Chapter 120 - The Eastern Reckoning

The hundred-and-fourteenth dawn scorched Kael El's Ashen Empire with a blinding golden blaze, the continental dominion—a sprawling colossus—trembling under a rising hum. The capital's skyline loomed—bone steel keeps dwarfed by the Golden Colossus, its hundred-meter frame a radiant titan, core pulsing a volatile violet-gold that cast searing shadows across the plaza. Kael stood atop a fortified ridge, 2,000 kilometers east of the capital, Stormforged Blade gripped tight, shard-pommel screaming like a chained beast. EX: Dragonflame Reaver glowed at his hip, Stormhide Armor etched with fresh scars, Vara's misjudgment and Rhea's fierce trust burning in his veins. His flirty smirk was buried, replaced by a predator's snarl, masking a raw urgency—the Nexus web, the "Error," and the legion's eastern nodes flaring like beacons. He flexed EX: Gold Dominion, golden veins surging through the ridge's stone, molten and fierce, answering the shard's jagged wail.