The battlefield was unrecognizable. Fractured stone jutted into a sky blackened by swirling void and fire, molten rivers carving through the broken earth like veins of a dying world.Kael stood at the center, Broken Blade in hand, tether blazing with Mira’s energy, body battered but unyielding.Above, the shadow pulsed, its fractured form beginning to coalesce, tendrils snapping violently as it rebuilt itself from the void. The air trembled with the sound of reality bending, and the ground beneath Kael cracked with each pulse of its rising power.So… you survived… mortal… The shadow’s voice rolled like thunder, deep and infinite. And yet… you are still nothing…Kael’s human eye burned, Ascendant energy flickering in the other. “…Nothing? Then I’ll redefine everything!”The shadow’s form expanded rapidly, blackened and writhing, tendrils stretching into the clouds above, now visibly massive, unfathomable.Its shape began to solidify not just a void, but a twisted amalgamation of all th

The battlefield had become a maelstrom of fire, shadow, and fractured reality. The sky was torn into ribbons of molten light and void, the ground jagged and cracked, rivers of molten energy coursing through the ruins.Kael stood at the epicenter, Broken Blade in hand, tether to Mira blazing like a beacon of defiance. The shadow loomed above, colossal and unyielding, its reforged form radiating incomprehensible power.Tendrils of void lashed outward, ripping through air and stone alike, but Kael stood firm, every inch of his bloodied body screaming in agony yet refusing to yield.You… dare challenge me… mortal… The shadow’s voice reverberated through the shattered world. I am eternity. I am the end. You cannot hope to prevail.Kael’s human eye flared. “…Then I’ll define the end differently.”The Ascendant flared beside him, molten wings slicing through the void tendrils, amplifying Kael’s strikes, holding the shadow’s overwhelming power at bay just long enough for him to breathe. “Mort

The world broke open as the husk moved. Not with the fluid grace of a living creature, nor with the chaotic frenzy of the shadow Kael had fought before but with the sheer inevitability of a collapsing star.Each step was an earthquake, each gesture a sundering of the air itself. Its form was a cathedral of void and fractured light, a thing built from silence and hatred.Kael braced, his lungs burning with every ragged breath. The Broken Blade weighed like an anchor in his grip, but its edge hummed, alive, as though the weapon itself recognized the foe. Mira’s tether flared bright, her voice cutting through the roar of his pulse.Kael. Stay with me. Don’t lose yourself now. He tightened his grip, his human eye blazing. “I’m not done yet.”The husk’s hollow gaze settled on him, flames of black fire coiling in its sockets. Its voice split across the battlefield, neither spoken nor thought, but pressed into the marrow of every living thing.You bear fragments of me… yet you resist. Foolis

The clash was silent, but it shook the void like thunder. Kael’s blade struck against its twin, sparks of black and white fire erupting into the emptiness.He felt the vibration deep in his bones, every nerve screaming as if the weapon wasn’t striking metal but his own soul. The reflection didn’t grimace, didn’t flinch. Its single eye burned cold, voidfire coiling like chains inside its pupil.Kael staggered back, his chest heaving. Sweat drifted from his skin in globes that refused to fall, floating between them like frozen stars. He didn’t even know if he was breathing; he only knew the weight pressing down on him, the terrible familiarity of his opponent.The reflection tilted its head. Its voice was his, but sharper, crueler, like glass dragging over stone.“You fight to deny what you already are. Every kill, every scream, every choice that left blood on your hands, it was me. I am you without hesitation. I am the blade without restraint.”Kael spat into the void. The saliva drift

The first corpse moved with a sound that wasn’t sound at all bones grinding, sinew snapping into place, the crunch of inevitability.Its face was a soldier’s Kael remembered from his youth: a nameless bandit in the forests of Dalvar, whom he had cut down without thought. But the eyes… the eyes were no longer human. They were windows of black flame.“You killed me.”The second rose, dragging a shattered spear behind it. Then a third, a fourth, until the battlefield around him pulsed with motion. Soldiers, rebels, assassins, mercenaries every life he had taken was standing again.Their voices merged into a chorus that rattled Kael’s bones: “You killed us.”Kael’s gut twisted. He tried to steady his blade, but the Broken Blade vibrated in his hands, the golden fire flickering as though it doubted him too. His pulse pounded.“This isn’t real,” he hissed, forcing his feet apart into a stance. “You’re not real.”His reflection stepped forward from the haze. Its armor gleamed as though fresh