The War God’s Debt

Chapter 4

The arena lights flickered wildly as the second portal ripped open like a wound in space. Void energy spiraled outward, bending the air, pulling dust and debris toward its swirling core.

Adrian stood perfectly still.

Calm. Cold. Calculating.

The hooded figure stepped out of the darkness.

Tall. Thin. Wrapped in a black cloak that seemed to devour the surrounding light. No face was visible beneath the hood—only two burning crimson eyes, ancient and hateful.

The demon he just killed had been a test.

This was the actual threat.

“Adrian Kane,” the figure said, voice layered with distorted echoes, as if ten different beings spoke at once. “No… that name is a shell. A disguise. I prefer your true one.”

A hush fell.

Even the shattered arena held its breath.

“Arkrion. God of War.”

Adrian’s expression remained blank, but internally—

So that’s how far they’re willing to go… even using my true name.

The voice continued:

“We searched for you across reincarnated cycles. You hid well… but not well enough.”

The figure raised a hand. The air tightened. The temperature dropped. Students outside the arena shivered instinctively.

Adrian slipped one foot back into a defensive stance.

Not a fighting stance.

A control stance.

Every movement carefully chosen to hide the magnitude of his power.

“You should not exist here,” the figure hissed. “Your soul was supposed to dissolve after the Celestial War.”

Adrian’s eyes narrowed. “A lot of things were supposed to happen. And yet here we are.”

The figure tilted its head with a crackling sound. “You think this mortal shell can protect you? You think this academy, these humans, this pathetic identity can hide what you are?”

The floor trembled.

Adrian clenched his fists. “Say your name.”

The figure laughed—a broken, metallic sound.

Names had power.

Only enemies refused to give theirs.

Finally, the figure lifted its head slightly, revealing a sliver of an inhuman jaw.

“I am Ventar of the Abyss, Seeker of Fallen Gods.”

Adrian absorbed the information quietly.

Abyssal elite. Capable of crossing dimensional boundaries. Sent specifically for him.

This wasn’t random.

Someone summoned Ventar using an internal channel.

Meaning someone in Everspell is colluding with the Abyss.

Ventar raised a hand. “Your reincarnation ends today.”

THE STRIKE NO ONE SAW

A blade of pure void condensed in Ventar’s palm.

He swung.

Fast.

Instant.

To anyone else, the attack was invisible—an execution strike designed to erase Adrian from existence. Students watching the arena screens didn’t even see motion. They saw a black blur, then a shockwave ripping across the arena.

Smoke filled the chamber.

Instructors surged forward with shields raised.

But in the heart of the smoke… Adrian still stood.

Unharmed.

Ventar froze.

“You blocked my Void Rend.”

Adrian flicked dust off his sleeve. “If that was a Void Rend, you’ve become sloppy.”

Gasps echoed outside the arena.

“Blocked it?!”

“That attack can slice through barriers!”

“Who IS he?!”

Ventar’s eyes flared. “You mock me.”

“I state facts,” Adrian replied coolly.

Ventar lunged again—this time with a storm of abyssal blades. They tore through the floor, walls, even the air itself.

Adrian didn’t dodge.

He walked.

Each step so deceptively simple it defied logic. His movements flowed like water, slipping between gaps that shouldn’t even exist.

It wasn’t speed.

It was prediction.

He’d already studied Ventar’s fighting patterns the instant he appeared.

After a dozen strikes, Ventar snarled. “Impossible. You’re reading my attacks…”

“Your form is predictable,” Adrian said. “Every strike carries the same rotational bias. Your center of gravity is sloppy. And your energy distribution is uneven.”

The demon stiffened.

“Who taught you swordsmanship?”

Adrian didn’t blink. “I taught your entire race swordsmanship.”

Ventar roared in outrage.

THE ABYSSAL BREAKER

Dark energy exploded outward from Ventar, filling the entire arena with shadow. The ceiling cracked. The spectator platforms outside trembled.

Students stumbled. Several collapsed from the pressure alone.

The dean shouted:

“Everyone shield yourselves! The entity is fully manifesting!”

A massive surge of power gathered at Ventar’s fingertips, forming a sphere of condensed void.

Adrian recognized it instantly.

“Abyssal Breaker,” he murmured. “That attack annihilates matter at the molecular level.”

Ventar grinned beneath his hood. “Let’s see your mortal body survive this.”

He hurled it.

The sphere ripped through space, swallowing sound, light, everything in its path.

Adrian stepped forward.

Slowly.

Deliberately.

He extended his hand toward the incoming sphere.

Instructors outside screamed.

“Stop him!”

“He’ll die!”

But Adrian could only think one thing:

If I dodge, it hits the academy.

His palm met the Abyssal Breaker.

The void sphere pulsed violently, pressing against his skin like a starving beast. Adrian’s arm trembled—not from strain, but from restraint.

He couldn’t unleash his full divinity.

He needed just enough to neutralize the attack without shattering the building—and without revealing his true form.

So he whispered:

“Seal: First Binding.”

A golden chain of runes flashed from his arm.

Divine. Ancient.

The Abyssal Breaker imploded.

Silently.

Cleanly.

Ventar stumbled backward as if struck. “Impossible! You sealed abyssal energy with incomplete reincarnation!?”

Adrian lowered his hand. Smoke curled from his palm.

“I told you,” he said quietly. “You are sloppy.”

VENTAR’S FINAL GAMBIT

Ventar screeched, voice distorting with fury. The arena trembled violently as abyssal cracks spread under his feet.

“If I cannot kill you,” Ventar growled, “I will expose you.”

His fingers twisted into a sigil—an Abyssal Revelation Mark.

Adrian’s eyes sharpened.

If Ventar activated that mark, it would broadcast Adrian’s godhood to anyone sensitive to spiritual signatures within several miles.

The entire continent would know.

He had seconds.

But Ventar had already activated the sigil.

Light surged.

A portal of darkness erupted behind him.

Abyssal watchers peered through—shadows with too many eyes, too many limbs.

And every one of them locked onto Adrian.

Ventar shrieked triumphantly. “I summon the Abyssal Witness! Reveal him—”

His words cut off suddenly.

A blade pierced through Ventar’s chest from behind.

A blade glowing with brilliant sky-blue energy.

Adrian froze.

The entire arena froze.

Ventar stared down at the sword protruding from him, choking on void mist.

Behind him stood—

A woman.

Dressed in the academy’s elite uniform.

Face cold. Eyes burning with authority.

Sera Whitmore.

Except she wasn’t supposed to be here.

She wasn’t supposed to have that sword.

She wasn’t supposed to move like someone trained in celestial combat.

Ventar sputtered. “Y-you—how—”

Sera twisted the blade.

Ventar disintegrated into ash.

Silence swallowed the arena whole.

Adrian stared at her.

She stared back.

The air between them crackled with unspoken revelation.

Then she said, voice low, steady, and impossibly knowing:

“Arkrion… God of War.”

Adrian’s breath stilled.

Her next words shattered everything:

“Your cover is blown. And I’m here on direct orders to escort you. The Celestial Council wants you back—alive or dead.”