The air turned cold. The shadows beneath Kael's feet twitched—not his doing, but hers. Liora's mastery of the void was no imitation; it was honed, deliberate, corrupted by something older and darker than even Kael's own power.
"Liora..." Kael's voice was low, barely a whisper. "How long have you been hiding this?"
She smiled, head tilted in mock curiosity. "Since before you ever awakened your first shadow. I studied in the Abyss, Kael. I didn't flinch when it stared back—I embraced it. While you were gathering slaves and playing rebel, I was becoming something more."
Sera raised her staff, radiant light pulsing from the crystal at its head. "I should burn you where you stand."
Liora's expression twisted. "You think light scares me? I've already drowned in it. You'd be surprised how easy it is to blind the world when you bend the shadows to your will."
Kael took a step forward, the ground beneath him fracturing as black energy surged from his core. "You betrayed everything. Everyone."
"No," Liora said calmly, "I just saw the truth sooner than you did. This war isn't about mortals versus gods. It's about dominion. And the shadows? They belong to me now."
Without warning, the darkness around her exploded outward. Tendrils of void energy shot across the battlefield, impaling unfortunate soldiers and dragging others into a writhing mass of inky black.
Kael's instincts kicked in. "Form up!" he shouted. "Protect the wounded! Aeron, take the east flank—Sera, you're with me!"
They moved instantly. Aeron drew his blade, fire igniting along its edge as he cut a path through the creeping dark. Sera, already weaving light barriers, positioned herself beside Kael. "We can't outlast her—her control is too wide!"
Kael nodded. "Then we don't contain her. We crush her."
He extended his hand, drawing his shadows inward, compacting them into a dense, pulsing orb of energy. It beat like a heart—his heart—and he hurled it toward Liora.
The blast met her shield mid-air. A flare of dark and light exploded outward, throwing both Kael and Liora backward in opposite directions. Dust and smoke filled the air. Screams echoed. The battlefield became chaos incarnate.
---
Within the Void
Kael stumbled as the world twisted around him. The moment his attack struck Liora, she had pulled him into a pocket of shadow—a domain of her own making.
The ground here was liquid shadow. The sky bled crimson. Floating around him were distorted memories: images of the academy, his first kill, the look on Sera's face when they escaped the Crucible together.
"You don't belong here," Liora's voice echoed, omnipresent.
Kael spun, fists clenched. "Then get me out and fight me in the real world."
"Oh, but here, I make the rules."
She emerged behind him, faster than thought. Her blade, forged of compacted void essence, slashed across his shoulder. Kael staggered, pain lancing down his arm.
He responded with a surge of shadow, forming spikes around him in a defensive ring. Liora leapt over them effortlessly.
"You still fight like a mortal," she mocked.
Kael gritted his teeth. "And you forgot what it means to be one."
He closed his eyes.
Breathed.
And let go.
The shadows around him roared in response—no longer shaped by force, but by will. They didn't just lash out; they listened.
The world of Liora's domain cracked. A flaw. Kael seized it.
He launched himself forward, blade of shadow forming in his hand, slicing upward as Liora met his strike with her own. Their weapons clashed in a thunderous boom. Her domain trembled, then shattered like glass.
---
Back on the Battlefield
The two exploded outward from the void at the center of the city, sending shockwaves in every direction. Debris flew, and the rebels ducked as buildings cracked and buckled.
Kael landed hard, coughing blood.
Liora hovered in the air, cloak flaring around her. "You're stronger than I expected."
Kael stood, wobbling but unbroken. "You should've expected worse."
She smirked. "Next time, I won't be so kind."
With a single motion, she vanished—into the shadows, into the city. Gone.
Kael fell to one knee, exhausted. Around him, the rebels slowly regrouped.
Sera rushed to him, placing a hand over his wound. "She's gone... for now."
Aeron approached, face grim. "She knows our every tactic. Every weakness. We're fighting someone who was trained with us."
Kael looked out across the ruined city.
"No," he said.
"We're fighting someone who was trained for this."
---
End of Chapter 31