Kael stood alone atop a jagged cliff just outside the border of the Thalvann Depths. The sky above swirled with roiling clouds, pulsing in rhythm with the pressure that now radiated from his body. For weeks, he had bled, trained, and pushed his Essence to the brink — eclipsing his former limits again and again.
The countdown had nearly run out.
He clenched his fist, breath slowing, as the final threads of his energy twisted and merged. His Storm, Lightning, Flame, and Kinetic Essences roared inside him — chaotic, vast, but… aligned. The final convergence was happening. His body trembled not from exhaustion, but from the vastness of the force building within.
His lips parted.
"I've done it…" Kael whispered, voice distant, shaken. "Origin Rank."
The moment the words left him, the world responded.
A shockwave burst from his form — unintentional, uncontrolled — flattening trees across miles. The mountain beneath his feet fractured from the pressure. A ring of Essence-light rippled into the sky as if Valeria itself were acknowledging the birth of something new.
Power unlike anything he had ever felt coursed through him. His senses exploded outward. He could hear the crashing of waves hundreds of miles away. He could see the slow crawl of time around a hummingbird's wings. Just leaning forward, Kael vanished — blinking across miles in an instant.
He stood in a canyon seconds later, heart hammering like a war drum. "This is…" he muttered, looking down at his hands.
The air distorted around him. Each motion bent reality, as though the very world struggled to keep up with him. His presence alone warped the environment — wind swirling, light cracking at the edges of his aura.
His journey to Origin wasn't just an increase in power. It was transformation. Rebirth. No previous advancement compared. His body no longer operated under the rules of ordinary Essence wielders — not even Eclipse-class.
Kael Fael was something more now.
But there was no time to dwell in awe.
The Origin-class Varnok was coming. The countdown was nearing its end.
⸻
Back in Elandor, the higher-ups — Warden Alrek, Archon Zevrin, and the Guildmaster of Solmire — gathered again in silence. Their war room dimmed, the crystal displays flickering with sightings of Varnok distortions rising around the continent.
"He's done it," Warden Alrek murmured, watching the crystal glow brighter. "Kael has reached Origin Rank."
Zevrin leaned forward, eyes narrow. "Then our one chance still stands. But barely. We have six days left before the projected emergence."
The Guildmaster's hand gripped the edge of the table. "Is he ready?"
A moment of silence passed.
"No one ever is," Alrek said.
⸻
Far from the war room, Kael trained alone in the Broken Vale.
Every day, every hour — he pushed his new power. Not just to feel it… but to control it. His Godbreaker Arsenal techniques now surged with unstable potential. Every motion required restraint. Every flicker of energy risked catastrophic destruction.
He had no choice but to master them before the final day.
In the burning winds of the Broken Vale, Kael launched into a drill: Volt Requiem Execution. In an instant, he blitzed a series of summoned dummies with lightning arcs, each hit generating aftershocks that cracked the air. A storm of flame followed, his Infernal Maelstrom Rupture igniting the sky.
He stopped only when his knees buckled. Essence evaporated from his pores, and even the sky above trembled. Yet Kael stood again.
"I can't stop now," he whispered.
The Origin Varnok was coming.
And Kael would be the wall that met it.