# God Seed
## Chapter 9 – Blood Doesn't Lie
The eight enforcers moved into position around me.
Their beasts growled and shifted, the air crackling with combined energy. Master Lian stood at the edge of the arena, composed and waiting, his silver eyes cold with quiet certainty.
I rolled my left sleeve back down.
I was about to move —
Then the entire arena shook.
A deep, rhythmic thumping sound filled the sky. It grew louder with every second — heavy, mechanical, impossible to ignore. Several spectators screamed and stumbled back from the open roof of the arena, shielding their eyes as massive shadows passed overhead.
Four enormous military helicopters appeared from four different directions simultaneously, hovering in perfect formation above the arena. Their rotor wash hammered downward, sending dust and loose debris spiraling across the arena floor. The flags on the helicopters bore a crest I didn't recognize — but the enforcers clearly did. Several of them visibly stiffened.
Then I saw it.
Above the helicopters — cutting through the sky like a living glacier — was something else entirely.
A Phoenix.
But not like any phoenix described in old stories. This one was made of ice. Pure, crystalline, blinding white-blue ice that caught the afternoon light and shattered it into a thousand directions. Its wingspan was staggering — easily a hundred meters from tip to tip. The sheer pressure of its aura rolled down from the sky like a physical weight. Cold air poured off its body in violent waves, and thick frost began forming instantly across every surface in the arena — seats, walls, weapons, armor.
**Nine-Star.**
Even without understanding this world fully, I could feel it. Every beast in the arena — the enforcers' Two-Stars, Master Lian's summoned creatures — they all went completely silent. Not cautious. *Silent.* The way animals go silent when something ancient and far above them enters their space.
And standing on its back, perfectly still and perfectly calm, was a woman.
I studied her from below.
She was under thirty. Her posture carried the kind of authority that didn't need to announce itself. And her hair —
Half black. Half white.
Exactly like mine. Except hers fell in long, heavy waves down her back, while mine was tied short behind my head.
The helicopter's external speaker crackled to life. A firm, clipped voice echoed across the entire arena and likely half the surrounding district:
*"All personnel remain exactly where you are. Do not speak. Do not move. Anyone who raises a weapon — live or beast — will be fired upon immediately. This is your only warning."*
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
The Nine-Star Ice Phoenix descended in a slow, magnificent spiral, landing at the center of the arena with a sound like an entire glacier calving at once. The shockwave of cold air knocked several people off their feet. Its enormous body filled more than half the arena floor. The temperature dropped so severely that breath became visible in white clouds.
Master Lian had gone completely pale.
The woman stepped off its back and landed lightly on the arena floor.
She walked directly toward me.
I watched her approach without moving. Beside me, Junia had gone completely still, gripping the edge of my coat with both hands, staring up at the Phoenix with an expression somewhere between terror and pure awe.
The woman stopped two meters away. She looked me over once — quickly, thoroughly — then crossed her arms and said in a flat, unimpressed voice:
"Rohan. Where exactly have you been for the last five days?"
I said nothing immediately.
I was watching her face. The slight tension around her eyes. The way she'd said my name — not like a stranger, and not quite like someone happy to see me. Like someone who had been worried and was furious about having been worried.
*She's family. Has to be.*
I kept my voice neutral. "I'm sorry — your name?"
The woman's expression didn't change. But something flickered behind her eyes.
"So that's how we're doing this." She tilted her head slightly. "Go ahead then. Play your game. But don't think acting confused is going to save you from the conversation we're going to have."
"I'm not acting," I said. "I'm genuinely asking. What is your name, and what is your relationship to me?"
She stared at me for a long moment.
Then, two assistants appeared from behind her — both carrying slim rectangular tablets. They stepped to either side of her and began presenting reports quietly, their voices low and rapid. Video footage. Testimony logs. Damage assessments from the arena.
She listened without looking at them. Her eyes stayed on me.
After a moment she said, almost to herself, "You destroyed three beasts, cleared an underground kidnapping base, and wandered into this Two-Star City examination arena — all in five days." A pause. "And now you're telling me you don't know who I am."
