Kaelen hovered above the forest like a crimson storm given form, his aura tearing the sky apart. Every swing of his blood-blade and every flare of mana from his fists collided with Elyndra's radiance and Alric's raw force. The wind screamed. Trees trembled. Clouds split.
Elyndra struck from above, wings of blinding light arcing in perfect precision, her blade singing as it clashed against Kaelen's crimson weapon. Sparks erupted. Lightning crackled in tandem with the shockwaves. Kaelen barely slowed.
Alric surged in from the side, hammer glowing with raw energy, bringing it down with explosive force. The impact shook the air, pressure ripping through treetops and tearing earth and foliage asunder.
And then—
Kaelen's crimson eyes flicked downward.
There.
Through the chaos, through the collision of gods and monsters, he saw them.
Elliana—bloodied, shadows and light warping around her as she forced herself to stand.
Draven—bruised, broken, every breath a fight, but still moving. Still alive. Still holding on.
*His blood boiled.*
Every instinct, every shard of his being screamed.
His jaw tightened. A terrible calm settled over him—
—and then shattered.
Crimson mana **erupted** from him, blasting outward like the roar of a star. The blood-spears around him shattered, dissolving into mist as his fury propelled him downward.
*You dare—*
"**YOU DARE HURT MY FAMILY!**" he bellowed.
The sound tore through the forest, toppling trees, twisting the air, flattening undergrowth. Lightning flared around him, jagged arcs leaping from his body.
His aura flared violently. The blood-blade in his hand **lengthened**, stretching impossibly, screaming as it sliced the air. Mana exploded outward, shaking the clouds.
"**NO ONE TOUCHES THEM!**"
With a single motion, Kaelen launched himself downward—faster than thought, a spear of wrath aimed at the clearing where Elliana and Draven fought for their lives. The air split. The forest screamed.
—but just before he reached them—
**THUNDER.**
The sky **exploded**.
A bolt of lightning tore downward in a blinding line, and Alric was there—hammer already mid-swing, momentum screaming through the air as he brought it down with the full weight of his body and faith behind it.
**BOOOOM—!**
The collision detonated like a meteor strike. A perfect ring of destruction ripped outward. Trees snapped. The earth caved.
Kaelen's descent was **violently halted**, his body driven upward as Alric's hammer crushed into his side, lightning roaring around them.
Before Kaelen could recover—
Light flared.
Elyndra descended like judgment incarnate.
Her wings blazed white-gold as she drove her blade into the clash, radiant force slamming into Kaelen from the opposite side in perfect synchronization with Alric's blow.
**CRACK—!**
The air screamed.
Kaelen was hurled backward, launched into the sky like a comet, crimson mana tearing behind him in violent spirals. He skidded across the clouds, tearing vapor apart, barely stopping himself with a brutal snap of his wings.
His eyes burned.
Rage—pure, incandescent—ignited behind them.
"…You dare," he growled.
Alric didn't answer.
He was already moving.
Lightning detonated beneath his feet as he launched again, hammer spinning, body a blur of raw momentum and killing intent.
Elyndra flanked him from above, wings folding, blade angled down like a falling star.
They hit together.
Again.
And again.
And again.
The sky became a battlefield of light and blood.
Kaelen met them head-on.
No defense.
No retreat.
Only **violence**.
His blood-blade screamed as it clashed with Elyndra's sword, sparks and holy light spraying in violent arcs. His fist drove into Alric's chest, lightning detonating as armor buckled. Alric barely slowed, returning the blow with a hammer strike that shattered the air.
They tore into each other.
Three forces colliding with godlike fury.
Shockwaves rolled through the clouds. Thunder cracked in their wake. The forest below was battered by pressure alone.
Kaelen twisted, ducked beneath Elyndra's slash, and **rose** inside her guard.
His blood-blade flashed.
**SHNK—!**
Her head left her shoulders in a clean, brutal arc.
Radiant light sprayed into the air like shattered stars. Her body froze for a heartbeat—
then began to fall.
Alric roared.
A sound of pure fury.
He surged forward, hammer coming down in a killing blow.
Kaelen didn't dodge.
He stepped in.
His blood-blade cut sideways—
**CRACK.**
Alric's arm was severed at the shoulder, spinning away in a spray of blood and lightning. The hammer fell from numb fingers, vanishing into the clouds.
For a fraction of a second—
Silence.
Kaelen hovered there, chest heaving, blood and light drifting around him, crimson eyes blazing.
Below, Elyndra's headless body continued to fall.
Above, Alric stared in shock at the stump where his arm had been.
Kaelen's own arm—
Gone.
Severed at the elbow by Elyndra's final reflexive strike.
Blood poured from the wound.
For half a heartbeat, the world seemed to pause.
Then—
**Regeneration.**
Crimson mana surged violently as Kaelen's arm **reformed** in an instant—bone knitting, muscle weaving, skin sealing as if time itself had reversed. He flexed his fingers once.
Perfect.
His gaze snapped forward.
Not at Alric.
Not at Elyndra's falling body.
But at the space between them.
Where the air **warped**.
Where something **shifted**.
A presence.
A pressure.
Something ancient.
Something wrong.
Kaelen's eyes narrowed.
"…An Apostle vessel," he muttered.
Golden light flared.
Elyndra's falling body **stopped**.
Her headless neck burned with radiance as divine energy erupted—coiling, reconstructing.
Bone.
Flesh.
Skin.
Her head **regrew** in a blaze of golden light.
Her eyes snapped open mid-air.
Alive.
Whole.
Unbroken.
At the same time, Alric staggered—then straightened.
Golden lightning surged around his shoulder. The stump glowed. Flesh surged outward. Bone reformed.
His arm **regenerated**.
Complete.
He caught his falling hammer without looking.
Kaelen stared.
Not shocked.
Not confused.
Cold.
Deadly.
"…So that's how you're cheating," he said quietly.
Elyndra's expression was no longer purely human. There was something **else** behind her eyes now—something vast, distant, watching through her.
Alric's breathing steadied unnaturally fast, wounds closing as golden sigils burned faintly beneath his skin.
The air hummed with borrowed divinity.
Kaelen's lips curled.
A slow.
Dangerous.
Predatory smile.
"Vessels," he repeated. "Puppets."
His gaze burned with contempt.
"Using my wife and son as bait… while hiding behind borrowed god-power."
Crimson mana surged around him, hotter, denser, more oppressive. The clouds blackened. The wind screamed.
His eyes flicked downward again—toward the forest, toward Elliana and Draven.
Then back to them.
His voice dropped.
Low.
Lethal.
"I was going to kill you quickly," he said. "Now?"
The blood-blade in his hand **expanded**, warping, stretching, screaming as it bled power into the sky.
"Now I'm going to tear your gods out through your spines."
The sky trembled.
Elyndra raised her blade.
Alric tightened his grip.
Three forces hung in the air—locked, coiled, ready.
And below, in the shattered forest…
the world waited.