The ruins trembled as Kael and Sylas faced each other, the very air between them crackling with raw power. Golden divinity met abyssal void, two forces that should never have coexisted.
But now, they would collide.
Sylas's gaze darkened. "You think this changes anything?"
Kael flexed his fingers, feeling the abyss stir within him. Shadows coiled around his body, forming ethereal armor that pulsed with shifting energy. "I don't think," he said. "I know."
With a flick of his wrist, Sylas hurled a golden spear of divine energy. It moved faster than lightning, a streak of pure destruction.
Kael's instincts screamed, but something else inside him reacted before he could even think.
Darkness surged.
A void-forged blade materialized in his hand, its edge rippling like an endless abyss. He swung the golden spear shattered on impact, its energy dispersing into nothing.
Sylas's eyes widened.
Kael vanished.
Abyssal movement wasn't like normal speed it ignored distance altogether. One moment, he stood meters away. The next, he was right in front of Sylas, his void blade already descending.
Sylas barely managed to raise his arm. Golden light clashed with abyssal steel.
The impact shattered the sky.
Both combatants were launched backward, the sheer force tearing the ruins apart. Columns crumbled, the very ground splitting beneath their power.
Kael skidded to a stop, abyssal tendrils cushioning his landing. His heart pounded this power was unlike anything he had ever wielded. It wasn't just strength.
It was freedom.
Sylas, however, looked furious. His hand trembled where he had blocked Kael's strike, and cracks of abyssal energy ran up his golden arm.
For the first time since his ascension, Sylas bled.
He touched the wound, golden ichor dripping from his fingertips. "Impossible."
Kael smirked. "You thought divinity made you untouchable?" He spun his void blade effortlessly. "Guess again."
Sylas's golden aura flared, his fury shaking the heavens. "Then I'll just have to erase you from existence."
He raised both hands, and the sky split open.
A burning sigil of divine destruction formed above them, a spell powerful enough to wipe entire kingdoms from the map. The heavens wept golden fire as the attack descended.
Kael took a deep breath, feeling the abyss sing within him.
Then he raised his own hand.
Where Sylas called on divine judgment, Kael called on the First Abyss.
A void tore open above him, swallowing the light, consuming it. What should have been an apocalypse became silence. A vast nothingness.
Sylas's attack vanished.
For the first time, true doubt entered Sylas's eyes. "What… are you?"
Kael stepped forward, abyssal power roaring around him. His voice was calm but absolute.
"Your end."
And then, he attacked.