The land trembled beneath Kael's stride.
He walked across cracked earth, his eyes locked on the shifting horror blotting out the horizon. The Abomination grew with each second, its limbs curling into the atmosphere like roots burrowing into reality itself. The sky dimmed. The wind choked. The sun's warmth had long since vanished — all light bowed before despair.
Kael's body shimmered faintly with barely-contained power, his steps slow but deliberate. His mind, sharp as tempered steel, processed every factor: speed, terrain, distance, energy output. But none of it would matter if he didn't reach the thing in time.
Then, he halted.
A glint of silver split the deadened sky — no, not silver. Gleaming steel traced with violet Essence, shaped like an arrogant crown. A man descended from the sky, landing softly before him, boots cracking the charred ground beneath.
Arkzen.
His entire body was now encased in a suit of radiant, ceremonial armor — plates adorned with arcane runes, flowing crests that seemed to pulse with enchantments from another age. Around his right wrist coiled a weapon rarely seen in combat: a spined chain, black as night and etched with malicious Essence.
The links shimmered, alive, like a predator tasting the air.
Kael didn't speak.
He studied.
So did Arkzen, smiling through the golden faceplate.
"Well now," Arkzen said smoothly. "You've really changed this time. Every cycle, you get stronger, but this? This feels… unfair."
Kael remained silent, still watching.
Arkzen's smirk widened. "I'm guessing you're headed toward that thing. But here's the problem…" He lazily uncoiled the chain, letting it drag along the ground like a serpent. "You don't get to skip ahead."
Kael's body tensed — not to prepare, but to restrain.
"Before you even think about fighting that," Arkzen continued, jerking his chin toward the swirling monstrosity in the sky, "you'll have to get past me first. And while I admit you've gotten stronger than me in this cycle, you still won't beat me and stay at full strength."
Arkzen cracked his neck and narrowed his eyes. "So I'll tire you out. I'll bleed you slow. That thing's all yours, but by the time you get there—"
"Huh?"
Arkzen's words caught in his throat. His body lurched upward — his feet weren't touching the ground.
Why am I—
The realization came too late.
Kael had already moved.
In a single, imperceptible motion, Kael had ducked under Arkzen's stance, swept his legs clean from beneath him, then followed through with a gut-crushing, full-bodied punch. His fist carried all 4 Essences, all focused into one point, amplified by pure Paragon-tier force.
The impact was instant.
Arkzen's body was launched.
A sonic crack split the sky as he shot off like a meteor, crashing through boulders, forests, and coastlines. He skipped across the ocean like a stone, each skip flattening waves for miles, before finally crashing into the sea somewhere on the far side of the world.
Silence.
Then the groan.
Floating half-submerged, Arkzen gasped, blood trailing from his mouth, his armor cracked, the chain in pieces beside him.
"What... what just happened?"
He coughed violently, struggling to breathe, lungs barely inflating.
"Everything happened too fast… Why is he that strong? How?"
Far above, within a rift carved into reality where the Sovereign watched all things, a narrow eye squinted.
Kael was visible now — standing tall, arm slowly lowering, not even winded.
"He's never been this strong in any cycle," the Sovereign murmured. His voice betrayed no fear, but a fragment of unease curled at the edge. "However... it shouldn't be a problem."
Kael said nothing.
He wasn't thinking about Arkzen anymore.
His gaze locked on the storm of tendrils and shrieking black mass that loomed miles away. The Abomination wasn't just large — it was everywhere. Its limbs stretching across the sky like branches of the world tree, eyes, if they were eyes blinked open and shut across its form, oozing entropy.
Kael dropped into a low stance.
Fists relaxed. Breathing even. Essence muffled, compressed into stillness.
Then he vanished.
No flash. No boom. No displaced air.
He was simply gone.
No dust rose. No rocks shifted. Just silence where a god once stood.
Far ahead, reality twitched.
The Abomination's dozens of tendrils stiffened, locking onto a presence that had just blinked into existence nearby. Its entire grotesque frame twisted unnaturally — heads rotated, joints clicked into new shapes, and that endless maw opened slightly wider.
Kael now stood just beneath it.
The horizon darkened.
Their eyes met.
And the world held its breath