WebNovels

Chapter 20 - Chapter 20 – Into the Spiral

The Execution Grounds screamed.

Mountains didn't crumble—they folded, as if the bones of the world were being rewritten from the inside out.

Fragments of terrain hung midair like broken glass suspended in an invisible tide.

Rivers of warped time reversed their flow, spilling upward into black nothingness.

Even the stars above shuddered, flaring once before flickering out, one after another, like candles snuffed by unseen hands.

The air itself groaned.

Luto staggered where he stood, mind racing faster than his lungs could keep up.

Equations formed and fell apart inside his head—ratios, gravimetric constants, temporal distortions. None of it fit.

"The pull's… beyond planetary," he muttered, chest heaving. "We're standing inside an event horizon—"

Onyx didn't need math.

He could feel it.

The void inside his soul vibrated, harmonizing with the new rhythm of destruction. Each heartbeat echoed the storm's pulse, as though the universe itself was whispering his name.

Ryu tried to speak—tried to crack a joke, anything to slow the dread pressing against his lungs.

But no sound came.

Even sound was being crushed. The air thinned, bending around them in shimmering distortion.

Draelith's monolithic head turned slightly, the blue-lit slits of his mask narrowing. He recognized this pattern—ruin, deliberate and divine.

"Rhazakel," he said flatly, the single name resonating through the collapsing air.

Across the fractured sky, Velissara's smirk fractured. For the first time, her gaze betrayed unease.

"Of course it's him," she hissed. "The rotting hound of Ruin can't resist meddling."

A thousand meters away, Ignovar and Kaelor clashed in a blur of flame and chain. Even their battle stilled for a heartbeat as both sensed the change—the sudden inversion of gravity, the storm of light and silence rising around them.

The dimension itself was waking up… to die

Then the ground convulsed.

The Split

Draelith exhaled in irritation. "Enough of this stalemate."

He raised one titanic hand and slammed Mandate Edge into the terrain.

The impact birthed an earthquake that tore through what remained of the Riven plane.

Rifts split open like mouths screaming silently. Whole sectors of terrain sheared away, falling into the storm below.

Ryu barely managed to grab Onyx's arm as the ground beneath them fractured.

"I don't like this new rule set!" he yelled—though the wind devoured his words.

The next instant, everything fell apart.

Ignovar and Orvess plunged into the maelstrom's depths, fiery trails spiraling after them.

Ryu and Onyx tumbled onto a drifting slab of stone barely large enough to stand on.

Above, Luto, Veynar, and Kaelen clung to a half-intact ridge where the healer struggled to stabilize Kaelen's shattered ribs.

Seravynn, astride Pyrrhagon, dove after Ignovar, the dragon's roar echoing through broken space.

"Get out of here!" she bellowed, voice distant but fierce. "We'll find our own way!"

Then they were gone—swallowed by red lightning and dust.

Across the void, the Sentients regrouped on a surviving fragment of spire.

Velissara watched the storm devour the horizon, her tone disturbingly serene.

"Even the gods can't tame ruin once it sings."

Draelith replied, voice colder still. "Then silence the song."

Kaelor only grinned. "Ignovar slips away again. Typical."

None of them looked eager to remain. Rhazakel's power didn't discriminate between foe or ally.

Velissara traced a circle in the air; a thin seam of white light split open.

"Until next time, Ember," she called across the gulf, smirking down at Ryu. "Don't go dying before I get my turn."

She stepped through and vanished.

Kaelor followed, mock salute. "Until next time."

Draelith lingered, the glow of his mask fixed on Ryu.

"If you truly are the ember of the Creator," he said, "you won't die here. But I will kill you next time."

His gaze slid to Luto and Onyx. "Both of you as well. Consider this mercy."

Then he too dissolved into the portal, which sealed behind him with a whisper.

Ryu screamed at the empty air—but Onyx's fist thumped the back of his head.

"Focus," he said, steady but urgent. "We're not done."

Above them, Luto's voice cut through the static. "I need a stable sector to open a portal! This whole plane's folding in on itself—buy me time!"

Onyx's eyes narrowed. "Then I'll make time."

He lifted Varkal'Zir, the weapon shifting and lengthening into its Gravepike Form.

With a roar that echoed through the void, he slammed the pike into the terrain.

Voidlight spilled from the wound, weaving counter-currents against the storm's pull.

Rhazakel's Return

Far above the dying world, a colossus stood at the dimension's edge.

Half-decayed. Half-metallic. Veins pulsing with molten ruin.

Rhazakel, the Crimson Ruin, observed his creation with wordless fascination.

"Collapse Surge…" he murmured, voice deep as tectonic plates shifting. "Perfect resonance. Total decay. Beautiful."

He tilted his head slightly. Something… resisted.

A faint tremor. A distortion in the pattern of collapse.

"Interesting," he said, molten jaw flexing. "Defiance within decay."

He began to walk—not teleport, not glide—simply walk through the crumbling air.

Every step erased what was beneath him.

The Brothers' Attempt to Escape

Ryu and Onyx bought just enough time to regroup with Luto's team, where the older brother stood in a fury of movement, hands shaking as glyphs flared around him.

Luto opened a dimensional fold to a stable sector of the Riven Dimension—but the Maelstrom immediately devoured it.

Space itself snapped shut.

"Damn it!" he snarled. "It's destabilizing every frequency—"

He hesitated—then his eyes widened.

"There's one way…"

Onyx turned. "What?"

