The plaza lay in ruins.
Smoke curled from shattered stone. Debris hung midair, caught in the lingering chaos of distorted gravity. Nex was crouched near the rubble, his grin gone, replaced by a look of simmering irritation.
> "You really are stubborn," he said, brushing blood from his mouth. "Fine. Let's see what happens when I get serious."
He raised both hands.
The atmosphere thickened.
A low vibration spread through the air—subtle at first, then shaking the ground with increasing force. People in the distant city staggered. Gravity wells opened like dark blossoms across the skyline.
"Kael," Liora shouted, eyes wide. "He's destabilizing the entire city's gravitational field. He's trying to collapse the leyline below us!"
Kael's heart sank. That leyline fed energy to half the eastern continent. If it imploded...
"He's not just trying to win," Kael said grimly. "He's trying to prove something."
Nex floated higher, both palms glowing with red-black spirals.
"Let the world break, Kael! Let it all fall so we can start fresh. No more Choir. No more rules. Just raw, honest power."
Kael stepped forward, slowly spinning his staff.
"If I let you win, this world dies. If I lose... it dies anyway."
He took a deep breath.
"But if I stop you... maybe it has a chance."
He launched himself upward, past the broken towers and into the eye of the gravity storm.
Their final clash hadn't come yet.
But Kael was done playing catch-up.
He was going to end this.
One way or another.