A blast of crimson energy exploded from his body, sending a shockwave through the street. The chains snapped one by one, shattering like glass under seismic pressure. His muscles bulged, veins glowing like molten cracks beneath the skin.
His sigil, the Branded Mark, ignited brighter on his chest. Rukorr bared his teeth in a savage grin, muscles pulsing with fury.
"Stop cowering and fight me like the prince you were born to be!" he roared.
He rushed forward, fast, too fast for his size, and swung his hammer in a wide arc, sending pavement flying.
Dævd blocked it mid-air with Lucent Grave, but the force knocked him back through a billboard, sparks flying. He steadied himself, Aether recharging around him, expression darkening.
The air grew electric again.
Dævd's voice came low, steady, almost a whisper.
"Fine."
He raised Lucent Grave, its edge crackling with restrained power.
"Let's end this."
The air split open as Dævd surged forward with Lucent Grave raised high, blue lightning blazing from the blade's edge. He vanished in a blink, a thunderclap trailing behind him, reappearing mid-strike just above Rukorr's shoulder.
"Arc Severance!"
A razor-thin slash of pure lightning carved through the air, slicing into Rukorr's armor and burning a streak across his chest. The branded warrior howled, spinning wildly and slamming his hammer into the street, the ground shattered beneath him.
But Dævd was gone again.
Volt Mirage kicked in, his figure flickering between rooftops and lampposts, each afterimage crackling with unstable energy. Civilians in the distance screamed, ducking for cover as bursts of light exploded around them.
"You're fast. But I'll crush you like the rest!" Rukorr snarled.
He hurled his massive hammer toward the sky, it spun like a meteor, and Dævd barely twisted mid-air to dodge, landed on a distant rooftop with a skid.
Suddenly, Rukorr leapt after his own weapon, caught it mid-air, and came down like a falling mountain.
Rukorr raises his hammer with both arms, muscles surging, voice shaking the air.
"Final Brand—EARTHRENDER!"
The ground split beneath him in jagged veins of molten force, power surging like a quake given form. He struck the ground with terrifying force. A blinding red pulse erupted from the impact, sending an expanding quake outward, cars flipped, buildings cracked, and debris soared through the air. Dævd was hit full-on, sent flying backwards into a building, crashing through a wall, and landed hard on his knees.
He coughed violently, pain shooting through his ribs. He looked up just in time to see Rukorr stomping towards him, steam rising from its glowing core.
Rukorr growled, staggering forward through the smoke, his eyes locked on Dævd.
"Where's all that divinity now, prince?"
His voice dripped with venom, twisted into a sneer. "Or was it just lightning and talk?"
Dævd staggers on his feet, stabbing Lucent Grave to the ground for support.
Dævd's voice was low, ragged with breath, but laced with venom.
"You and Kael stole everything from me…"
His grip tightened on Lucent Grave, lightning arcing up the blade.
"I'll bury every single one of you."
Lightning crackled from his fingertips as he rose slowly to his feet. His blindfold now glowing more furiously, leaking radiant streaks of electric light.
The storm around him shifted, no longer wild, but focused. His boots lifted off the ground. Lightning coiled around his arms, his hair rising with the charge. The sky above darkened, clouds swirling in a massive spiral.
Dævd raised Lucent Grave, its storm-lit edge humming with power. His voice was a whisper beneath the roar of thunder.
"Sovereign Cut."
He vanished into the clouds and for a moment, everything went silent.
Rukorr looked up, staggering back. A single bolt of lightning pierced the clouds. Dævd descended like a god, blade first, wrapped in cosmic lightning, a comet streaking through the sky.
Boom.
He struck.
The shockwave flattened the street, leveling the area around them in a ring of divine energy. A tower behind them cracked and began to collapse.
When the dust cleared,
Rukorr lay in a crater, unconscious, his sigil dim. His hammer was split down the middle. Smoke rose from his ruined armor.
Dævd stood above him, sword buried deep in the earth, chest heaving, lightning still dancing across his skin.
Smoke curled from the cracked pavement. Lightning still fizzled along the fractured edge of the crater, flickering out like the heartbeat of a dying storm.
Dævd stood motionless, eyes glowing beneath the blindfold, as the final embers of combat faded around him. Lucent Grave buzzed with residual power, its edge faintly glowing, whispering echoes of Sovereign Cut still humming through the steel.
Behind him, Rukorr's body twitched once, then convulsed. The sigils across his chest flickered violently. With a hiss of burning energy, his form began to disintegrate, not into blood, but into ash and smoke, unraveling like scorched paper.
Dævd didn't flinch.
He simply turned and walked away.
Dævd's voice cut through the fading crackle of lightning, low and unwavering.
"Tell Kael…" he said, eyes shadowed beneath his blindfold.
"I'm coming for my throne."
With a flex of his legs, lightning crackled beneath his boots. He shot into the air, a flare of blue Aetheric light trailing behind him as he vanished into the skies above Lagos.
The wind carried the last of Rukorr's essence into the sky, leaving only scorched concrete and a faint crater where he once stood. The Aether branded warrior was no more.
In the silence that followed, civilians cautiously stepped out from hiding, some whispering in awe, others in fear. A few captured the moment on their phones.
On a distant rooftop, a cloaked figure watched the aftermath with glowing ember-colored eyes. A faint smile crossed their lips.
"So… the Prince lives."
They turned into a flash of red light and vanished, the hunt far from over.