The sky was split in half.
Tendrils like obsidian rivers folded into one another, shaping limbs where there had once been only formless corruption. The Abomination, once a mass of malice and decay, now stood in the shape of a being — a twisted, grotesque mimicry of man, towering thousands of meters above the land. Its legs rooted into the scorched earth like titanic spires, its torso swaying with unholy grace, and its eyes — if they could be called that — burned like twin abysses sealed beneath bone and nightmare.
And below it, a lone figure stood. A speck of defiance against the void.
Kael didn't move. His cloak flared behind him from the residual shockwaves. Essence surged quietly within, steady and deadly. Lightning arced around his limbs. Storm wind whispered over his shoulders. His expression was unreadable.
The creature tilted its featureless head. Then it moved.
A thunderous step cracked the crust of the world. The Abomination struck downward — an arm the size of a fortress crashing toward Kael like a divine judgment.
Kael blurred. Not an explosion of dust, not a tremor. He simply vanished upward.
CLANG!
Kael's elbow struck the side of the descending limb. Not a technique — just raw, essence-infused force. The impact detonated a wind blast so massive that trees miles away were uprooted. The Abomination staggered, retracted the arm, then responded with a backhand, faster than something its size should be capable of.
Kael ducked, lightning sparking from his heels. He launched three high-speed kicks into its wrist. Each blow rang like a war bell. The flesh recoiled — black ichor splattering into the sky before dissolving into smoke.
From afar, the Sovereign watched.
Cloaked in layered Essence, perched atop a crag of shattered mountain, he observed the battle through a mirrored void crystal. No sound, just sight — the storm, the chaos, the boy.
"He's operating at Paragon," he murmured. "But masking it... expertly. Even Arkzen didn't realize."
He narrowed his gaze, focusing on Kael's subtle movements — the timing, the power suppression, the way he manipulated gravitational force to keep the terrain intact. Then he turned to the creature.
"And you… You're remembering. Are you?"
The Abomination roared — not sound, but a distortion, a rejection of existence. Its shriek cracked the air like glass. Waves of its aura rolled forward, eroding color and sound. Trees died. Clouds split. Kael didn't budge.
He launched into the air with a sharp twist of his core — Storm Vault Execution — erupting upward in a thunder-blur and slamming his entire body into the creature's chest.
The Abomination grunted.
Its response was faster now. A counter-tendril lashed out, and Kael caught it with one hand, then crushed it, causing blackened mass to explode and regenerate instantly.
He zipped around the being's back, feet shattering the air, and unleashed Tempest Reaver Drive — spiraling through the vortex of its spine and exploding multiple internal anchors as he passed. It screamed.
The ground below was now cracked into a new canyon. Kael landed hard, chest heaving, blood trailing from the corner of his lip.
"So... this is your true shape," Kael muttered, watching as the creature reassembled, darker, thicker, more refined. "A butcher of creation... wrapped in flesh and shadow."
Above, the Abomination's arms bulged, and its frame reshaped again. Bladed tendrils curled around its forearms. One limb smashed into the terrain — Kael dodged, vaulting off the rising debris and driving a Flame-infused punch upward.
The core pulsed beneath its armored rib-mass, just visible for a flicker. The punch didn't reach it. A shell of compressed despair blocked it — like a shield made from collapsed dimensions.
Kael slid back, panting.
"It's learning too fast…"
The Sovereign narrowed his eyes. The Abomination was mimicking Kael's techniques in warped ways — rapid movement, focused strikes, even partial evasion. But it was still losing ground.
"Even now… he pushes further," the Sovereign whispered. "Fine then. Let's see how far your 'final stand' takes you."
Back on the field, Kael exhaled sharply. His body was riddled with microfractures of energy strain. But his gaze never wavered. He took a knee and whispered:
"Sovereign Codex… Initialize."
The world paused.
Flame carved a perfect spiral behind him. Stormwinds collapsed into a glyph. Lightning arced into a burning crown of motion. A ring of celestial energy hovered behind Kael's back, orbiting slowly.
His arms lowered. Space rippled.
The Abomination paused. Even it could feel it — this wasn't ordinary Essence. This was law. Dominion. The codified right to annihilate.
"Lawrend Eclipse," Kael whispered.
"First Edict: Absolute Suppression."
He stepped forward — and the sky bent.
To the Sovereign's eye, Kael now moved with conceptual precision — every breath a calculation, every muscle woven with intent.
The Abomination lunged—
And Kael met it, Sovereign Codex flaring, fists ready.