The war room of Aertherion trembled as if the castle itself mourned.
From the cracked balcony and shattered windows, the council stared out at the ruins that had once been their proud capital.
Fires burned in the distance like fading suns.
The wind carried with it ash, screams, and the faint, haunting hum of collapsing towers.
Once golden domes were now piles of twisted iron and stone.
Ancient bridges lay broken, statues of heroes reduced to dust.
The city's beauty the crown jewel of the kingdom was gone, replaced by endless smoke.
Every noble, every general, every mage in the council stood in silence.
No words could name what they were seeing.
King Aerion gripped the edge of the table until his knuckles whitened.
The mana maps before him flickered red everywhere.
"So this… is what remains," he whispered.
Lady Vess lowered her head. "Three strikes, Your Majesty. Three… each felt through the bones of the kingdom."
Archmage Lioren adjusted his cracked spectacles, voice shaking.
"Each surge carried the signature of Kael Gravemont.
Gravity… fire… lightning… water. He's drawing everything he has left. Even the elements are screaming."
The Queen, Elenora Gravemont, stood apart near the balcony's edge. Her silver hair fluttered in the wild wind. The moment the second shockwave hit, she had felt it not as a queen, but as a mother.
Her heart recognized the resonance of her son's power before her mind did. Now, when she looked out into the smoke-filled horizon, she wasn't searching for victory or survival. She was looking for Kael.
And then she saw him.
Far below, on the shattered courtyard of the capital, Kael stood or tried to.
His sword was buried in the ground, his Clothes drenched in his own blood, A jagged blade of ice jutted from his chest, frost spreading along his skin like veins of death.
For a heartbeat, their eyes met across the impossible distance.Mother and son.
Kael's lips curved faintly, a small, fragile smile that said I'm still here.
He straightened, trembling, using his sword as a crutch.
He wanted to look strong, to appear as the hero he once was. But Elenora saw the truth the exhaustion that made his movements sluggish, the guilt in his eyes heavier than his wounds.
Her hand pressed against her chest as tears blurred her sight. "Kael…" she breathed, voice breaking.
"Your Majesty," one of the guards said softly, "please, step back. The balcony isn't safe."
But she didn't move. She couldn't. Because deep inside, she already knew he wasn't fighting for victory anymore. He was fighting because he couldn't bear to stop.
Far from the palace, the ground pulsed once, twice then went still. The debris shifted.
Charles rose from the crater like a man resurrected. His body was whole again, the terrible wound Kael had given him already vanished, only faint scars glowing where his neck had reattached. Steam hissed from his skin as he flexed his fingers, each movement testing his restored strength.
He laughed under his breath, a low, bitter chuckle.
"Ahh… at last. Healed. But Heaven's it still hurts." He rolled his shoulders, staring at his hands as if they belonged to someone else. "That bastard".
He looked around the battlefield Obynix reduced to rubble, Morvane's remains still sizzling with electricity, and Cryoveth now struggling beneath the fury of Kael's next assault.
"Three Calamities down to one," Charles muttered. "And Kael's still standing?"
He shook his head, half in awe, half in disbelief.
"You're breaking yourself to pieces, aren't you, Kael?
For a brief second, something almost like respect flickered behind his smirk. Then it vanished. His eyes hardened to steel.
With each step, mana coiled around him. His exhaustion melted away, replaced by the rhythm of purpose. Every heartbeat made him faster, stronger. He began to run slowly at first, then faster, until the world around him blurred. The air cracked from the pressure as he accelerated toward the northern battlefield, where Kael faced Cryoveth alone.
He wasn't running just to fight.
He was running toward destiny their unfinished duel.
"Don't die yet, Kael," Charles muttered, wind tearing at his cloak.
Kael's world narrowed to pain, light, and the rhythmic pulse of battle.
His knees wobbled as he forced himself upright. His vision blurred, the edges dark. He pressed his left palm to his bleeding chest, flooding the wound with mana not to heal, but to delay death a little longer. Blue-white energy shimmered across his armor, sealing cracks, slowing the flow of blood. Every breath burned.
"Stay up…" he whispered to himself. "Not yet…"
He raised his sword, the familiar weight comforting and cruel at once.
Ahead of him, Cryoveth the final Calamity towered like a living glacier, shards of frost swirling around its immense frame. Each step it took froze the air solid; snow and hail followed in its wake. Its eyes were pure sapphire fire, ancient and merciless.
Kael clenched his jaw. "Let's finish this."
He moved first.
Lightning flared at his feet, wrapping his legs in golden arcs. The world seemed to stretch and collapse all at once as he vanished from sight, reappearing midair above Cryoveth's crown. The air screamed as he swung, combining gravity and fire, his favorite and most destructive pairing.
The strike cut through the sky like a falling star.
Cryoveth raised an arm of ice the size of a tower, summoning walls of frost that reached toward the clouds mountains of defense forged in an instant. Each wall was layered with centuries of magic, an unbreakable fortress of frozen mana.
But Kael's slash didn't stop.
The arc of red-gold light met the first wall and tore it apart, molten fragments exploding outward like meteors.
The second wall shattered a heartbeat later, then the third.
The entire northern horizon became a sea of light and smoke.
"GRAVITY—BURST!" Kael roared, and the final wave detonated.
Cryoveth staggered, half its head sliced open, shards raining like deadly snow.
The Calamity screeched, voice shaking the heavens, and countered sending a storm of icicles the size of spears.
Kael raised his left hand and summoned water, spinning it into a defensive sphere around him. Each icicle shattered against the barrier, the impact rippling like thunder. But every use of power cracked something deeper inside him his bones, his nerves, his will.
He could feel his body failing, mana burning through him like acid. His veins glowed faintly beneath his skin. The human frame wasn't made to hold four elements at once, not at this intensity.
He coughed blood, wiped it with the back of his hand, and grinned weakly. "Come on, then."
He darted forward again lightning for speed, gravity for control, fire for destruction. His sword blazed, a streak of white-hot energy slashing across Cryoveth's arm. The limb exploded into shards of ice, but the recoil sent Kael crashing into the ground, carving a crater with his impact.
He gasped, struggling to stand, his sword trembling in his hand.
The world spun around him, He could barely see, but he felt the Calamity's presence.
Cryoveth loomed closer, blue light pulsing from its chest, gathering power for one final attack.
And from the distance Charles was coming, a shadow cutting through the smoke.
Kael sensed him even without looking.
He laughed a hoarse, painful sound, "You're late again…"
He pressed his bleeding chest, forcing mana into his legs one more time. He could hear his mother's voice faintly in the wind, her cry echoing from the palace tower. For a moment, that sound gave him strength beyond reason.
"Not yet," he whispered, "Not while anyone's still watching."
He lifted his sword for one final strike, the elements swirling violently around him gravity crushing the air, lightning snapping in gold arcs, fire blazing through his veins, water spiraling like armor.
Cryoveth raised its icy claws, roaring.
Charles closed in, his blade ready.
The royal palace held its breath, watching from the shattered windows as Kael, broken and bloodied, faced both fate and foe.
To be continued .