"That's correct," I said.
She was quiet for another moment.
Then — slowly — something in her expression softened. Not much. Just enough.
"Romaniastar," she said. "That's my name. And I'm your elder sister, you idiot."
---
*Elder sister.*
The information settled into place. The Lord of Romaniastar City — a Nine-Star beast master. The woman who had just arrived at a humble Two-Star City's Outer district with four military helicopters and a Nine-Star Ice Phoenix that could probably flatten this entire city if she whispered the command.
My elder sister.
I glanced at the Ice Phoenix, which had folded its wings and was now resting with terrifying quiet dignity behind her. The frost spreading from its body had completely coated the arena floor. Then I looked back at Romaniastar.
"You said our family made a mistake with me," I said carefully.
Her jaw tightened. "I said *I* made a mistake. With how things were handled." She looked away briefly. "That's a longer conversation."
She looked at Junia then — really looked at her for the first time. The small girl was still standing beside me, wide-eyed, gripping my coat.
"Who is this?" Romaniastar asked.
"My friend's daughter," I replied. "He let me stay at his house when I first arrived in this city. Her school examination was today. I came with her."
Romaniastar studied Junia for a moment, then looked back at me.
"Come home," she said. It was quiet. Less of a command than it had started as. "Whatever you want to do after that — I won't interfere. The family won't either. I'll handle them." She paused. "I should have handled them before."
I turned to look at the arena — the Headmaster standing pale and rigid at the edge, the Top students' families frozen under the watchful eyes of soldiers who had rappelled down from the helicopters and now stood at every exit. Master Lian had said nothing since the Phoenix landed. The eight enforcers had quietly dismissed their beasts the moment the Nine-Star aura had washed over them.
"What about all of this?" I said.
"My people will sort it," Romaniastar replied without hesitation. "The examination results will be corrected. The bribery will be documented and prosecuted. The girl's ranking stands." She said it the way someone says something that is already decided. "You have my word."
I looked at Junia.
She was staring up at Romaniastar with enormous eyes — the kind of expression children get when they suddenly understand that the world is much larger and more complicated than they thought.
I crouched down to her level.
"You're in the Top 5," I said. "Officially. That doesn't change."
Junia blinked rapidly. Her lip trembled. Then she threw her arms around my neck and held on tight for a few seconds, not saying anything.
I let her.
When she pulled back, her eyes were wet but her face was determined. She gave me a small, firm nod — the kind that meant *I'll be okay* — and stepped back.
I stood up and looked at Romaniastar.
"Alright. I'll come."
---
I said goodbye to Junia and watched her walk toward the arena officials who were already being redirected by Romaniastar's assistants. I had no doubt the paperwork would be corrected before nightfall. People with that kind of power moved fast when they wanted to.
Then I fell into step beside my elder sister as she walked back toward the Ice Phoenix.
She didn't speak for a moment.
Then, without looking at me, she asked:
"Where did you actually go, Rohan? Genuinely. No act."
I considered how much to say.
"I was kidnapped," I said. "The night before the engagement. Someone arranged it — I found out later it was a personal grudge against the family."
Romaniastar's step didn't falter, but her hand closed slightly at her side.
"I woke up underground," I continued. "Both my legs had been cut off."
She stopped walking.
She turned and looked at me — really looked — scanning my posture, my movement, my legs specifically.
"You're walking fine," she said quietly.
"I recovered," I said.
A long pause.
"How."
"That's the part I'm still figuring out," I said, which was technically true.
She held my gaze for three more seconds. Then she turned and continued walking.
"The kidnapping group," she said. "The underground base."
"Gone," I replied simply.
"All of them."
"Yes."
She didn't ask how. I wasn't sure if that was restraint or if she already knew not to ask questions she wouldn't get answers to yet.
"After that," I continued, "I came out in the forest. Walked until I found this Two-Star City. Met Jun at the gate — he's the man whose daughter Junia is. He let me stay the night. I learned some of the city's basics from him. Then today I came to the examination with Junia and —" I glanced back at the arena behind us. "Things escalated."
