The black sword fell. Kael lifted the Broken Blade, every tendon screaming, every bone cracking under the strain. Golden fire burst upward in a desperate wall, colliding with the descending void.The impact was annihilation. The earth split, the sky shattered, and everything between them was torn into nothingness. Sound vanished,there was no clash of steel, no roar of flame, no shriek of void. Only silence, sharp and absolute, as if the universe held its breath.Then came the detonation.The shockwave erupted outward in a dome of searing light and consuming shadow. The monsters shrieked as they were shredded into fragments, torn apart by the opposing forces.The ground buckled, molten rivers spilling across the battlefield.Kael was thrown into the air like a ragdoll. His armor cracked, blood streaking across his skin in burning trails. His body spun, then slammed into the ground hard enough to crater it.For a moment, he couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. The Broken Blade lay across hi

The battlefield convulsed beneath Kael’s feet. The molten plain that had seemed endless cracked apart, molten rivers spilling into an abyss that had no bottom.The air, already thick with ash and fire, grew heavy like the weight of an entire world was pressing down on his shoulders.But none of it mattered compared to the horror above. The sky was no longer sky.It had split wide open, jagged fractures spiderwebbing through the heavens like shattered glass. Behind the veil of stars, an eye loomed vast, lidless, and alive.Its sclera burned with molten fire, veins of crimson lightning streaking across its surface, while its pupil was a swirling void deeper than the abyss Kael stood on. And it was looking directly at him.Kael’s grip on the Broken Blade trembled. Not from fear of his reflection, nor the monsters he’d already slain but from the raw, suffocating knowledge that whatever that was, it had noticed him.The reflection chuckled low, broken, almost reverent. “Finally. It sees.”

The void was alive. It pressed against Kael from every angle, a weightless gravity that sought to crush his mind as much as his body.The floating shards of his shattered battlefield quivered beneath him, the molten rivers between them hissing like serpents in anticipation. Shadows moved where no light could reach, forming faces of those he had known, those he had lost, those he had failed.“Kael…” whispered a familiar voice. Not Mira. Not exactly. A distorted echo, like her name stretched across a canyon of nightmares. “You can’t save them all… you can’t save yourself…”Kael’s fire flickered. His hands gripped the Broken Blade, sweat and blood streaking down his face. “Shut up!” he roared, the flames surging. The shadows recoiled from the heat, hissing as if scorched by a furnace.But the void would not be denied.The shards shifted. One flipped beneath his feet, hurling him into darkness. He crashed into molten rock, fire leaping from his shoulder to ignite the void around him. Pain

The void groaned like a living thing, pressing in from all sides. Kael’s feet skidded across floating shards of molten rock, the Broken Blade glowing fiercely in his hands. The Eye Beyond loomed above, black tendrils lashing outward, ready to consume everything.But Mira’s tether pulsed, brighter than ever. Its light surged through Kael like liquid fire, filling every hollow in his chest with warmth, hope, and fury.“Kael! Now! Strike with everything we have!”Kael’s eye blazed. Flames erupted from his body, molten and golden, spilling outward in a torrent that illuminated the void.The shards beneath him trembled, molten rivers boiling violently as he raised the Broken Blade high. Every heartbeat in sync with Mira’s tether sent a shockwave of fire through the void.The Eye recoiled, but its immense gaze remained fixed, pulsing with hunger and fury. Tendrils shot out, aiming to pierce Kael, but each strike was met with a wave of golden fire that incinerated them before they could touc

The void shivered, trembling under the weight of Kael’s fire. Every shard beneath him burned, molten rivers screaming as if alive. The Eye Beyond pulsed, its infinite hunger twisting the very edges of reality. Tendrils lashed outward, seeking to crush, consume, and erase him.But the unknown presence advanced steadily, an aura of power radiating like a sun trapped in shadow. Kael could feel it solid, ancient, and undeniably alive.Mira’s tether flared alongside it, resonating, thrumming, linking them all together in a fragile network of light amidst the void’s suffocating darkness.Kael lifted the Broken Blade, golden flames spiraling along its edge. “Then let’s finish this,” he hissed. “Together.”The unknown figure paused, its form now partially clear tall, robed in a light that bent around it, eyes hidden beneath a hood, but Kael could feel the authority emanating from it. Power that even the Eye seemed to hesitate against.“Kael,” the figure said, voice deep and reverberating, “do