The gods do not bleed like us, but they die just the same.Kenji gripped the hilt of his battered iron sword so tightly his knuckles turned white through the soot and grime. The ancient temple around him was screaming. Beams of old cedar cracked overhead, showering the stone floor in brilliant sparks that bit into his raw skin. The air was thick with a black, choking smoke that made his lungs burn with every desperate breath.Across the shattered chamber, Soren lay pinned against a collapsing stone pillar, clutching a broken spear like a lifeline. Soren was wheezing, his face pale under the flickering orange light of the spreading fire."Get up, Soren!" Kenji shouted, his voice raw and scraping through the roar of the flames. "Get up right now!""I cannot move my leg, Kenji," Soren choked out, coughing violently and spitting a mouthful of dark blood onto the cracked floor tiles. "I cannot move it. The others are gone. Kenji, they are all dead."Kenji did not look back at the bodies of

Three years can turn a desperate boy into a living weapon.The peak of the Cloud-Torn Ridge groaned under the weight of a supernatural gale. Purple lightning ripped through the black sky, illuminating the jagged rocks and the massive, swirling vortex of clouds above. Down in the valleys, the riverbeds had cracked into dry dust, but up here, all the water in the world seemed to be trapped in the sky, swirling around a single figure.Kenji stood at the edge of the precipice, his long black coat whipping wildly around his legs. The iron sword in his right hand no longer looked like a cheap piece of scrap metal. Its blade pulse with a steady, deep crimson light that hummed in perfect synchronicity with his heartbeat. He looked up at the towering entity floating in the center of the storm—a giant clad in armor made of dark clouds, its eyes burning like twin stars."You have kept the rains from the lowlands for far too long, Zephyrus," Kenji shouted, his voice cutting through the thunder li

The ancient ruin dissolved into pure, screaming madness within seconds of the imperial army's arrival. Blinding holy light collided violently with waves of violet demonic fire, creating massive, concussive shockwaves that shattered the remaining obsidian pillars into flying shards of stone. Imperial soldiers clad in gleaming golden armor surged forward like a glittering, unstoppable tide, their heavy spears thrusting through the rising smoke. Malakor roared, a sound that shook the very foundation of the mountain, as his massive obsidian blade cut down three elites at a time. Nearby, Soren fought desperately, his face covered in soot as he used his iron spear to deflect a relentless barrage of holy arrows."Kenji, move!" Soren screamed, his voice raw with panic, but the words were instantly swallowed by the deafening clash of steel and the roar of magical fire.Before Kenji could even take a step toward his friend, a massive explosion of divine energy ripped through the center of the c

The air in the Underworld was thick with the scent of sulfur and old blood.Kenji sat on a jagged obsidian crag, staring down at his right hand. The glowing red ring on his skin felt heavier now, pulsing with a slow, agonizing heat that felt less like power and more like a leash. Every memory of Master Vaelen the grandfatherly laughs, the patient training, the quiet nights by the cavern fire now felt like a knife twisting in his chest. It had all been a performance. He wasn’t a hero. He was just an incubator being prepared for a cosmic slaughter."Staring at your hand will not change what is written on it," Malakor said, his massive form stepping out of the purple haze. The Demon Sovereign’s obsidian armor clanked heavily against the stone floor, his violet eyes burning with a somber, steady fire. "The Primordial God of Fate played you well, lowborn. But a puppet who knows his strings can use them to strangle the puppeteer."Kenji looked up, his expression hollow, hardened by a bone-d