel and glass. And upon it sat Rayn, the "Cold King" of Earth.
Rayn's heart hammered against his ribs like a war drum, but his face remained an immovable mask of frost. This was the discipline of a man who had stared down corporate predators and navigated the cutthroat boardrooms of Shanghai. Even as his mind screamed in confusion, his expression didn't twitch. He slowly lowered his legs from the silk sheets, his bare feet touching the cold, polished stone of the palace floor.
He looked at Rena, who stood trembling beside him. Her face was a ruin of hope and agony, her eyes overflowing with tears.
"Excuse me, ma'am," Rayn said, his voice level and chillingly professional. "Who are you? Where exactly am I, and what is the meaning of this elaborate theater?"
The words he spoke were English, the sharp, rhythmic tongue of Earth. To the ears of the Aetheleon court, it sounded like a series of harsh, gutteral clicks and strange vowels—a language of the void. Rena tilted her head, her heart breaking at the sound of a voice she didn't recognize. She didn't care for words. She saw the eyes of her son, the brow of the man she had lost twenty years ago.
With a cry that tore through the hall, Rena lunged forward. She wrapped her arms around Rayn's neck, pulling him into a crushing embrace. She began to kiss his forehead, his cheeks, and his hands, her tears wetting his silk pajamas. It was the desperate, starving love of a mother who had found her soul's anchor after two decades of drifting.
Rayn's eyes widened in genuine shock. He didn't feel warmth; he felt a violation of his personal space. He placed his hands on her shoulders and shoved her back with a strength born of panic.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Rayn barked, his voice rising. "Why are you kissing me? Are you some kind of pervert? Guards! Someone get this woman away from me!"
The hall remained paralyzed. To the ministers, the "Sovereign" had just pushed away the woman who had sacrificed her flesh to bring him home. They began to whisper, their voices a low hiss of disapproval.
In the back of the hall, Jai stood beside Alaric, his jaw dropping. His mind was spinning in a chaotic whirlpool. I understand him, Jai thought, his blood running hot. Why do I understand him? That's the language from my visions! The office, the football... that's his world!
Jai looked at James, Brokk, and Winston. Their faces were twisted in confusion. Zayn, Arthur, and Morisa were equally lost.
"Hey, James," Jai whispered urgently. "Did you understand what he just said?"
James tilted his head, looking at Jai as if he had grown a second head. "Understand? Man, he's barking like a rabid beast. I think the transition broke his mind. Maybe he's a madman, just like Aunt Rena was before the ritual. It runs in the family, I guess."
Jai realized the truth with a jolt of electricity. No one else understands. Only me.
He couldn't stay silent. If this went on, the court would turn on Rayn before he even realized where he was. Jai pushed past Alaric, stepping toward the center of the hall.
"Hey! Jai! What are you doing?" Alaric hissed, reaching out to grab his nephew's arm.
Jai brushed his hand away. "I think they need my help, Uncle. If I don't speak, this becomes a tragedy."
Jai stepped into the light, his golden aura flickering slightly. He looked at Rayn and then at the confused, weeping Rena.
"He is asking who you are!" Jai shouted, his voice echoing through the rafters. "And he asked why you were kissing him! He doesn't know you!"
The hall went from a murmur to a dead stop. Edward Chenwongo, Jai's father, stepped forward with a scowl, placing a heavy hand over Jai's mouth. "Silence, boy! You are speaking nonsense in front of the Goddess of War! Do not bring shame to the Chenwongo name with your delusions!"
"Edward. Let him go."
Beatrice's voice was not loud, but it carried the weight of a mountain. Edward froze, his eyes widening, and he slowly withdrew his hand. Beatrice gestured for Jai to come forward.
Jai walked until he stood between the bed and the throne. He looked at Rayn, who was staring at him with a look of dawning realization. Rayn remembered. He remembered the boy who had flickered in and out of his office like a ghost.
"How do you understand his tongue, Jai?" Beatrice asked, her eyes narrowing with intense curiosity.
