The temple lay in ruins.
The once-pristine halls of marble and divine crystal now cracked beneath Kael's feet. The air was thick with smoke and the faint scent of ozone, remnants of the divine flame Ser Lumineth had unleashed. Kael stood amidst the devastation, the Radiant Core pulsing within his chest, woven into his soul.
He was stronger than ever.
But the taste of victory was sharp on his tongue—metallic, heavy, and unfinished.
Because he felt it.
Eyes were watching him.
---
Echoes of Ascendancy
Kael stepped into the next corridor beyond the broken sanctum. As he moved, the shadows curled around him willingly. He had become something the gods feared—a being born from the Abyss, now wielding the light they so jealously guarded.
The Radiant Core within him whispered new truths—ancient names, sealed realms, forgotten pacts. And then, a name echoed loudest among them all:
Elandris.
A high god. One of the Celestial Council. The one who ordered Kael's execution.
The one who feared his potential the most.
Kael clenched his fist. "You sent Lumineth. You'll regret not coming yourself."
---
The Divine Watchers Stir
Far above, in the Clouded Seat of Judgment, a crack split the Sky-Mirror—the divine pool through which the gods watched the lower realms.
"What has he become?" whispered one god cloaked in starlight.
"Something we didn't plan for," murmured another, eyes glowing like twin suns.
High God Elandris stepped forward. His face was ageless, carved of gold and wrath. "Kael has done the impossible. The Radiant Core should have rejected him. Instead, it obeyed."
Silence fell among the gods.
"He's becoming more than a Sovereign," said Elandris. "He's becoming a threat to the entire divine hierarchy."
The gods exchanged glances.
Then, a decision was made.
"Send the Hollow Choir," Elandris ordered. "Let them sing his death."
---
Layer 12: The Hollow Fields
Kael descended from the ruins of the Radiant Temple into the twilight lands of Layer 12.
This realm felt… different.
It wasn't steeped in divine light or shadowy abyss. Instead, a strange silence gripped the world—a land caught in the stillness of death.
No wind. No sound. No monsters.
Only empty fields of gray, mist swirling endlessly above forgotten graves.
Kael's boots crunched over pale grass, and the air bit cold against his skin.
Then the whispers began.
Soft. Discordant.
Voices without mouths. Souls without bodies.
He turned—shadows dancing in the fog.
From the haze emerged figures. Thin. Floating. Cloaked in fragments of shattered hymnals and wearing masks etched with prayers.
The Hollow Choir.
---
The Song That Binds
They began to sing.
No melody—just endless, droning syllables, like broken verses stitched together by pain and eternity.
Kael staggered as his body froze mid-step. His blood screamed. His soul twisted.
The Radiant Core flared within him, pushing against the weight of their song. Still, it wasn't enough. The Choir's power wasn't in their strength—it was in their voice, their truth.
"We are the final hymn," one whispered through a cracked mask.
"We sang the first light into being," said another.
"We will sing your ending."
Kael gritted his teeth.
"No," he growled. "You won't."
---
The Sovereign's Defiance
With a roar, Kael slammed his palm to the ground, summoning the power deep in his veins.
[Sovereign Skill: Abyssal Rapture – Shadowbreak]
Darkness exploded from him, warping the very mist around the Hollow Choir. The hymn faltered. The voices cracked.
But they did not stop.
The Choir split into three. One circled from behind, one floated above, and one raised skeletal hands, summoning spectral chains that glowed with holy runes.
Kael dodged left, barely avoiding a chain as it cracked into the ground like a lightning bolt. He flipped backward, slicing through the mist with Abyssal Scorn, cutting one of the Choir members clean in two.
It didn't die.
Instead, it split into two smaller echoes, both continuing the song.
Kael's mind raced. They fed off song—off eternity. He couldn't outlast them.
He had to silence them.
---
Twilight Fusion
Digging deep into the Radiant Core's knowledge, Kael remembered something—an ancient technique lost to all but the divine:
Fusion of polar power.
Light and darkness—bound together.
It was forbidden. Taboo. But he wasn't a follower of gods. He was their antithesis.
Kael planted his blade into the ground. His arms glowed—one with abyss, one with radiance.
He brought them together.
The sky split.
[Forbidden Technique: Eclipse Vow – Sovereign's Will]
A sphere of darkness rimmed with searing light exploded outward. The Hollow Choir shrieked, their song warping into distortion. Their forms dissolved like wax under flame.
Kael rose from the crater, the fused energy now wrapping around his body in a cloak of swirling dusk and dawn.
He had become more.
---
A Memory Returned
As the last whisper of the Hollow Choir faded, Kael collapsed to his knees.
And then, a memory hit him.
A hidden fragment of his past—the day before his betrayal.
He saw a woman.
Golden hair. Crimson eyes. A voice that calmed storms.
"Sylra…" he whispered.
The gods didn't just cast him down. They erased her. Wiped her from the world.
Why?
The pain was too sharp to bear. The rage, too deep to contain.
"I'll burn your throne, Elandris," Kael swore aloud. "I'll tear it from the sky and bury you beneath it."
---
The World Begins to Watch
Back in the mortal world, rumors had begun.
A new power rising in the dungeons.
A sovereign not of the gods, but against them.
A warrior who wielded both Radiance and Ruin.
Kingdoms stirred. The Church whispered. Even the Abyss Lords turned their gaze.
And in the heavens, Elandris felt it.
For the first time in an age—
A god was afraid.
---