The chamber was silent. Too silent.
Rei's body dangled limp in the Elder's grip, his vision blurring, breath torn from his lungs. He should have blacked out. He did black out.
And then it erupted.
Golden light exploded from his chest, searing through the void like a sun cracking open. The stone beneath them split wide, the air itself bent and screamed. This wasn't his Enso. This was something far beyond.
God Enso.
Not perfect. Not controlled. But real.
The Elder's eyes widened, only for a second. Then, with a calm, deliberate movement, he let Rei drop and stepped back. The cloak slid from his shoulders. His presence swelled as the fabric hit the floor, revealing not a man, but something that looked human only because the world could not render anything truer.
"You wonder why I am here alone," he said, voice smooth as steel dragged across glass. His tone was almost casual, but it drowned every corner of the chamber.
"Where are the others? Why does a Dark Elder walk without the cycle of the Black Sun?"
He lifted a hand, tracing invisible lines in the air. The torches around them died instantly.
"The truth? The Black Sun occurs once a year. Only then do we step forward with our full weight. Outside that time, our power… is incomplete."
He leaned forward, eyes narrowing with faint amusement.
"But even a fraction is enough to erase everything you are."
Rei's blade shook in his grip, glowing with unstable light. His heart pounded like it wanted to split his chest open. Every instinct screamed to run, but something colder, sharper, forced him forward.
He did not listen.
He did not care.
His body vanished. Flash Step. His blade burned with God Enso, every ounce of him pouring into one strike. The ground tore apart under the weight of his speed as he appeared right in front of the Elder, blade screaming downward.
The Elder raised a single palm.
CLANG.
The Blade of Resolve stopped dead. No scratch. No pushback. No effort.
Just stopped.
Rei's eyes went wide. His chest heaved with fury and terror.
The Elder tilted his head. "Predictable."
And then his other hand shot forward. His fingers wrapped around Rei's skull, unbreakable, cold as stone.
BOOM.
The chamber quaked as he slammed Rei's head into the ground, cracks webbing out like veins through the stone. Dust rained down. The torches guttered back to life, flickering weakly in the suffocating dark.
Rei coughed blood, his body twitching under the weight of the grip. His blade slipped from his hand, clattering uselessly beside him.
The Elder crouched, voice steady, patient, like a teacher correcting a child.
"If this is the weight of your godhood.."
He pressed harder, the stone beneath Rei caving.
"…then your gods are insects."