The battlefield was a graveyard.
Bodies—some whole, many shattered beyond recognition—littered the scorched ground. Smoke curled upward in thin streams, carrying the scent of ash, blood, and something else… something unearthly. The air was thick with Kael's lingering aura, a suffocating blend of radiant light and abyssal shadow. Even as the fires died, the pressure of his presence weighed on every survivor like chains around their throats.
Selene stood among the wreckage, her staff trembling in her grasp. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears as she stared at him—the figure at the center of it all.
Kael.
But it wasn't him.
Not the Kael she knew. Not the one who had laughed with her under the stars, or who had sworn to protect them no matter the cost. The man before her radiated power so absolute it twisted her very perception of him. His wings of shadow and light folded inward, his glowing eyes dimmed to an unsettling glow, but the silence that followed his ascension was worse than the battle itself.
Around her, the others shifted nervously. Arion's illusions flickered like dying embers, his normally sharp eyes darting away every time Kael's gaze swept near. Lyra's bow remained clutched in her hand, but her fingers were white-knuckled, not from resolve but fear.
"Selene…" Arion's voice was a whisper, shaky. "Is that really him?"
Selene didn't answer. She couldn't.
Lyra's voice cracked as she spoke, softer than a prayer. "He looked at us like… like we were no different from them." She gestured toward the corpses of the enemies, her voice breaking. "Like we're just… pawns."
Selene forced her trembling lips to move. "No. He's still Kael. He has to be."
But even she didn't believe the words as they left her.
Kael stood with his back to them, silent, staring into the horizon as if the battlefield no longer existed. The last of the enemy survivors had fled, their cries vanishing into the night. None dared to look back. None dared to test him.
The only sound was the wind—and even that seemed muted in his presence.
Finally, Kael spoke. His voice was calm, cold, stripped of warmth.
"This war is over."
The words should have brought relief. But instead, they sent a chill.
Kael did not turn to face them. His gaze remained fixed on the broken horizon, where the sky still bore the scars of his ascension. Fractures of light and shadow lingered in the heavens, rippling faintly like cracks in glass.
Inside, his chest felt hollow. The power surged endlessly within him—limitless, intoxicating, overwhelming. He could feel every particle of the battlefield, every heartbeat of his allies behind him, even the faint echoes of enemies who had fled miles away. With a single thought, he could snuff them all out.
And part of him wanted to.
That thought terrified what little remained of the man he once was. He remembered Selene's smile, Lyra's laughter, Arion's unshakable loyalty. He remembered the vows he had made to protect them. Those memories burned like fragile lanterns in the abyss threatening to swallow him whole.
But then the abyss whispered: Protecting is weakness. Ruling is strength.
He clenched his fists. His knuckles cracked, and shadows leaked from between his fingers.
Behind him, the whispers of his allies reached his heightened senses.
"He's not the same," Arion muttered, his voice shaking though he thought Kael couldn't hear. "Did you see what he did? He tore their souls apart like it was nothing. No hesitation. No mercy."
Lyra's voice followed, choked with emotion. "He didn't even look at them like people. Just… obstacles. Arion, what if we're next?"
Selene's voice rose, sharp with restrained anger. "Stop it. He saved us."
"Did he?" Arion's bitter laugh cracked. "Or did he just prove that none of us matter anymore? You felt it too, Selene. That… thing… standing in Kael's place—he wasn't saving us. He was showing us what he's become."
Selene bit down hard on her lip until she tasted blood. She wanted to scream that they were wrong, that Kael was still Kael. But when she looked at his back, cloaked in shadows and light, his form impossibly still against the horizon, doubt gnawed at her.
Kael closed his eyes. Every word pierced him. They didn't know he could hear. And maybe it was better that way.
The abyss stirred again, wrapping around his thoughts like chains. Why do you care for their fear? You are beyond them. Their voices are dust. Their loyalty is nothing. They will betray you the moment they realize you no longer need them.
He opened his eyes, crimson and silver light flickering.
And in that moment, Kael wasn't sure which terrified him more—losing his humanity… or realizing that he no longer missed it.
The world itself seemed to recoil from what Kael had become.
Mountains far in the distance rumbled, their peaks shedding avalanches as if bowing under an unseen weight. Rivers bent unnaturally, currents reversing as though the very laws of nature struggled to obey his presence. Even the winds carried whispers—foreign voices, chilling and unearthly.
Every nation, every hidden sect, every forgotten god felt it.
In far-off temples, ancient bells rang without being touched. Sealed relics cracked open, and slumbering beasts stirred in their tombs. Across kingdoms, kings and emperors stared at the sky in terror, sensing the rise of something greater than all their armies combined.
A storm was brewing, and Kael was at its eye.
He could feel it. His perception stretched across borders, across oceans. He could sense the countless eyes turning toward him, both fearful and hungry. A thousand schemes were already being born in that instant—some to worship, others to kill.
And yet, none of it mattered. The only voices that still mattered to him were right behind him.
His allies. His family.
Kael turned slightly, just enough to let them see the glow in his eyes. Shadows rippled at his feet, curling like serpents. "You fear me."
Silence.
Selene's breath hitched. Arion stiffened, hand instinctively moving toward his blade. Lyra's lips parted, but no words came.
Kael's smile was faint, unreadable. "Good." His voice was deeper, threaded with something not entirely human. "Fear keeps you alive. Fear will remind you who stands between you and the abyss."
The weight of his words crushed the air around them.
Selene finally found her voice, trembling. "Kael… you're scaring us."
For the first time, Kael's expression faltered. A flicker of something human—pain, regret, longing—crossed his features. But it was gone as quickly as it came, swallowed by the storm inside him.
The abyss whispered louder. They are weak. They will betray you. Strike now, and you will never be hurt again.
Kael clenched his jaw, forcing the voices back, though his hands trembled with restraint.
And then—
Arion leaned toward Lyra, whispering harshly, but Kael still heard every syllable.
"If this continues, we'll have to make a choice. Either we stop him… or he destroys us all."
The words hung in the air, sharp as a blade.
Kael turned away before they could see the shadow of hurt in his eyes. He looked once more at the shattered sky, his voice a whisper only he could hear:
"Perhaps the abyss was right."
The chapter ended with the faint sound of thunder rolling in the distance—heralding the storm to come.