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Location: Underrealm – The Forgotten Wound
The ground was obsidian glass.
Each step Kairo took echoed for miles in the hollow dark. He wasn't alone—but not in the way most would expect.
Zerith walked beside him.
Not as a towering god.
But as a man.
No armor. No divine glow. Just ragged robes, scars, and those infamous eyes—molten with war and sorrow.
"I didn't think we'd meet like this again," Kairo muttered.
Zerith chuckled. "You thought unlocking the Thirteenth wouldn't come with a reunion?"
"You're a war god, not a cryptic librarian. Talk straight."
Zerith stopped.
And pointed forward.
A massive wall of chained mirrors stretched into the darkness. Each mirror shimmered with fragments of Kairo's past.
His first fight.
His brother's scream.
The moment he first bled for someone else.
> [New Trial Initiated: The Chains That Speak]
"To master the Thirteenth Throne, you must unchain what even gods fear to recall."
Kairo flinched.
Because behind those mirrors… was a door.
And carved on it—was his name.
But not Kairo.
Kaiel Seraphim.
His real name.
One sealed when he was a child to hide him from the Council.
He stared at it. "What the hell is this?"
Zerith's voice dropped. "Your origin. The real reason they fear you. You weren't just bonded to me. You were born from rebellion. The last heir of the Flamebloods—the only mortal line the gods couldn't bend."
The chains rattled louder.
Kairo's hands began to tremble.
And from the shadows—
Something began to crawl.
A malformed echo of a god, stitched from old laws and dead prayers. It hissed, its face a shifting patchwork of every divine house's emblem.
> "You were supposed to stay hidden."
"You were supposed to obey."
Kairo's aura burst crimson-black. But Zerith held out a hand.
"No. Not this time. Let me fight."
Kairo blinked.
"…Why?"
Zerith's eyes narrowed, the air around him twisting. "Because even gods need a reminder."
And with a thunderclap, Zerith unshackled himself.
No longer bonded. No longer sealed.
Just a god of wrath who remembered his name.
And his rage.
> [Zerith has fully awakened.]
[Divine Authority: "Wrathborne" is active.]
He struck first.
One punch—shattered a mirror.
Another—split the echo god in half.
His voice echoed across the Underrealm:
> "I bled once to save a boy from fate.
I'll burn again to make sure he never becomes me."
Kairo stood behind him, watching.
Not with fear.
But awe.
The kind of awe that builds legends.
---
Cut To: Pantheon Council Chamber
Varin snarled. "We've lost the Underrealm's seal!"
Elyra whispered, "He's bonding too fast. Too deep."
Serin asked one thing.
"Is it still a boy we're dealing with… or a rival god?"
No one answered.
---
Back in the Underrealm
The final chain snapped.
The door unlocked.
And Kairo—Kaiel—stepped through.
> [True Name Restored.]
[Title Gained: Flameblood Scion.]
[New Ability: "Realitybrand" — Your words can bend law in divine spaces.]
Zerith, bloodied and laughing, leaned on him.
"Told you you'd be more than me."
Kairo smiled.
And for the first time…
He didn't feel like a weapon.
He felt like a spark.
The one that would set the heavens on fire.
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