Dævd tore through the sky like a bolt of vengeance.
The wind shrieked past his ears as he descended, fist blazing with raw Aetheric energy. A streak of light carved across the skyline, silver and electric-blue, as if the heavens themselves marked his trajectory.
Rukorr pauses mid-step. His glowing molten-orange eyes locked onto Dævd with vague amusement, narrowing as he sensed the force hurtling toward him. With a low growl, he raised his massive hammer, a jagged, obsidian thing laced with glowing red cracks, pulsing with destructive energy.
Dævd crashed down like thunder.
BOOM.
The ground erupted in a blinding flash as fist met hammer. A shockwave blasted outward, ripping through storefronts and shattering windows. Civilians screamed and dove for cover. The streets warped from the sheer pressure, chunks of debris flung into the air like shrapnel.
Dust and smoke engulfed everything.
For a moment, silence.
Then, through the haze, two figures emerged.
Dævd stood tall, his breath steady, Lucent Grave now in hand, humming, glowing faintly, as if awakened by the clash.
Rukorr sneered, dragging his hammer across the pavement with a vicious grin.
"So you're the little prince," he growled, voice like gravel grinding steel.
"Didn't expect you to fall from the sky like a damn meteor."
Dævd's blindfold flared subtly with electric lines. He didn't reply. Not with words. Not yet.
He raised Lucent Grave in a defensive stance, his aura now shimmering like lightning held in restraint.
This wasn't just a fight.
It was the beginning of war.
The air trembled. Flames licked at the corners of abandoned cars. Sirens echoed in the distance, distorted, swallowed by the weight of the moment. Dævd's silver-white locs shifted in the wind, his grip firm around the hilt of Lucent Grave.
Rukorr rolled his neck, hammer resting on his shoulder like it weighed nothing.
"What's the plan, little ghost? Gonna glare me to death from behind that cloth?" Rukorr asked grinning.
Dævd took one step forward, his voice calm, cold.
"I was just about to ask you the same thing" he replied.
Without warning, Rukorr lunged.
The brute moved with terrifying speed for his size, bringing his massive hammer down in a brutal arc. Dævd sidestepped, boots skimming across fractured pavement, then parried the swing with Lucent Grave. Sparks burst on impact, Aether lightning clashing with molten fury.
"You've got guts. I like that," Rukorr grunted.
He pivoted, swinging the hammer horizontally. Dævd leapt, twisting mid-air, flipping clean over the blow. His blindfold snapped with kinetic force as he landed behind Rukorr, Lucent Grave slashing across his armored back.
Aetheric lightning flashed. Rukorr stumbled forward a step.
"That tickled," Rukorr laughed.
As he spun, Dævd's blade barely came up in time to block a crushing hammer-strike. The ground cratered beneath them. Dust spiraled.
Dævd slid back, gritting his teeth.
"Damn… he's built like a warbeast. Force alone won't cut it," he thought.
Lucent Grave pulsed, responding to his emotions. Electricity surged along the etched runes.
A quiet smirk tugged at the edge of his lips.
"Let's try this…" he muttered, voice low, almost casual, but with a storm behind it.
He vanished, a crackling afterimage left behind.
Volt Mirage.
Rukorr's eyes widened. Too late.
Dævd reappeared above, upside down, blade first, and drove Lucent Grave down with a radiant boom, catching Rukorr at the shoulder. The impact forced the brute to one knee, snarling.
But still, not broken.
"You're not the only one with tricks," Rukorr growled.
His hammer lit up, glowing crimson like a heart ablaze, and with a furious roar, he slammed it into the ground.
"Hellshock Pulse."
The street exploded outward in a wave of molten energy, throwing Dævd through the air. He flipped, caught himself mid-flight, and hovered above the destruction.
He hovered.
Eyes narrowing.
Breath steady.
Lucent Grave raised once more, charged, divine, crackling with restrained stormlight.
