The War God’s Debt

Chapter 5

For a long moment, the ruined arena held nothing but silence.

Dust swirled around Adrian and Sera as if the air itself were hesitant to move.

Sera’s blade—still glowing with that impossible sky-blue light—dripped residual energy that crackled against the broken tiles.

Her eyes, cold and unwavering, locked onto Adrian without blinking.

“Alive or dead,” she repeated.

The words felt like chains tightening around him.

Adrian’s jaw clenched. “You’re with them.”

“Of course.” She stepped forward, the divine blade humming. “The Celestial Council never stopped searching. They traced the reincarnation cycle. They followed the astral signatures. They knew you were reborn somewhere on this plane.”

“And you?” Adrian asked quietly. “What are you, Sera?”

Her expression didn’t shift. “Their agent. Their weapon. And their safeguard against you.”

Adrian studied her stance, posture, energy.

Not possessed. Not controlled. Willing.

That made her far more dangerous.

“You were watching me from the start,” he murmured.

“I was monitoring,” she corrected. “After today’s assessment, the Council’s worst suspicions were confirmed.”

She raised the sword slightly.

“You’re regaining power.”

Adrian didn’t deny it.

The resurrection of his divine aura after touching Brayden… the reaction of the assessment orb… the demon’s collapse under his seal…

His reincarnated form was stabilizing faster than it should.

Someone tampered with the balance of my rebirth cycle.

But who?

And why?

THE HUNTER REVEALED

Outside the arena, dozens of instructors rushed in—only to freeze when they sensed the killing pressure between Adrian and Sera.

“Vice President Whitmore… what are you doing?!”

“That sword—how is she wielding Council weaponry?!”

“Someone report to the Headmaster!”

But no one dared step between them.

The tension was suffocating.

Sera’s aura flared, shaking off surrounding dust. “You’re coming with me, Arkrion. Voluntarily or by force.”

Adrian’s voice was calm. “And if I refuse?”

“Then I will incapacitate you.”

She said it without hesitation, without fear.

The Celestial Council had trained her well.

Adrian exhaled. “Sera, you’re not my enemy.”

She narrowed her eyes. “That depends on you.”

The divine blade soared with power—Celestium, one of the weapons forged to restrain godkind. How she possessed it was a question for later.

For now—

He had to escape.

SERA STRIKES FIRST

Sera moved.

She didn’t lunge or swing.

She vanished.

A burst of sky-blue light appeared behind Adrian, the blade already descending.

Predictable.

Adrian tilted exactly six degrees to the left, letting the blade skim past his ear. Sparks flew as Celestium sliced through stone where his skull had been moments before.

Sera pivoted instantly—her combat sense flawless—and delivered a spinning thrust aimed at his heart.

Adrian’s fingers snapped shut around the flat of the blade.

Sera’s eyes widened.

“You caught Celestium with your bare hand—?!”

The blade hummed violently, trying to eat into his palm.

Adrian forced it down. “You shouldn’t use this weapon. It wasn’t meant for you.”

“I was chosen,” she hissed, twisting away.

She leapt backwards, channeling divine light.

Runes ignited across her arms.

“Divine Technique—Radiant Spear!”

Beams of condensed holy light shot toward Adrian, scorching the air.

He sidestepped each one with fluid efficiency.

Students watching outside stared in disbelief.

“Vice President Sera is an awakened divine martialist!?”

“And Adrian… he’s dodging holy spells like he’s bored!”

“WHAT is happening?!”

THE CELESTIAL HUNTER'S MARK

Sera suddenly slammed her palm on the ground.

A glowing sigil exploded beneath Adrian’s feet.

The Hunter’s Mark.

His eyes narrowed. They’re pulling out celestial-grade restrictions already?

The mark latched onto his spiritual presence, tightening around him like astral chains.

Sera stood, breath steady, blade raised.

“You’re immobilized. Stop fighting.”

Adrian looked down at the mark.

