Solo Cultivating in Superhero Academy
Chapter 130: Same Situation

Chapter 130: Same Situation

Keith’s eyes flickered. "No."

"Not even once?"

"No."

Elius nodded to himself. "Eighteen years. No contact?"

"None."

"And your mom?" Elius continued. "Did she ever... talk about him? I mean—did she love him?"

Keith hesitated.

Something about the way Elius asked it felt too specific. Too personal. Like he wasn’t asking randomly.

"...She said she admired him," Keith replied, voice low. "Said he saved her life once. But after that... she didn’t speak of him. Ever."

"Did she know what he really was?"

Keith nodded slowly. "Eventually. I think that’s why she never told me his name until I turned twelve. She was afraid of what it meant."

Elius tapped his fingers together in thought.

"And did you feel different growing up?" he asked. "Like you were supposed to do something bigger, something... else?"

Keith said nothing.

But the silence was its own kind of answer.

Elius leaned back slightly, breathing in through his nose. "You know, it’s funny. You’ve been raised all this time thinking you were a mistake. Thinking the man who sired you abandoned you. That your mother just... picked up the pieces and moved on."

He looked directly at Keith.

"But what if I told you that your father didn’t abandon you? That he never knew about you?"

Keith’s jaw clenched. His fingers curled on his knees.

"That’s a lie."

"Is it?" Elius asked, raising an eyebrow.

"...Why are you asking me all this?" Keith muttered, voice tight.

Elius didn’t answer right away.

He stood up, brushing dust off his knees. He walked a slow circle around Keith, who remained seated but tense. The air between them seemed to tighten, as if something invisible was about to snap.

Elius stopped in front of him.

"Because, Keith..." he said softly.

"...I know who your father is."

Keith’s eyes widened. "What?"

"I know who he was to you. Who he is to me."

Elius paused.

His next words fell with the weight of a thunderclap.

"...He’s my father, too."

Keith’s breath caught.

The silence that followed was thicker than steel.

And then Elius said, as if the tension were nothing but wind—

"We’re brothers."

Back when Elius first heard the call that Keith was still alive, he had been... relieved.

Strangely, truly, relieved.

It was an emotion that surprised even him. He had expected cold calculation—expected his mind to sort the information, weigh the value, and discard it if unimportant.

But instead, when the call came in—his chest had tightened. Not with anxiety.

With hope.

Not only because Radiant Man, that wretched thing masquerading as a father, hadn’t disposed of all his offspring, but because... it meant Elius wasn’t alone.

Not entirely.

Not anymore.

A brother.

A real one.

Another broken piece tossed into the world by the same man who’d nearly ruined him.

At first, he had smiled.

He can finally be free, as long as he used his brother, it would be awesome.

But that smile had quickly faded into something more bitter.

Why, then, was Keith a villain?

What had gone so wrong that this brother of his had walked down the other road—the darker one? Was it spite? Pain? Did he fall? Or had he been pushed?

Elius had spent many nights in silent contemplation after confirming Keith’s identity.

And now... here they were. Sitting in the shattered ruin of a training arena, face to face, with only steel and tension between them. Truths thick in the air like smoke.

But Keith’s face didn’t soften at the word "brother."

Instead, it stiffened.

He stared at Elius like he’d been slapped with an open hand of lies. His expression didn’t shift. He didn’t nod. Didn’t blink. Just breathed—controlled, slow.

"You’re lying," Keith said flatly. "You’re just playing me."

"I’m not," Elius replied without emotion. "But I won’t convince you directly."

"Good," Keith said sharply. "Because I won’t believe it."

Elius smirked. "Fine. Let me ask you something."

Keith narrowed his eyes but didn’t respond. Elius continued anyway.

"Did your mom ever mention your bloodline was different from hers?"

Keith didn’t answer.

"Did you ever notice you healed faster than normal? That your bones were denser, your hearing sharper, your strength sometimes... abnormal?"

Still, silence.

Elius leaned forward. "What about the light? Have you ever been in direct sunlight during a temper and felt your heart pounding louder than normal? Like something was responding to the solar radiation around you?"

