The world could barely contain him.
Kael's breath was steady, his stance unwavering. The glyph-ring of the Sovereign Codex spun faster behind his back, each orbit leaving trails of flame, storm, and lightning across the broken sky. Every movement now held layered resonance — a presence beyond mortals, beyond even the usual bounds of Essence.
The Abomination lurched forward, its pseudo-humanoid form casting a shadow that swallowed valleys. Thousands of tendrils bristled like quills. But its movements were slower now — the world-shaping mass hindered by damage it had not yet learned how to regenerate.
Kael's lips moved silently.
Then he disappeared.
He reappeared above the Abomination's skull-like head, fist clenched, flame spiraling around it like a sunflare.
"Deiclash Ascension."
He struck down.
The impact shredded the creature's head — a blinding cascade of kinetic-lightning trauma exploding downward like a divine lance. The Abomination reeled, black ichor streaming from the wound as its head rapidly reformed.
Kael didn't wait.
He twisted mid-air and shouted, "Heavenfall Sentence!"
A vertical spiral of flame and storm carved down from the heavens like a divine decree. It struck the Abomination's chest, driving it into the shattered earth, creating a trench hundreds of meters deep. The scream that followed made even the mountains tremble.
"He's not letting it breathe," the Sovereign whispered from his perch. "One technique flows into the next. He's… layering them."
Kael landed lightly on a broken tendril. His eyes burned brighter now — not just with power, but with absolute intent.
"Sovereign Codex: Relentless Form."
Reality howled.
Kael vanished in a blur of Essence trails — 13 attacks, back-to-back, no pause between them, each technique perfectly flowing into the next:
Lawrend Eclipse – Edict II: Frictionless Collapse — the Abomination's mass couldn't anchor itself.
Voltbreaker Ascension — Kael struck nerves in its limbs, disrupting regeneration.
Originspire Genesis — a singularity burst of pure fused affinity that carved through its side.
God Essence: Dominion Array — 13 clones appeared around the battlefield, each executing micro-coordinated strikes.
Kael's Relentless Form was not just overwhelming — it was absolute. Every angle of combat covered. Offense, defense, pressure, interruption. He left no space to counter, no rhythm to anticipate.
The Abomination collapsed.
Its limbs crumbled into sludge, the humanoid shape deforming into a half-liquid sprawl. Kael stood over it, chest heaving, arms flickering with the residue of Codex energy.
Silence.
For the first time, it didn't get back up.
Kael narrowed his eyes. "Finally…"
He turned. The Sovereign's presence echoed distantly in his senses. This was it — time to end the cycle, time for the final confrontation—
A slow rumble stopped him.
Kael's eyes snapped back to the mangled corpse of the Abomination.
The ichor wasn't fading.
It was… settling.
The remains weren't resisting or regenerating. They were resting.
"No," Kael muttered. "No. I destroyed your core. You're done."
But the air told a different story. The aura was still there — faint, but not dissipating. He approached slowly, senses flaring. He extended a hand, testing its existence through touch, essence, metaphysics—
The sludge pulsed.
Kael froze.
"You're not dead," he whispered. "You just… paused."
The realization hit like a dagger. He hadn't killed it.
He'd merely beaten a segment. A shard.
His fist trembled.
He faced the horizon, his body still glowing from Relentless Form, still echoing with aftershocks from his Sovereign Codex.
He took a step
And froze.
The world felt… wrong.
Heavy.
And then, it was too late.
Kael's eyes widened — just before a shadowed fist crashed into his spine, sending a shockwave through his bones. He was blasted forward, flung like a broken comet through the air, his body skipping across shattered ground until he tumbled to a halt.
Kael groaned, blood dripping from his mouth. His regeneration lagged — something about that strike wasn't just power. It carried… dominion.
He pushed up.
And stopped.
He felt it.
The presence. The void. The authority.
Not Arkzen.
A figure emerged slowly from behind The Abomination's mangled corpse. Cloaked in a layered shroud of conceptual reality, their body fluctuated between impossible forms — faceless and yet infinite, limbs both there and not. They walked without touching the earth. Each footstep silenced the world.
The Sovereign.
Kael's pupils narrowed.
"You…"
The Sovereign's voice was quiet. Not loud. Not boastful. But final.
"You managed to beat it," the Sovereign said, observing the battlefield. "I'm impressed. Genuinely. You've gone further in this cycle than any Kael before."
He gestured lazily toward The Abomination's remains.
"But sadly, that's not enough."
Kael's body tensed, but he said nothing.
The Sovereign's tone never shifted — calm, exact.
"That thing can't die, Kael. Not really. What you destroyed was just a segment. A part of it, split across infinite timelines. If it could be erased so easily, I wouldn't have wasted cycles preparing it."
Kael staggered to his feet, eyes blazing.
"You knew."
"Of course I did," the Sovereign replied, with a voice like dying stars. "My goal isn't to defeat it. It's to gather as much of it here as possible. To make this timeline… the primary vessel."
He walked slowly toward Kael now, Essence so dense the air refused to move.
"You see, once I consolidate its true self into a single stream, I can absorb its permanence. Its inviolability. No one will ever challenge me again — not even you."
Kael's expression twisted with fury. "You're insane. You want to merge with that?"
The Sovereign stopped several paces away, hands clasped behind his back.
"I want to ascend."
Kael's aura exploded into view again. The Sovereign Codex behind him reignited, spinning like a burning star.
"Then you'll have to kill me to do it."
The Sovereign tilted his head.
"Oh, I intend to."
The earth fractured between them.
Kael vs The Sovereign.