Kael's eyes snapped open.
The battlefield was silent, as though the world itself had paused to witness his return. Shadows still clung to him, but they no longer writhed with malice—they coiled around his form like tamed serpents, shimmering faintly with threads of celestial flame.
His body felt different. Stronger. His veins pulsed with a duality—darkness and light entwined, no longer warring but breathing in rhythm. Where his chains had once bound him, now glowing fragments circled his arms and shoulders, floating like fragments of a shattered star.
The ground beneath him cracked as he stood, his aura pressing outward in an invisible wave. Soldiers from both sides staggered, their knees buckling under the weight of his presence. Even the howling abominations born of the Abyss recoiled, as though some deeper instinct warned them not to approach.
Lyra was the first to move. She rushed forward, her voice trembling. "Kael—what did you do?"
He turned to her, and for a moment she faltered. His eyes… they were no longer the stormy blue she knew, nor the abyssal black she feared. One glowed like a star, radiant and unwavering. The other burned with infinite night.
"I bound it," Kael said, his voice layered with something greater than mortal. "The Abyss no longer speaks—I command it."
Nyra, still gripping her bloodied blade, narrowed her gaze. "Command it? Or has it become you?"
The shadows flickered around Kael's shoulders at her words, hissing like restless flames. For an instant, his jaw tightened. Even now, the entity strained against his hold, its whispers echoing at the edges of his mind.
But Kael exhaled slowly, and the darkness bent, slithering back into his control.
"It wanted to consume me," Kael admitted, stepping closer, his chains dragging sparks of light across the ruined stone. "But its power was never its own—it was mine, waiting to be claimed. And now, it will serve."
The warriors around them—both allies and enemies—watched in stunned silence. The abominations began to retreat, shrieking, as though their master's leash now choked them.
Lyra's hand reached toward him, hesitant. "Kael… this power—it's divine, but it feels wrong. Too much. You're changing."
He caught her trembling fingers gently in his own, his star-lit eye softening. "I have to change. To protect all of you. To end this war."
Nyra's voice cut through the fragile moment. "And when that power decides it no longer wants to be bound? What then, Kael? Will you still be you—or the thing you swore to destroy?"
The question hung heavy, and Kael had no answer. The shadows pulsed, as though laughing.
But as his chains glowed brighter, resonating with the memory of those he loved, Kael raised his head to the broken sky.
"I will not fall," he vowed. His voice boomed across the battlefield, silencing the cries of both man and monster. "Not to the Abyss. Not to fate. I am Kael—reborn as the celestial god. And this world will not be devoured while I yet draw breath."
The army roared in answer, their fear breaking into fierce belief. For the first time, they looked not at a cursed vessel, but at a god risen among them.
Yet Lyra and Nyra exchanged a silent glance—both awed and afraid. For even as Kael's chains tightened around the Abyss, the question remained: was he its master… or was he binding himself to damnation?