The wind screamed through the ruins of Azkaris as the battle unfolded beneath a sky choked with stormclouds. The once-glorious city, now half-swallowed by time and rebellion, echoed with the clang of steel and the shriek of magic. Fires crawled along collapsed marble arches like vengeful spirits, casting flickering shadows over corpses too broken to bury.
Kael stood at the heart of the chaos, drenched in blood not his own. His cloak—tattered and scorched—snapped behind him like a banner of defiance. The Eye of Varethos pulsed at his side, wrapped in crimson aura, while his scythe dripped with magic-enhanced blood, coiled and waiting like a serpent.
Before him loomed the commander of the Purifier forces: Inquisitor Valen.
Valen was a mountain in silver flame-wrought plate, his helm shaped like a lion's face split by holy runes. He held a war mace too heavy for most men, but he wielded it like it weighed nothing. The ground cracked where he walked. Behind him, lines of Purifier knights prepared for the final charge.
"You are Kael of Asael's Vigil," Valen called out, his voice amplified by magic. "Blood-mage. Heretic. Abomination."
Kael tilted his head, unfazed. "You forgot 'Orphan.' That one's my favorite."
Valen's war mace slammed into the earth, sending a ripple of light hurtling forward.
Kael twisted aside with inhuman speed, leaving a trail of spectral afterimages behind him. His blood magic snapped to life—a crimson barrier erupting from his scythe and deflecting the holy shockwave.
Selan emerged behind him in a swirl of shadowflame, her eyes locked on Valen's spellcasters. "I'll handle the choir," she said.
Kael nodded once. "Don't die. I'm still not done arguing with you."
She smirked and vanished into the smoke.
The Purifiers charged.
Kael surged forward, his scythe gleaming with dark intent. He spun and struck in a sweeping arc, his blood magic weaving deadly patterns in the air. His weapon cleaved through armor and bone, each blow releasing bursts of cursed energy that turned Purifier bodies to ash.
Inquisitor Valen met him with a roar, mace colliding with scythe in a thunderclap of magic and force. Sparks flew. Kael was flung back, crashing through a stone pillar.
He rose, coughing blood, smiling. "Is that all, preacher?"
Valen advanced like a storm. "You don't deserve your power."
Kael raised the Eye. It glowed.
The world paused.
Visions flooded him—Valen's future, his doubts, the daughter he'd lost, the fear he buried behind righteousness. Kael exhaled, pain slicing his skull. He screamed the knowledge into the blood, twisting it into a weapon.
A dozen Kaels split from his body, illusions of blood and shadow, all real enough to kill.
They attacked.
Valen crushed three with wide arcs of his mace, but the others flanked him. One struck low, another from behind. The real Kael closed in, scythe poised for the final cut—
—but Valen whispered a forbidden word. A word from the Old Tongue.
The Eye dimmed. The clones shattered. Kael stumbled.
"Only the divine may look through time without consequence," Valen snarled.
Kael fell to one knee, blood leaking from his nose and ears. His vision blurred.
Selan reappeared beside him, face pale, hands bleeding from overcasting. "Kael. The choir's down, but reinforcements are coming."
Kael looked at her, then at the Eye.
He could see it again—one future where he lived. One where she lived.
But only one.
He stood, breath shallow, and whispered, "Then let's choose that one."
He plunged the scythe into his own chest.
Selan screamed. Magic howled.
The blood exploded outward, forming a dome of crimson that rewrote fate itself—within its confines, Kael became more than mortal. Time bent. Steel slowed. Magic unraveled.
He moved like lightning.
Valen's mace shattered. Kael's scythe split his armor.
With a final scream, Kael drove the blade through the Inquisitor's heart.
Silence fell.
Selan rushed to him as he collapsed, his chest still bleeding, his eyes dimming.
"You idiot," she whispered.
He smiled faintly.
"You're alive," he said. "That's all I ever needed."
Then the Eye flickered.
A new vision opened.
And Kael gasped.