Silence did not return to the battlefield.
It couldn't.
Not after the storm Bolt unleashed. Not after fate itself bent and screamed beneath one mortal's will.
The explosion from Raiketsu: Lightning Tiger had carved a crater miles wide. Abyssal beasts were vaporized. The air itself crackled with unstable elemental residue, dancing in arcs of blue, white, and violet. Smoke, dust, and lightning veiled the horizon.
But in the center of it all… Kairos still stood.
Barely.
Half his armor had been torn away, abyss leaking from him in tendrils of black mist. His jaw hung at a fractured angle before stitching itself back with grotesque cracks. His once-perfect composure flickered — not fear, not anger…
Hunger.
"You…" Kairos rasped, touching the cracks Bolt had carved into him. "You damage me. You… injure me. A mortal vessel did… this."
Bolt didn't answer.
He couldn't.
His chest rose and fell in shallow, ragged breaths. His limbs trembled. Steam rose from his skin where elemental energy scorched his veins from the inside. His aura still raged at 40%, but it quivered — unstable, volatile, threatening to tear itself apart.
Raiketsu dimmed in his grip.
Yet he stepped forward.
Celestial Tempest watched in horror as their leader moved — step by agonizing step — toward the abyssal monarch.
"Bolt, STOP!" Akane screamed, flames surging around her. "Your body can't handle this!"
"He's tearing himself apart," Damian growled, shadows writhing around him. "If he pushes one more attack—"
"His soul will crack," Aether finished in a whisper.
But Bolt didn't hear them.
Or maybe he did — and chose not to care.
Darian's blood was still fresh in his mind. Ren's sword was still in his hand. His promise to protect them all still burned hotter than any divine limit.
He raised Raiketsu.
Kairos tilted his head, fascinated. "Show me again. Defy your gods. Break yourself for me."
Bolt vanished.
A flicker. A spark. A blur of light.
But not fast enough.
Not this time.
Kairos's hand shot out through the storm, fingers wrapping around Bolt's face like a vice.
"Too slow."
The abyss detonated.
A blast of black lightning swallowed Bolt whole, ripping him from the sky and driving him through layers of earth in a deafening impact. The ground split into a canyon as dust and rock erupted in all directions.
"BOLT!!" Kaori screamed, sprinting toward the crater before Valea grabbed her arm.
"WAIT—!"
From the sky, Kairos descended slowly, his wings of abyssal thunder spreading wider, fuller, hungrier.
"The first taste was intoxicating. That will of yours… that defiance…" His grin widened unnaturally. "I want more."
He raised his hand — abyss swirling into a spear.
Inside the crater, Bolt staggered to his knees.
Blood streamed from his mouth. Cracks of light crawled across his skin — fractures in his mana pathways. His heartbeat stuttered. His vision blurred. His aura flickered violently.
Forty percent was no longer power.
It was poison.
Bolt tried to rise… only to collapse again, Raiketsu slipping from his fingers.
He couldn't move.He couldn't breathe.
The storm inside him had begun to devour its vessel.
High Above — The Heavens Tremble
The God of War slammed his fist into the divine plane, fury shaking the stars.
"THIS WAS NEVER MEANT TO HAPPEN! HE WILL DIE!"
The Goddess of Fate watched with unreadable calm. "You gave him your power. You imposed your limits. And he chose to surpass both."
"He is mortal!" the god roared. "His soul cannot contain forty percent! If it fractures, it will collapse into nothingness!"
Her eyes softened."Unless…"
The god turned sharply. "Unless what?"
"Unless someone interferes."
The God of War froze.
"You cannot," she warned gently. "Interfering breaks the Divine Veil. It would start a war among the gods."
"I do not care."
The goddess stepped in front of him. "He does."
The god paused.
"He would rather die," she whispered, "than see you lose everything for his sake."
Silence.
The god trembled — for the first time in eons.
"…Then give him a path," he whispered. "A chance. Anything."
The Goddess of Fate smiled faintly."I already have."
Back on the Battlefield
Kairos hurled the abyss spear downward.
Straight at Bolt.
Celestial Tempest moved at once — Akane's fire streaking forward, Aether unleashing a gale barrier, Sylva casting a dome of roots and frost, Damian's shadows spiraling outward. Their combined attack collided with the spear—
—AND SHATTERED INSTANTLY.
The spear continued falling.
Bolt looked up, vision swimming, body refusing to move.
Is this… all?
Then—
A hand grabbed his wrist.
A warm hand.
"Come on, captain," a voice whispered. "Don't give up now."
Bolt's eyes widened.
Standing beside him, spectral and shimmering with blue light—
Darian.
Not alive.
Not whole.
But present.
His spirit flickered like a dying flame.
"You still have a world to save," Darian smiled. "And I still have your back."
He lifted Bolt's arm with his own ethereal strength.
"Like always."
Together—
They swung Raiketsu upward.
Lightning erupted.
A storm answered.
And the abyss spear met a defiant strike fueled by two souls—
One living.One lost.Both unyielding.
The impact split the sky.
Kairos's eyes widened for the first time.
"What…? How…?"
Bolt roared, lightning tearing through him, Darian's spirit merging with his strike.
"BECAUSE HE'S NOT GONE!"
The spear shattered.
Kairos staggered back.
Celestial Tempest stopped breathing.
Bolt collapsed again — unconscious, his body spent, barely clinging to life. Darian's spirit knelt over him briefly… then began to fade.
"Keep going," he whispered. "Live enough for both of us."
And he vanished.
Bolt lay in the crater, unmoving.
But alive.
Barely.
Kairos's grin returned slowly, quivering with excitement.
"Oh… oh, this is exquisite. Hope. Grief. Will. Spirit. Such flavor…"
He raised his hand toward Bolt's unconscious form.
"I'll enjoy breaking you again… and again… and again."
A shadow fell over the battlefield.
A new presence.
A new threat.
A new chapter of fate.
But that…
Would begin tomorrow.