"I don't know, ma'am," Jai replied honestly. "Maybe it's a resonance of my power, or maybe our souls are linked through the bloodline... but the words feel as natural to me as our own Axeleric."
The Bridge Between Two Worlds
Rayn stared at Jai. The fear in his chest began to subside, replaced by a calculating logic. This is the boy from the vision. The voice I heard wasn't a hallucination. It was real.
He saw the woman—Rena—reaching out her hands again, her face pleading. Rayn retreated a step, his mind racing. Is this like those stories? Those 'Isekai' animations Valerie used to talk about? Transported to a world of magic to kill a demon lord? Am I the savior here?
Jai interrupted his internal monologue. "Hey, Bro! My name is Jai. I'm your cousin."
Rayn held up his left hand, flashing a sharp "stop" sign. His eyes narrowed. "Wait," Rayn said, switching to Axeleric—the language of Aetheleon. "I... I can understand you. How?"
Jai froze. "You can understand me?"
"Yes," Rayn replied, his voice trembling slightly. "How is this possible? My secretary, Valerie, told me I was a newborn when my father left me on Earth. I shouldn't know a word of this... Axeleric."
Jai grinned, a sense of relief washing over him. "It's in your blood, Rayn. Some things the soul doesn't forget, no matter how many years you spend in the 'Other World.'"
Jai stepped closer, pointing a finger at Rena, who was still weeping with joy. "Rayn, listen to me. The person crying... the woman who held you... she is your mother. Your biological mother, Rena. She has waited twenty years for this moment. She nearly died to bring you back."
Rayn's breath hitched. A "mother." The word felt foreign, heavy, and impossibly precious. He had grown up with a mother whose raise him with fear of circumstance, a man who built a billion-dollar empire to fill the void where a family should have been. To hear that he had a mother—and that she was standing right there—was like a tectonic shift in his reality.
He looked at Rena. He observed her face for two full minutes, his "Cold King" eyes analyzing every feature. He saw the curve of her jaw, the shape of her eyes, and realized they were mirrors of his own. She is beautiful, he thought. This is where I get it from. My mom. My own blood-related mom.
He took a slow, tentative step forward. Rena didn't wait. She collapsed into him, her arms locking around his waist. Rayn didn't push her away this time. He let her head rest against his chest, feeling the warmth of her tears soaking into his silk pajamas. He stood there for five minutes, motionless, allowing the reality of a mother's love to penetrate his icy exterior.
Beatrice stepped down from her throne, her boots clicking against the stone. She moved Rena aside gently and held Rayn's face in her calloused, powerful hands.
"See!" Beatrice shouted to the hall, her voice soaring with pride. "Look upon him! This is my descendant! The grandson born from my own daughter's womb! The blood of the Goddess of War flows in his veins!"
The hall erupted. Knights clashed their swords against their shields, and the ministers began to clap in a thunderous rhythm of acceptance.
Rayn looked at Beatrice. He saw the strength in her, a reflection of the power he had spent his life cultivating on Earth. He hugged her tightly. He wanted to cry—his soul was screaming for the release of tears—but nothing came. Years of maintaining a "cold face," of suppressing every emotion to survive the corporate jungle, had turned his tear ducts into stone. His face remained a mask of frozen marble even as his heart overflowed.
Jai stepped forward and offered his hand. "Welcome home, Rayn."
Rayn looked at the hand, then at Jai. He took it, his grip firm and professional. "My name is Rayn. I am the Chairman of a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. I built an empire with my own two hands."
Jai blinked, tilting his head. "Dollars? Conglomerate? I don't know what those words mean, Bro, but it sounds like you were a King in your world, too. Here, things are a bit different. Let me introduce the family."
Jai gestured to the group, calling them forward one by one.
"This is your mother, Rena," Jai said, as Rena clung to Rayn's arm. "And Beatrice, your grandmother, the Queen of the Human Kingdom."
He pointed to Alaric. "Alaric Chenwongo—your uncle, the first child of Beatrice's older brother. The Golden Lion."
