The world seemed to pause in the heartbeat before destruction. Kael lay sprawled on the shattered battlefield, battered, bleeding, his vision a blur of smoke and darkness.Mira and Lyra hovered at his side, their faces pale with fear, hands trembling as they tried to reach him. Above, the molten eyed figure raised the annihilation spear, its aura radiating a crushing pressure that seemed to bend reality itself.Every pulse of its energy pressed down on Kael’s chest, as if the very world sought to snuff out his existence.Kael’s fingers twitched, gripping the hilt of his splintered sword. Pain lanced through his body with every heartbeat, yet his mind clung to the memory of Ryven’s teachings: clarity, focus, resolve. I cannot falter. I cannot fall. Not now.Mira’s voice trembled. “Kael… no… please!”Lyra’s blades flashed, attempting to intercept the incoming spear, but even her speed was insufficient. The darkness coalesced, a perfect shaft of annihilation aimed directly at him.Kael f

Kael’s body shook with every heartbeat. The battlefield around him was unrecognizable cracks split the earth, fire roared from jagged fissures, wind twisted in violent spirals, and shadows crawled like living serpents across the terrain.The ultimate heart loomed above him, its molten-gold core pulsing like a second sun, radiating a pressure that threatened to crush his mind. Mira clung to Lyra’s arm, their faces pale. “Kael… he’s going to”“Not if I can help it,” Kael interrupted, struggling to rise. Every movement sent waves of agony through his battered body. His sword, fractured and glowing with the fusion of lightning, fire, wind, and earth, trembled in his hand. But his eyes burned with unyielding determination.The ultimate heart descended, shadows spiraling around it, tendrils lashing outward, seeking to overwhelm him. The air was thick with malice, a suffocating presence that seemed to seep into Kael’s bones.Kael inhaled sharply, forcing his body to move despite the pain. Li

The annihilation spear descended like the wrath of a god. Its molten gold radiance devoured the battlefield, shadows twisting around it like serpents eager to feast.The sheer pressure drove Mira to her knees, forced Lyra’s blade to tremble, and pressed Kael into the dirt as though the world itself had turned against him.Yet Kael stood. His legs shook, bones fractured, skin scorched, but he refused to bend. The fractured sword in his grip blazed with every element he commanded lightning that scorched, fire that roared, wind that howled, and earth that groaned in protest.The spear of annihilation screamed toward him. Time slowed. The battlefield blurred. Kael inhaled sharply, every breath agony, every heartbeat thunder. His vision tunneled until all that remained was the molten-gold light and his own trembling reflection in it.He remembered Ryven’s voice, calm yet commanding: A warrior’s final strike is not for survival, Kael. It is for defiance.Kael roared. Elemental energy surged

The battlefield was silent. Ash fell like snow, glowing faintly with molten gold embers. The ultimate heart’s storm had vanished, leaving behind a hollow silence so thick it seemed to choke the air.Craters gaped across the ground, mountains in the distance had been leveled, and the sky itself looked cracked veins of molten light threading across the heavens.In the center of the devastation stood a figure. Tall. Unbroken. Wreathed in molten-gold shadows that bled into the air like smoke. Its eyes burned like twin suns, its body a shifting silhouette, not fully solid, not fully spirit.And yet something about the stance, the angle of its shoulders, the way it tilted its head was painfully, hauntingly familiar.Mira collapsed forward, clawing through the rubble. Her throat was raw from screaming, her hands torn and bleeding, but she didn’t care. Her heart hammered against her ribs, desperate, terrified.“Kael…” she whispered.The figure turned. Its gaze locked on her, and for a heartbe

The battlefield held its breath. The air trembled with unstable power. Lightning crackled across fissures of molten gold that spread beneath the figure’s feet.His form was torn in two half Kael, battered and bleeding but undeniably human; half Ascendant, a silhouette of molten shadows with golden veins pulsing like the heartbeat of a god.Mira clutched her chest, unable to breathe. Tears streamed freely as she stared at him. It was Kael. She knew it was him. But it wasn’t only him anymore.Lyra, pale and bloodied, forced herself upright, broken blade still in hand. Her instincts screamed at her to finish this before it grew beyond control. And yet… when Kael’s eyes met hers, half molten sun, half the brown warmth she remembered, she faltered.Kael staggered forward, every step an act of defiance against the raging force inside him. His voice tore itself free, raw, fractured.“I… told you… to run.”Mira shook her head violently, taking a step forward. “No! I’m not leaving you again!”