The night was too quiet. The forest, once alive with chirping insects, lay in suffocating silence. Even the wind seemed to fear brushing against Kael.
Selene's hands trembled as she reached out. "Kael… you're scaring me."
His gaze softened for only a heartbeat—but then the abyss flickered in his eyes again, swallowing that flicker of humanity. "Fear me if you must," he said, voice low, "but remember, Selene… without fear, there is no survival."
Lyra crossed her arms, studying him with a mixture of awe and unease. "He's not wrong. But this power…" Her tone hardened. "It isn't only his anymore. Something else has claimed him."
Kael ignored her. He turned sharply, wings twitching, as though some unseen voice called him from the darkness.
Arion swallowed, his guilt growing heavier with every breath. He had betrayed Kael to the Guild thinking it would weaken him—thinking he could still control the outcome. But what he had unleashed was beyond anything he'd imagined.
Selene noticed his silence, his downcast eyes. "Arion?" she asked gently.
He flinched. "I—"
Kael's head snapped toward him. Shadows writhed at his feet.
"You smell of deceit."
Arion froze, his blade hand instinctively twitching. "Kael… listen—"
But Kael's aura flared like a roaring tempest, forcing everyone back. The ground cracked under the weight of his wrath. His voice was no longer human—it carried both divine authority and infernal venom.
"You sold me."
Selene gasped. "What?!"
Lyra's eyes narrowed further. "So it was you."
Arion staggered, his chest heavy with shame. "I didn't mean for it to go this far! I thought—if they took Kael down before he lost himself completely—we could survive! I was trying to save us!"
Selene's eyes filled with tears. "You betrayed him—you betrayed us!"
Kael's power surged again, the abyss screaming for blood. The shadows wanted Arion's soul, clawing, writhing, begging their master to give the order. For a moment, Kael's expression was utterly merciless.
Then—he stopped.
The shadows froze, retreating reluctantly into the cracks of the earth. Kael's jaw tightened. His voice was calm, too calm.
"You are not worth my wrath. Not yet."
Arion collapsed to his knees, shaken to the core.
Selene stared at Kael in horror. "You're not the same person anymore…"
Kael turned his back to them, walking into the night, the glow of his eyes trailing like burning embers. "No, Selene. I am something far greater."
And as his figure vanished into the darkness, the group realized: Kael was no longer just their protector. He was their greatest fear.