He finally saw it.
The Origin-class Varnok.
But it wasn't massive. Not anymore.
It had shrunk, standing as a tall, silver-haired humanoid—a mirror of Kael himself, clad in dark, storm-rippled armor that twisted and flickered like a living void. Its eyes glowed a sickly crimson, mouth curled in a half-smirk.
The wind stopped.
Kael's fingers flexed. His entire being screamed for war, but his senses remained locked on the creature. The resemblance was uncanny—like a twisted reflection birthed from his deepest essence.
"You stole the shape of a man," Kael muttered. "Why?"
"To understand how best to break one," the beast replied. Its voice carried no echo, no breath—just malice. "And you… you're the one they fear most."
" Who is they? " No response.
Their gazes clashed like blades. Not a sound came from the soldiers miles away. Time itself seemed to hold its breath.
Then the Varnok blurred.
Kael barely tilted his head before a fist crashed where it had been, a crater blooming beneath their feet.
Kael launched a roundhouse—fluid, sharp. The Varnok leaned back unnaturally, ribs bending too far. Kael's palm strike caught it mid-movement, sending it spiraling. He was on it instantly, fists a flurry of motion.
Boom-boom-boom!
The sky itself cracked under the rhythm of their strikes. Kael ducked a spinning elbow and weaved under a rising knee. His counter was brutal—an elbow to the throat, a shoulder ram to the sternum, and a two-punch burst to the face that sent the creature tumbling.
But it twisted in midair, landed with a reverse handstand, and launched itself forward—kicking up shards of stone.
It came again—this time not just striking, but mimicking Kael's own techniques.
Scorchbreak Drive.
Kael's eyes widened as the Varnok unleashed a crude replica of the piston-flame strike. He parried just in time, but the heat still scorched across his jawline.
"That's mine," Kael growled.
"Your moves… are memories now."
The next exchange was pure martial art mastery—fists spiraled, knees shattered stone, breath control timed to strikes, feints within feints. Every punch Kael threw, the Varnok met with eerie precision, as if it were learning with every blow.
But Kael was not who he was yesterday. Not even who he was an hour ago.
Kael's hand sparked with thunder.
Godbreaker Arsenal: Volt Requiem Execution.
Ten strikes in less than a second. The Varnok reeled back, each hit chaining essence into the next. The final slam detonated in a brilliant thunder implosion, hurling the creature backward in a tumbling arc through a cliffside.
But it rose, cloak of dark essence swirling.
"You are… worthy," it rasped.
Its eyes turned black.
And then it moved.
Faster than Kael had imagined.
CLANG!
A perfect high kick—caught.
Kael caught the leg, rotated, and flipped the creature over his shoulder. In mid-air, the Varnok twisted and fired a black beam of annihilation essence—but Kael had already vanished.
Flash-step. Counterspin. Elbow to the spine.
They moved like gods of destruction.
They moved like dancers in the eye of the apocalypse.
Fist met flesh. Energy clashed. Space warped around their movements. Every technique clashed not just in power—but in form, intent, spirit.
The Varnok slammed the ground and summoned a spear of null essence. Kael responded—
Godbreaker Arsenal: Blazepulse Cataclysm.
Flame and lightning. His fists struck the ground, and a pulse erupted, flash-drying the earth, tearing across the field. The Varnok vanished from the shock front, reappearing above him.
Kael ducked.
Too slow.
The spear grazed his shoulder. Blood.
Kael gritted his teeth and surged upward with a knee strike that shattered the spear's haft and sent the Varnok careening into the sky.
He pursued.
In the upper atmosphere, they met again.
Kick. Elbow. Spiral smash.
Kael feinted, then spun—
Godbreaker Arsenal: Cyclone Ruin Driver.
He became a vortex of motion, colliding with the Varnok mid-air and slamming them both downward like a meteor.
The impact cracked the battlefield.
Soldiers screamed. The land warped.
And Kael stood over a crater where the Varnok lay.
But it was not done.
The mirror-being rose, smile bleeding across its face.
Kael's breathing slowed.
His eyes narrowed.
He clenched his fists.
I will not fall here.
He took a single breath.
Essence swirled around him—Storm, Flame, Lightning, Kinetic—all in harmony.
The Varnok charged.
And so did Kael.