He pointed to his own parents. "Edward Chenwongo, my father and your uncle. And Mable, my mother and your aunt."
Jai then introduced James, explaining that he was another cousin, and also James parents and then Little Arthur, Brokk, Winston, and Zayn.
Rayn nodded to each of them, his mind cataloging the faces with the precision of a high-speed computer. He noticed something immediately—the way the air vibrated around them. "Jai," Rayn asked, leaning in. "Everyone here... they have a certain 'pressure' around them. Powers?"
Jai smiled. "Yes. We call it Qi, or the Vortex. I have the Golden Scourge, the same power as the legendary Emperor Dominatrix."
Rayn's eyes widened. He pointed at his mother and grandmother. "And them?"
"Grandma Beatrice is the strongest woman in this kingdom," Jai said. "But..." He paused, looking at Rena with a flicker of sadness. "I am sorry to say, Rayn... your mother never awakened any powers. She is a 'Normal,' and because of that, people in this palace have treated her with a lot of disrespect over the years."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. Rayn's eyes, already cold, turned into shards of ice. The "Cold King" of Earth was not a man of peace; he was a man of calculated retaliation.
"They disrespected her?" Rayn whispered, his voice vibrating with a lethal edge. "Because she was 'weak'?"
He began to step toward the magistrates, his posture shifting into that of a predator. He didn't have magic, but he had the aura of a man who had destroyed lives with a single signature.
"Rayn, stop!" Jai shouted, grabbing his shoulder. "Don't attack anyone! You don't have Qi yet. Even the weakest guard here could kill you in an instant!"
But Rayn wouldn't listen. The rage of twenty years of abandonment and the insult to his newfound mother were boiling over. Seeing that Rayn was about to throw a punch that would get him killed, Jai sighed.
"Forgive me, Bro. This is for your own good."
Jai stomped his foot. "Golden Scourge Art: The Golden Step!"
A ripple of golden energy surged across the floor. Rayn suddenly felt as though the gravity around him had increased a thousandfold. His feet were glued to the stone. He couldn't move a finger, his body locked in a shimmering golden stasis.
"This spell will keep you still for one hour," Jai said, standing in front of him. "Only I can remove it. Calm your heart, Rayn. In this world, rage without power is just a suicide note."
Rayn glared at Jai, his eyes burning with a silent fury. But as the minutes ticked by, the discipline of the CEO returned. He forced his breathing to slow. He analyzed the situation. He realized Jai was right. After ten minutes of intense silence, Rayn gave a small, sharp nod.
Jai snapped his fingers, and the pressure vanished. Rayn nearly stumbled but caught himself, adjusting his silk pajama sleeves with a cold dignity.
In the midst of the emotional reunion, Mable, Jai's mother, stepped forward. Her eyes were sharp, filled with a mixture of suspicion and a strange kind of greed.
"Lord Beatrice," Mable said, her voice cutting through the hall. "We have all heard the whispers. The prophecy of the returned Sovereign. I want to know... is your grandson a human like us, or is he a Dragon?"
The word sent a shockwave through the hall. "Dragon!" the ministers began to scream. "Check the bloodline! Confirm the nature of the Sovereign!"
The rumors of Rayn's father being of the Dragon Clan had been a dark cloud over Rena's head for twenty years. If Rayn was a dragon, his presence changed everything—it meant a shift in the cosmic balance of Aetheleon.
Beatrice's face went grim. She looked at Rayn, who was standing there in his Earthly pajamas, looking confused by the word 'Dragon.'
"Quiet!" Beatrice roared, her aura exploding like a supernova. The hall fell into a terrified silence.
She turned to Rayn, her hand reaching out to touch his chest, right over his heart. "The rumors have persisted for too long. To lead this kingdom, we must know the truth of your soul."
Rayn stood his ground, his cold eyes meeting his grandmother's. He didn't know what a 'Dragon' was in this context, but he knew one thing: he was no longer a Chairman. He was a piece on a much larger board.