Dævd's voice dropped to a low, cutting murmur as he stood his ground.
"You Branded freaks… always so loud."
Dævd struck down from above, but Rukorr roared, twisting mid-kneel and catching the blade's descent with the handle of his hammer. The shockwave blasted outward, shattering nearby windows and tossing debris into the air.
The force blew both of them apart.
Dævd was sent flying, his body crashed through a streetlight, spinning, then slamming into a wall with a dull crack. The air ripped from his lungs.
Lucent Grave slipped from his grip mid-air, the sacred weapon skidding across the pavement, its glowing runes dimming faintly.
Dævd dropped to his knees, coughing hard, his hoodie singed and torn.
"Let's see what the King's blade feels like in my hands," Rukorr chuckled.
He began walking toward it, molten cracks spreading beneath his boots as he moved, eyes locked on the blade. Steam curled off Lucent Grave's glowing edge like a warning.
Rukorr ignored it.
He reached down.
A flash.
White-hot Aetheric fire exploded from the blade's surface, lashing out like a serpent of flame.
Rukorr screamed, stumbling back violently, clutching his seared arm. The flesh on his hand smoked, burned raw. His face twisted in pain and fury.
"What… was that?!" He snarled.
The blade trembled, almost as if alive, pulsing with protective fury. Aetherian fire danced briefly along its surface, then settled into a steady glow.
Dævd forced himself to stand, blood in his mouth, but eyes sharper than ever.
"You don't get to touch her," he muttered, the words laced with pride, and warning.
He held out his hand, and with a faint hum, Lucent Grave lifted off the ground, drawn to him.
It snapped into his palm, reigniting in a blaze of blue light.
The wind shifted.
Thunder cracked in the sky above.
Dævd rose into the air, eyes glowing behind the blindfold.
Dævd's voice was low, steady and razor-sharp.
"You don't understand what you're dealing with yet, Rukorr… but you will"
Rukorr growled, shaking the pain from his scorched arm. His hammer trembled in his grip, vibrating with pent-up force.
Rukorr grinned through the pain, teeth bloodied.
"So the royal brat's still got some bite…"
Dævd didn't reply.
Instead, he lifted Lucent Grave with both hands, the blade glowing bright with divine blue lightning. As the glow intensified, intricate storm-forged runes lit up along its edge, and from the air around him, crackling tendrils of lightning began to swirl outward.
His voice rang like thunder:
"Celestial Stormbind."
In an instant, six ethereal chains of pure lightning burst from the air around Lucent Grave. They whipped through the battlefield, lashing toward Rukorr with blinding speed.
Rukorr swung his hammer in a wild arc, shattering one chain, but the rest coiled around him like serpents, slamming him to the ground. The brute howled as the bindings cinched tight around his limbs, sending jolts of energy ripping through his body.
"You… Aetherian scum!" He roared.
Lightning danced violently across his frame as the chains locked him in place, pulsing with Dævd's emotions, tightening the more Rukorr resisted. Lightning searing through his massive frame, muscles twitching beneath scorched skin. But even in pain, he smiled, wide, toothy, feral.
Dævd froze in mid-air, his aura still flaring.
"Kael was right. He said the King's Eyes would glow like wildfire when pushed. And now I see it. The storm. The wrath. The grief." Rukorr laughed, unhinged.
Dævd's eyes narrowed beneath the blindfold, jaw clenched.
"Kael sent me to break you, and drag back your corpse…. And I won't leave this planet until I do!" Rukorr roared.
The chains around him sizzled louder, reacting not just to resistance, but to rising power. Rukorr planted his hammer into the pavement, driving it like a grounding rod. A pulsing red energy began to rise from his core, vibrating the air with raw heat and momentum.
"Those chains are divine lightning. You won't break them." Dævd shouted, voice ringing like thunder.
"Then maybe I'll break divinity!" Rukorr roared, fury blazing in his eyes.