He felt it tug at his soul.

A younger or weaker reincarnated god might have fallen here.

He wasn’t one of them.

He placed one foot forward.

The sigil cracked.

He placed another.

The sigil fractured.

Sera’s eyes widened. “You’re breaking a Hunter’s Mark—without using your divine form?!”

Adrian didn’t answer.

He simply stepped out of the glowing prison as it shattered behind him.

WHY THEY WANT HIM

Sera’s composure finally cracked. “You shouldn’t be able to resist that—no reincarnated god should be regaining strength this quickly.”

Adrian’s gaze hardened. “Then the Council should have let me die. Instead, they ripped my soul out of the cycle and forced me to reincarnate.”

Sera froze.

“You… remember that?”

“Every second.”

Sera’s grip on her sword tightened. “The Council saved you.”

“They bound me. They feared my power. They feared the outcome of the Celestial War.”

“That war destroyed half the higher realms!” she snapped. “You are a threat to every plane if your divinity returns.”

“And yet someone,” Adrian said softly, “is accelerating my return.”

Sera blinked.

Her eyes flickered.

That detail mattered.

“Someone?” she repeated.

Adrian nodded. “Someone inside this academy. Someone with ties to the Abyss. Someone who summoned Ventar.”

Sera’s breath hitched.

“You’re saying this entire incident… wasn’t you?”

“I don’t attack with demons,” Adrian said dryly. “I attack with armies.”

She faltered for the first time.

But then—

Her expression hardened again.

“The Council doesn’t care about that. They care that you’re unstable. They care that the Abyss is moving again. They care that you might be the spark.”

“And you?” Adrian asked. “What do you care about?”

Sera didn’t answer.

She simply raised her sword.

“I care about completing my mission.”

THE FORCED ESCORT

She lunged.

He evaded—barely. Celestium carved through the air, humming like a divine predator.

Sera pressed harder, strikes faster and faster, each one precise enough to kill an ordinary awakened.

Adrian blocked with minimal movement, using only enough force to avoid damaging the arena further. He had no intention of hurting her.

But she—

She was trying to kill him.

“What did they promise you?” Adrian asked between motions. “Power? Rank? Ascension?”

Sera’s eyes flickered with something complicated.

“Freedom.”

That caught him off guard.

But she didn’t elaborate.

Instead, she delivered a high-velocity slash that forced Adrian back—toward the collapsed barrier.

Instructors shouted warnings.

A second celestial mark began glowing beneath Sera’s feet.

Not a binding mark.

A teleportation mark.

They were trying to extract him.

Adrian’s eyes went cold. “You’re not taking me.”

Sera’s voice was low. “You don’t have a choice.”

The teleportation mark surged, enveloping them in a dome of holy light.

The arena shook violently as celestial power tightened around Adri—

CRACK.

A deafening rupture split the air.

Both Adrian and Sera paused mid-combat.

Something impossible had just happened.

The teleportation mark…

…was being overwritten.

By another power.

Dark. Heavy. Familiarly ancient.

Sera’s eyes widened in horror. “Wait—this energy—this isn’t the Council. This is—”

The arena floor ruptured beneath Adrian’s feet.

Shadows erupted like black flame.

A familiar aura surged upward, swallowing the failed celestial mark.

“Oh no…” Adrian muttered, stepping back instinctively.

Because stepping through the darkness—

Clad in armor of abyss-forged bone—

Eyes glowing with malicious recognition—

Was someone Adrian knew far too well.

Someone who should not… could not… exist in this plane.

The figure grinned, voice dripping with old hatred.

“Miss me, Arkrion?”

Sera froze.

Instructors collapsed under the pressure.

And Adrian’s expression finally broke.

This wasn’t a demon.

This wasn’t a Council agent.

This was—

“Ravion…”

“GENERAL OF THE ABYSSAL WAR.”

A being Adrian personally killed in the last war.

But he stood here.

Alive.

Smiling.

Reborn.