Romaniastar was quiet for a moment.
"The Hoko Brothers gang in this Outer City," she said. "Thirty-one members. Disappeared two nights ago. No bodies. No trace."
I said nothing.
"The underground kidnapping base — entire operation wiped. No survivors." A pause. "Also no trace."
Silence.
"Rohan," she said carefully.
"Mm."
"What happened to your eyes?"
I glanced at her. "What do you mean?"
"Your eyes," she said. "They were brown. Now they're —" she looked at me directly for a moment. "Gray. Almost silver."
*The original Rohan's eyes. I hadn't thought about it.*
"A lot happened in five days," I said.
She looked at me for a long moment. Then she exhaled slowly through her nose and looked forward again.
"Fine," she said. "We'll talk more at home."
---
We mounted the Nine-Star Ice Phoenix together.
The moment I stepped onto its back, I felt the cold radiating from its feathers — clean, sharp winter air that somehow didn't bite. The Phoenix turned its enormous head and regarded me with one eye. Ancient. Intelligent. Assessing.
Then it looked away, satisfied with whatever it had found, and spread its wings.
The takeoff hit like a controlled explosion of cold air. The arena, the school, the Outer City streets — everything shrank with stunning speed as we rose into the sky. The four helicopters fell into flanking formation far below us, tiny against the Phoenix's scale.
I looked down.
The Two-Star City spread out beneath us — dense, crowded, layered. Jun's small apartment somewhere in those packed streets. The restaurant. The gate. The arena where Junia had stood trembling, then stood tall.
Then the city disappeared behind us entirely.
We flew.
And we kept flying.
City after city passed below — each one slightly larger, slightly brighter than the last. Three-Star Cities with wider walls. Four-Star Cities with taller towers and stronger aura barriers visible even from the sky. Five-Star Cities where the military formations below were dense enough to look like armies waiting for war. Six-Star Cities where the beast riders patrolling the outer walls alone would have dominated everything back in that Two-Star Outer district.
Every city we passed, I understood more clearly just how large this world was. And how far from the top I had started.
Then —
Romaniastar City came into view.
It was nothing like anything I had seen so far.
The city was vast in a way that made the previous cities feel like outposts. Wide, immaculate avenues stretched in precise geometric patterns between towers of pale stone and dark crystal. Parks and grand plazas were placed at deliberate intervals, giving the city room to breathe. The architecture had a weight to it — not just physical, but the weight of power accumulated over generations.
At the city's center stood the seat of the Romaniastar Family — a layered complex of pale stone and crystal that rose above everything else, catching the last light of the day and scattering it in every direction like a second sun.
And surrounding all of it —
A military force that made every city we had passed look lightly defended.
Battalions of soldiers stood in perfect formation at every outer wall. Beast Riders patrolled in long, disciplined sweeps along the perimeter, their beasts ranging from Five-Star to Seven-Star. Massive artillery platforms were built into reinforced wall towers at regular intervals, each one manned and ready. And above the highest tower of the central complex, the flag of the Romaniastar Family flew in the evening wind —
Half black.
Half white.
I looked at it from the back of the Phoenix as we descended.
Beside me, Romaniastar sat with her eyes forward, her long two-toned hair streaming back in the wind. She had the expression of someone returning home — familiar, settled, quietly proud.
She glanced at me and caught me taking in the city below.
"Welcome back," she said simply.
I looked back down — the walls, the soldiers, the towers, the flag, the scale of it all.
*A Seven-Star City. My elder sister controls all of this. My father controls another city just as powerful. And somewhere between all of it, I have to feed the God Seed one soul every hour without anyone finding out.*
*One problem at a time.*
The Nine-Star Ice Phoenix began its final descent toward the heart of the city, its wings spreading wide to slow our approach, the evening wind rushing past us as the last light of the day painted the towers gold below.
I kept my expression calm.
My new life had just become significantly more complicated.
---