The void was collapsing.
Light and darkness tore through one another like dueling storms, shredding reality into rivers of molten starlight. Every strike between Kael and Kaelen fractured the fabric of existence, their blows echoing not just across space but through time itself.
Kael's crimson aura burned with violent rhythm — a pulsing heart made of fury and purpose. Black lightning veined his arms, crawling up his sword until the weapon glowed like a shard of a dying sun.
Kaelen's form flickered between flesh and shadow, his eyes twin gateways of infinite depth. Each motion he made rippled with ancient power, as if the Abyss itself bent to his command.
Their blades met again — light clashing against oblivion.
The shockwave shattered distant fragments of stone and memory alike, raining debris that evaporated before it hit any ground.
Kael snarled, pressing forward. "You're holding back, Kaelen!"
The old sorcerer's voice was calm, nearly regretful. "Because I have to. The moment I give my all, the Abyss takes me completely. And if that happens… it takes you too."
Kael spat blood, his grin sharp as a blade. "Then stop lecturing. Fight me."
Kaelen's shadow eyes flickered. He nodded once. "Very well… my last lesson."
The air imploded.
Kaelen vanished — reappeared behind Kael in a blink — thrust his spear. Kael spun, their weapons meeting again with a detonation that cracked the void beneath them.
Kael launched a flurry of crimson arcs, each slash faster than the last — ten, twenty, fifty in a breath. Kaelen parried every one, sparks of black and red cascading like fireflies into the abyssal wind.
"Too shallow," Kaelen murmured, sweeping his hand.
Dozens of spectral chains erupted around Kael, coiling and striking like serpents.
Kael roared, aura exploding outward — black lightning surged from his skin, shattering the chains to cinders. "I'm done being bound!"
He lunged — their weapons clashed once more — and for a moment the world froze.
Kael saw Kaelen's face clearly. The exhaustion. The pride. The sorrow.
"You've surpassed everything I hoped for," Kaelen said softly. "But that's why you have to end me, Kael. Before the Abyss does."
Kael's hands trembled, but his resolve didn't. "You taught me to choose my own path."
"Then choose now."
Kaelen raised his spear. Kael raised his sword.
Both shouted at once —
"Crimson Ascension!"
"Oblivion Rite!"
The collision split existence.
Waves of red and black crashed through eternity, dissolving fragments of the old world and giving birth to something new. Kael's lightning carved through Kaelen's shadow-spear — and for an instant, time bent around the impact, collapsing into a silent flash.
When the light faded, Kaelen was kneeling, his spear dissolved to dust.
Kael stood over him, chest heaving, crimson aura dimming into faint embers.
Kaelen's expression was peaceful. "Good… You learned."
Kael knelt before him, catching him as he fell. "Don't do this."
Kaelen's eyes glowed faintly, one last flicker of starlight in the dark. "You were never meant to follow me… You were meant to end me. And now…"
He smiled weakly. "…you've ended the Abyss too."
The void around them began to crumble — the eyes in the dark shutting one by one, like dying suns.
Kael's voice broke. "You're free now, old man."
Kaelen's hand reached up, resting on Kael's shoulder. "No. You are."
Then his form dissolved into dust — drifting into the nothingness like scattered ash, his voice echoing faintly through the void:
"Remember, Kael. Strength is not what you take — it's what you protect."
Kael lowered his head, silent.
The Abyss screamed one final time — and then was gone.
Kael's body was torn upward in a column of crimson light as the entire realm shattered apart. For a moment, there was only silence, then —
— the sound of wind.
Kael's eyes opened to find himself standing on solid ground once again. The ruined world of the Sovereign's court stretched before him, broken and scarred. The crimson storm above was clearing.
But the sky was not empty.
Something vast was stirring beyond the clouds — a new dawn, or a new threat.
Kael gripped his sword tightly, the last remnants of Kaelen's voice fading in his mind.
"…what you protect."
He turned toward the horizon, red cloak whipping in the wind.
His next path awaited.