The battlefield was already a graveyard. Bodies of assassins lay twisted among shattered trees, the earth scorched by abyssal fire. Yet more shadows crept from the darkness—hundreds this time. The Guild had come in full force.
Selene gasped. "There are too many—!"
Kael stood unmoving, wings unfurled, his silhouette vast against the moonlight. His aura had grown heavier, darker, so thick it pressed against their lungs. He wasn't a man anymore—he was the storm, the abyss incarnate.
"They want war?" His voice cracked the silence like a blade splitting stone. "Then they shall have despair."
The assassins surged forward.
Kael raised a single hand. Darkness erupted from him in a spiral, swallowing the world in a tide of shadowfire. Screams tore through the night as a hundred bodies dissolved, their shadows ripped free and consumed by his power.
The ground split open beneath his feet, crimson cracks glowing like veins of living fire. His eyes burned with both divinity and damnation, the gaze of a god… and a devil.
Selene shielded her face from the wave of destruction, terror and awe warring in her heart. "Kael… what are you becoming?"
Lyra whispered, almost to herself. "Not becoming. This is who he truly is."
Arion staggered back, his blades shaking. The betrayal in his chest felt like a seed of poison now. He had sold Kael's location to the Guild—but watching this, he realized his mistake. No guild, no army, no kingdom could control this power.
Kael moved through the field like death's shadow, untouchable, unstoppable. Every strike shattered earth and bone, every breath burned the air. The assassins' courage faltered. They screamed, they ran, but the abyss followed them, dragging their souls into nothingness.
Then—silence.
The forest was ash. The assassins were gone. Only Kael stood, his chest heaving, his eyes glowing like a god who had forsaken mercy.
Selene's voice trembled as she stepped forward. "Kael… enough."
For a moment, she thought he hadn't heard. Then, slowly, his wings folded, and the abyss withdrew—though not fully. Shadows still clung to him, whispering, pulsing.
His voice was low, dangerous.
"Tonight was not war. It was a warning. To them… and to us."
He turned, gaze cutting into Arion. Just one look. Enough to make the betrayer's blood run cold.
Lyra's eyes narrowed. She knew the truth. But she said nothing. Not yet.
Because Kael's wrath had only begun.