Keith’s brow twitched.

"Ever feel like the sun fed you?" Elius added.

Keith’s hands clenched slowly at his sides.

Elius kept going, voice calm, steady, never pleading. "Did you ever wonder why your senses suddenly flare when you’re cornered? Why sometimes, when your rage boils too much, you can’t stop shaking until something breaks?"

Keith said nothing.

"But you don’t think that’s strange," Elius said. "You just think that’s who you are. And I get it. You weren’t trained. No one told you. No one explained it. No one said, ’Keith, that rage isn’t just yours. It’s inherited. It’s part of a bloodline that comes from something divine... and rotten.’"

Keith’s jaw twitched. Still, he stayed silent.

Elius’s voice softened, but there was iron behind it.

"You don’t believe me. That’s fine. I wouldn’t either. But you have to ask yourself, why would I sit here, after wrecking your friends, after almost wrecking you, and talk about this if it wasn’t true?"

Silence.

Then Keith growled out, "Why would Radiant Man abandon me and my mother, then? If what you’re saying is true? Why her? Why me?"

Elius didn’t flinch. "He didn’t abandon you."

Keith blinked.

"He just... didn’t care," Elius said. "He didn’t think it mattered."

Keith’s breath hitched. For a long second, he didn’t speak.

Then, slowly, he muttered, "...What about you?"

Elius raised his head. "What about me?"

"Did he raise you?"

Elius shook his head. "No."

"Did your mother hide you too?"

"No," Elius said calmly. "He found me himself. Revealed it to me with a big grin. Told the world I was his son. Like it was some grand spectacle."

Keith’s mouth parted slightly, a sharp exhale escaping. "Why? Why would he choose your family and not mine?"

There was a long pause.

Elius shrugged.

"He’s a racist."

Keith blinked.

"He only likes blonde-haired descendants," Elius continued flatly, pointing to his own bright strands. "He despises black hair. Calls it a flaw. Says it’s an impurity in the Solarion bloodline."

"...What?" Keith whispered, but it came out like a breathless accusation.

Elius nodded. "That’s the truth."

Keith’s pupils trembled.

"That’s it?" he said, voice quiet but cracking. "That’s the reason?"

"Yes," Elius said without blinking. "That’s the main reason."

Keith’s face darkened.

His body began to tremble.

A low rumble built in his throat, and then—

"That’s the reason!?" he roared, his voice booming, echoing, slamming into the walls like a cannon. "That’s why he left my mother?! Why she had to raise me alone?! Because of HAIR COLOR!?"

Elius said nothing.

"Do you know what she went through!?" Keith shouted, rising now, fists clenched so tightly they shook. "She was broken! She cried herself to sleep every night! She said nothing mattered anymore once he was gone! She stopped eating! She stopped smiling! She STOPPED LIVING!"

His chest rose and fell rapidly.

"She gave me everything! EVERYTHING! But all I saw every night was her hollow eyes, her trembling hands, the way she looked at me like I was a reminder!"

His voice grew louder.

"She was a shell of herself! She blamed herself for years! She thought she wasn’t good enough! She thought she didn’t deserve him!"

He shouted so loudly the metal creaked around them.

"And YOU—YOU’RE TELLING ME—IT WAS BECAUSE I HAD THE WRONG COLOR OF HAIR!?"

Elius exhaled slowly. "Yes."

Keith’s body radiated raw fury, his aura flaring uncontrollably.

He trembled violently.

And then, in a lower voice, drenched in grief and rage—

"...I don’t believe it."

Elius looked him dead in the eye.

"You don’t have to believe it. But it’s true."

Keith staggered back a step. His knuckles were white.

"You’re not the only one who’s confused," Elius said softly. "You’re not the only one thrown into a nightmare because of that man. I didn’t ask for this either. I didn’t want to be his son."

His voice dropped further.

"But now... I’m stuck with it."

Keith stared at him, wide-eyed, breathing heavily.

His rage hadn’t faded—but confusion now bled into it. A cracked, vulnerable silence hung between them.

And then, Keith muttered, eyes flaring again—

"...What do you mean?"