"Exit-Rift Tunneling," Luto said quickly. "Eralyx taught it to me, but it needs too much energy. I can't—"

Ryu stepped forward. "Take mine."

Onyx clenched his fists. "I can give more—"

"No," Luto interrupted sharply. "You'll burn out. You haven't trained for a full transfer."

Ryu grinned through exhaustion. "I've got more than enough. Just do it."

Both brothers raised their right hands, fingers forming the ancient sign—index, pinky, and thumb extended.

When their fingertips met, the air between them ignited.

Cosmic energy poured from Ryu into Luto, raw and blinding.

Thirty seconds of agony. Thirty seconds of unity.

When it ended, Ryu collapsed to one knee, coughing flame.

"Still breathing," he rasped.

Luto steadied him. "Good. Now let's get out of here."

He opened another fold, this time anchoring it with his blood.

Ryu's fire wrapped the edges, stabilizing it—if only barely.

Onyx stepped forward, driving Varkal'Zir into the ground again. His void compressed the gravitational distortion, giving them a fragile bubble of safety.

Together, they defied the unmaking storm.

Rhazakel's Arrival

The storm parted—not from mercy, but reverence.

Lightning froze midair.

Ash suspended in place.

And through it stepped the giant.

Half-decayed, half-metal, wings broken but glowing faintly red. His veins dripped molten ruin that turned to smoke before hitting the ground.

Ryu's heart froze. "That's not a god," he whispered. "That's extinction with a heartbeat."

Rhazakel's gaze fell on them. His voice rolled through the air like collapsing mountains.

"You cling to light inside a corpse of creation," he said. "Pointless."

The Fight That Shouldn't Be Possible

Luto was still tracing glyphs, his mind a blur of calculations.

Onyx held the defense with what strength he had left.

Kaelen was unconscious, Veynar barely holding the shield.

Ryu stepped forward.

Every instinct told him not to.

He stepped anyway.

Flames coiled around his fists, resisting gravity itself. His aura flickered erratically, on the edge of collapse.

"Pointless, huh?" Ryu muttered. "Let's find out."

He lunged.

His punch tore through vacuum, burning red and gold.

It collided with Rhazakel's chest—an impact that should've split mountains.

It didn't even move him.

Rhazakel's counterpunch came like a planet's orbit—slow, inevitable, unstoppable.

Ryu went flying, slammed into stone hard enough to crater it.

A ruin pulse followed.

Onyx intercepted it, spinning Varkal'Zir into its Broadblade Form once more and absorbing the pulse midair.

Gravity and ruin collided. The resulting shockwave flattened what was left of the terrain.

Their "safe zone" shrank to half its size.

Luto screamed over the chaos, shards of time reflecting ruin energy away. "Onyx, get back to position! I'm almost done—thirty seconds!"

Onyx nodded, teeth bared, and reformed his stance.

Then a scream—Veynar shouted, "The healer!"

Ryu turned just in time to see her pulled into the wind, flung off the edge of the fragment.

He didn't hesitate.

"Ryu, no!" Luto yelled.

But he was already gone, diving off into the storm.

The Choice

Luto's glyphs flared brighter as Rhazakel loomed closer.

Onyx and Veynar stood their ground, protecting the wounded Kaelen

Ryu caught the healer mid-fall, landing hard on a smaller piece of debris spinning through the void.

She stared at him, stunned. "You—jumped after me?"

"Couldn't let the healer die," Ryu said with a grin. "Luto would never let me live it down."

Then he looked up. "We need to get back—now."

Back above, Luto called out, voice strained. "Sixty seconds! It got delayed! Just hold him off!"

Onyx's eyes narrowed. He tightened his grip on Varkal'Zir.

"Do it. I'll hold the storm."

Onyx's Sacrifice

Rhazakel's body began to glow from within.

"Ashen Rebirth," he intoned—a power that turned anything destroyed into unstable fragments, each one exploding into ruinous storms until nothing remained.

Onyx planted his feet. His weapon shifted again, lengthening into its Broadblade state.

He poured everything into it—void, life, soul.

Ryu's shout echoed from below, "ONYX!"

Above, Rhazakel unleashed his attack—a wave of annihilation expanding outward.

Onyx roared, summoning Gravemind Doruun, the towering void titan that emerged from the darkness with a bellow that shattered stars.

It swung its arm channeling his technique Obelisk Smash instantly, colliding with the ruin blast.

For one impossible instant—

Void met Ruin.

And the universe screamed.

Ryu rocketed upward, the healer clutched tight in his arm, flames and green aura trailing him.

He grabbed Onyx by the collar just as the world began to shatter.

Luto activated the Exit-Rift Tunnel.

White light consumed everything.

The End of the Storm

Silence.

Then darkness.

Then—

Light.

They didn't fall.

They shifted.

When vision returned, they were lying on soft soil beneath a violet-blue sky.

No screams. No thunder. No ruin.

The stars here glowed behind a veil of shadow, like they were hiding.

A red supergiant burned far in the distance, casting the world in twilight.

The air felt heavy, but gentle. Ancient.

Ryu pushed himself up first, chest heaving. Luto lay beside him, drained beyond words.

Onyx stirred nearby, Varkal'Zir resting across his lap, faintly glowing.

For a long moment, they just stared at each other—battered, bleeding, alive.

The silence between them said everything.

Finally, Ryu managed a hoarse laugh.

"Well… that was new."

Luto groaned. "Don't. Speak."

Onyx leaned back, eyes half-closed. "At least… we made it."

Above them, the stars whispered softly—

a sound like the universe catching its breath.

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