The silence on the deck of the Stormchaser was not born of peace — it was the kind that came before a storm.
They found him waiting at the far end of the coast, where jagged black cliffs met the silver waters of the Mirror Sea. Cloaked in ash-gray robes and a face half-covered by a cracked mask, Kael stood unmoving, as though he'd been carved from the stone itself. The crew had long whispered his name in anger, betrayal, and heartbreak — the man who had once stood at Raizen's right hand, only to betray them during their darkest hour.
Now he returned. And not alone.
Behind him stood a figure few could recognize, but all instinctively feared: Lady Sareth, a high priestess of the Obsidian Depths — one of the ancient enemies that had once served the gods of old, before being sealed away in forgotten temples. She wore living shadows like silk, and her presence bent the light around her.
When Raizen stepped forward, the air crackled. Not with power — but with memories.
"You have a lot of nerve showing your face here," Zuri said coldly, hand on her blade.
Kael didn't flinch. "I didn't come for forgiveness."
"Good," Jin growled. "Because you're not getting it."
Kael turned his eyes to Raizen. "I came with an offer."
The crew tensed.
"You're the one who stole the Soul Key," Kaito hissed. "Because of you, we lost Nira. Because of you, the Gate was opened."
Kael's face twisted — not in guilt, but something deeper. Something desperate.
"And because of that, I saw what's coming."
Lady Sareth stepped forward. Her voice was neither cold nor cruel — it was ancient, like wind through crypts.
"The gods you fight… they are not dead. Merely dreaming. And dreams can still bleed the world dry."
Raizen held her gaze, though his jaw clenched. "Why should I trust either of you?"
Kael extended a hand — and from his sleeve, a shard of black crystal floated. Raizen's eyes narrowed. It pulsed with the same energy as the Hollow Throne.
"You're not the only one who's changed," Kael said. "When I delivered the artifact to the enemy, I learned the truth. They don't want to rule the world — they want to remake it."
He looked up, voice strained. "Burn the seas, collapse time, erase everything that ever was — so they can write a new story where mortals never existed."
Sareth added, "Your war with Drax was only a test. What comes next is not conquest… but extinction."
The wind howled.
Raizen felt the heavy silence of his crew behind him. Each of them remembered Kael's betrayal in their own way — the lives it cost, the dreams it shattered.
"You want an alliance?" Raizen asked. "Then why not come back alone?"
Kael turned, revealing his shackled wrist. "Because I am no longer free. I am bound to her. I made a pact to survive — and in doing so, I found knowledge you don't yet have. This is not about redemption. It's about survival."
The offer was laid bare: a temporary alliance with a traitor and an ancient enemy to fight a greater evil — a force older than the gods themselves.
Raizen turned to his crew.
Zuri's jaw was tight. "We kill him, and we never speak his name again."
Jin crossed his arms. "Or we take the deal — and slit his throat the moment he turns."
Others were torn. Mistrust burned in their eyes. But so did fear.
Because they believed Kael.
And worse — they believed what was coming might truly be beyond their power alone.
Raizen finally turned to Kael. "One wrong move," he said, voice low, "and I'll be the one to end you."
Kael nodded, as if expecting it. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
Raizen extended his hand. A pact sealed not in friendship, but necessity.
As their palms met, the winds of fate shifted.
For better or worse, the betrayer had returned.
And the road ahead had never been more dangerous.
END OF THE CHAPTER6