The cavern shattered.
Not all at once—but in pulses, like a heartbeat forced beyond its limit. Starfire erupted from Kael's body in violent arcs, carving molten lines across the stone as the Voidbound's black energy surged to meet it. Where the two forces collided, the air screamed and folded inward, collapsing into flashes of blinding white.
Lysara was thrown back, skidding across the fractured floor. She slammed into a crystal outcrop, rolling to her feet just as a spear of void-shadow ripped past where her head had been a second earlier.
"MOVE!" she shouted.
Elder Thorne raised his staff, chanting in the ancient clan tongue. Golden sigils flared around him, forming a barrier just as a wave of corrupted mana slammed into their position. The impact drove him to one knee, veins of strain crawling up his neck.
"This isn't a skirmish," Thorne growled. "He's already half-ascended."
Kael barely heard them.
The Star Fragment hovered between him and the Voidbound, spinning faster, caught in the gravity of two opposing paths. His chest burned like a dying star collapsing inward. The silver-threaded pattern within his Star Mark pulsed erratically, each beat threatening to tear him apart from the inside.
Focus.
Kael inhaled, grounding himself the way Master Rhel had taught him—through pain, through fear, through the raw certainty of being alive.
The Voidbound stepped forward, boots never touching the ground.
"Look at you," he said almost fondly. "Already leaking power. The First Ascendants screamed just like that."
Kael roared and moved.
He vanished in a burst of starfire, reappearing directly in front of the Voidbound with his fist drawn back. The punch landed—hard enough to crater the stone behind them—but the man's body dissolved into shadow a heartbeat before impact.
Kael twisted mid-air, barely deflecting a blade of condensed void that slashed toward his throat. It grazed his shoulder instead, tearing flesh and numbing the entire arm instantly.
Cold spread through him.
Not pain—absence.
He crashed to the ground, rolling as black spikes erupted where he'd landed.
"So reckless," the Voidbound sighed. "Power without structure. You're burning yourself alive."
Kael forced himself upright, blood steaming as it dripped onto the stone. "Then stop talking."
He slammed his palm into the ground.
"Starbound Art: Astral Pulse."
Light detonated outward in a perfect sphere. The cavern walls buckled. Void-spires shattered into dust. The shockwave hurled the Voidbound backward, slamming him into the far wall with enough force to crack the ancient runes carved into the stone.
Lysara didn't waste the opening.
She blurred forward, blade singing as it ignited with crimson aura. She leapt, twisting mid-air.
"Crimson Fang—Second Form!"
Her strike cleaved through the Voidbound's shadow barrier, drawing a thin line of blood across his chest as he staggered.
For the first time, his smile faltered.
"…Interesting."
He raised one hand. The blood froze mid-air, darkening, then turned against itself—exploding outward in a storm of needles.
Lysara cried out, thrown back as Thorne barely managed to reinforce his barrier in time. Even so, several needles pierced through, drawing blood from her side and leg.
"Lysara!" Kael shouted.
Something snapped.
The silver threads in Kael's Star Mark flared violently, weaving into a new symbol—unfinished, unstable, but unmistakably higher than before.
The Star Fragment responded.
It surged into Kael's chest.
Pain ceased to exist.
So did limits.
Kael rose slowly, suspended inches above the ground. Starfire condensed around him, not wild anymore—but razor-focused, orbiting his body like broken moons.
Elder Thorne stared in horror. "He's synchronizing… without a ritual."
The Voidbound's expression finally changed—from amusement to urgency.
"Stop!" he barked, thrusting both hands forward. "Void Canon: Erasure Field!"
A sphere of absolute darkness expanded outward, devouring light, sound, and mana alike.
Kael met it head-on.
"Starbound Art—Unwritten Form."
The words burned out of him without conscious thought.
"Celestial Rend."
Kael moved once.
The darkness split.
A line of pure starlight carved through the Erasure Field, through the Voidbound's defenses, and straight through his torso. The cavern froze in stunned silence as the man staggered, staring down at the glowing wound burning through his chest.
He laughed—ragged, disbelieving.
"…So that's it," he whispered. "The path still lives."
His body began to unravel, void energy collapsing inward.
"But hear me, Starborn," he said as he disintegrated into ash and shadow. "Aerin walks ahead of you now. And he… won't stop where you will."
The void vanished.
The cavern fell deathly still.
Kael dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, starfire extinguishing instantly. Lysara crawled to his side, catching his head before it struck the stone.
"Idiot," she whispered shakily. "You almost died."
Kael managed a weak breath. "…Almost."
Elder Thorne approached slowly, eyes fixed on the altered Star Mark now etched into Kael's chest—silver threads stabilized into a new, permanent pattern.
"A new stage," the elder said quietly. "Neither clan-ranked nor void-corrupted."
He looked up, fear and awe warring in his expression.
"Kael… you've stepped beyond the system."
Far away, beneath a blood-red sky, Aerin opened his eyes—and felt the same tremor ripple through the world.
He smiled.