The battlefield was chaos incarnate. The roars of A-rank beasts shattered the air, shaking the earth as their colossal bodies crashed through stone and steel alike. Their eyes burned with feral hunger, their claws glinting like forged steel under the crimson sky. And yet—despite the horror before them—the Elemental Warborn stood unyielding.
Bolt hovered above the scorched ground, his aura a maelstrom of raw elemental power. Sparks of lightning and tongues of flame wove together around his body, while shards of ice and ribbons of wind spiraled outward like a living storm. Every heartbeat pulsed with purpose. Every breath was measured. He was the storm, and this battlefield was his domain.
"Hold the line!" Bolt's voice boomed like thunder, crackling with authority. "They're not breaking through here!"
Akane was already ablaze, her flames whirling into blazing serpents that coiled around her fists before surging into a pack of lunging beasts. "I'm not letting another one touch the ground!" she roared, incinerating them mid-leap in an inferno that turned the sky orange.
"Behind you!" Aether's wind-laced voice cut through the clash, and with a sweeping motion, he unleashed a slicing gale that intercepted a creature from above, cleaving it cleanly in half before it could ambush her.
Sylva knelt briefly, pressing her palm to the trembling earth. Roots burst forth like spears, entangling the limbs of a monstrous beast before it could crush Darian underfoot. "The land itself screams with us," she murmured. "It wants this over as much as we do."
Darian, drenched in sweat and seawater, summoned a towering surge of water to crash against the next wave. "Then let's answer its cry!" he shouted, sending the beasts tumbling back with tidal force.
Valea floated above the fray, beams of radiant light cutting through the darkness. Yet, even as her luminous wings unfurled, her light seemed dimmer—strained. "There's something unnatural about them," she whispered, each blast of light growing heavier. "As if something deeper drives them forward…"
Ren's blade flashed like a streak of wind, slicing through tendons and severing snarling jaws. Yet his hands trembled with every swing. "How many more?" he muttered, chest heaving. "How many waves of these things do we have to fight?"
"Until we win," Damian growled from the shadows, his form flickering between darkness and flesh as he tore through the enemy ranks. But even his abyss-born powers were faltering. Every time he struck, the void within him seemed to resist—like something darker than even his shadows was trying to seep through.
Kaori's spirit aura shimmered in frantic pulses, her eyes darting from beast to beast. "They're… not just beasts anymore," she breathed, voice trembling. "Something's merging with them. Something ancient."
Bolt gritted his teeth, eyes narrowing. "Then we push harder. Whatever's behind this, we stop it here."
The sky answered him with a deafening crack.
A colossal A-rank beast, towering over the rest, broke through the treeline. Its hide was plated with jagged obsidian scales, and its maw leaked molten fire. Every step it took splintered the ground, and every roar sent tremors racing across the battlefield. It was more than a beast—it was an apex predator of nightmares.
"Positions!" Bolt shouted. "Don't let it reach the barrier!"
The team shifted into formation without hesitation.
Akane was first to strike, launching a massive column of flame toward the monster's chest. The beast roared and swiped, dispersing the inferno with a single sweep of its claw. "It's shrugging it off!" she gasped.
"Then let's drown the flame with the tide!" Darian bellowed, summoning a vortex of water that coiled around the monster's limbs. For a moment, the creature staggered—but then its body heated, evaporating the water into steam in seconds.
"It's adapting," Aether warned, sending blades of compressed wind toward its joints. The cuts bit deep, but the creature didn't slow. It turned its molten glare toward them and charged.
"Move!" Bolt roared.
The beast slammed into the ground, the impact sending a shockwave that hurled them backward. Sylva grunted as vines erupted to cushion their fall, but even her connection to the land shuddered under the weight of the monster's power.
"This isn't a normal A-rank…" Kaori whispered, eyes wide with dread. "There's a will inside it. A presence."
Bolt rose from the rubble, his aura crackling wildly. "Then we fight with everything we have!"
He shot forward like lightning, smashing into the beast with elemental fury. Fire, ice, wind, and earth collided in a violent storm, forcing the monster back step by step. "NOW!" he shouted.
Valea raised her staff, and radiant spears of light pierced the creature's hide. Damian followed, unleashing a wave of shadow that wrapped around the monster's throat, constricting it. Ren leapt high, blade spinning, and carved deep into the creature's exposed shoulder.
For a moment—just a moment—it seemed like they were winning.
Then the beast roared, louder and deeper than anything they had ever heard. The ground split apart beneath its feet, and an explosion of crimson energy blasted outward, sending the Elemental Warborn sprawling.
Bolt hit the ground hard, the world spinning. Through the ringing in his ears, he heard Kaori scream, "It's not just a beast! It's a vessel!"
The creature's body convulsed, its molten eyes flickering with something unnatural. And then… they spoke.
"Soon…" the voice growled—not bestial, but ancient. "Soon the tide will turn… and he will rise…"
The team froze.
"Who?" Valea whispered, clutching her chest as the words sent a chill through her soul. "Who are you talking about?"
The monster's head snapped toward her, and for an instant, a smirk twisted across its monstrous face. "The one who commands the abyss you cannot comprehend…"
Its body began to disintegrate, dissolving into ash and mist. The remaining beasts, as if following a silent command, retreated into the smoke, vanishing into the forest beyond.
The battlefield fell eerily silent.
No victory cheers. No triumphant breaths. Only the heavy weight of what they'd just heard pressing down on them all.
Bolt clenched his fists, lightning sparking weakly between his fingers. "This isn't over," he said quietly. "Not by a long shot."
Kaori's aura pulsed erratically. "I felt it… when that thing spoke. A presence… vast, ancient… and familiar."
"Familiar?" Aether turned to her, brow furrowed. "From where?"
Her lips trembled. "From him."
The wind stilled. Even the embers floating through the air seemed to freeze.
Ren swallowed hard. "You don't mean—"
"I do." Kaori's voice was barely a whisper. "Kairos."
The name hung in the air like a curse.
No one spoke. Not even Bolt. They all felt it—an invisible weight settling over the battlefield, pressing against their lungs and souls.
Before they could process it, the mist that clung to the forest edge began to shift. At first, it was subtle—a ripple, a whisper. Then it thickened, swirling like a living thing. The smoke from the battlefield's fires mixed with it, forming a dense, rolling fog that devoured the horizon.
"What… is that?" Darian murmured, stepping closer, his voice unsteady.
No one answered.
The air grew colder. Heavier. Every instinct screamed danger.
Then—through the haze—a silhouette emerged.
Tall. Unhurried. Step by deliberate step.
The ground itself seemed to recoil with each footfall, as if recognizing the arrival of something far beyond mortal measure.
Ren gripped his sword tighter, his knuckles white. "No… it can't be…"
Bolt felt his heart slam against his ribs as his lightning flared instinctively. He didn't need Kaori's spirit sense to know who it was. Every fiber of his being knew.
The figure stopped at the edge of the smoke, half-shrouded in shadow. The air around them pulsed with a suffocating aura—one that felt all too familiar.
And then, as the wind parted the mist for just a moment, they caught a glimpse of eyes that burned like dying stars.
Kairos.
Alive. Changed. And watching them.
The world seemed to stop breathing.
And then—just as quickly—the mist swallowed him whole once more.
The battlefield remained silent, the Warborn frozen where they stood, hearts pounding, breaths caught between fear and disbelief.
None of them spoke. None of them could.
But deep down, they all knew the same thing:
This battle was no longer about beasts.It was about him.
And the storm had only just begun.