The first light of dawn bled into the jagged peaks of the Ironspine Mountains, casting a brutal blood-red glow that set the rocky cliffs ablaze with firelight. A bitter wind tore through the craggy outcrops, carrying the acrid scent of smoke, sweat, and freshly spilled blood. The battlefield lay scarred—a twisted landscape of shattered stone, broken weapons, and the echoes of clashing steel.
Kael Draven stood on a ridge overlooking the carnage, his breath rising in white clouds against the chill morning air. The Sinbound Mark beneath his sleeve pulsed steadily, its eerie glow steady but growing with each sin bound to him. Pride. Sloth. Envy. And now, before him, lay the next crucible of power—Wrath.
Raela moved like a tempest amid the ruins below—her form a storm of raw fury and controlled violence. Her crimson hair whipped around her face like flames licking the wind, her scarred armor blackened and battered from countless battles. She was a general carved from the very essence of wrath: fierce, relentless, and unyielding.
"Kael Draven." Her voice cut through the morning mist, a growl carried on the wind. "You who binds sins—come and face the wrath you seek to command."
There was no hesitation in her challenge, no invitation for games or seduction—only the brutal honesty of a warrior who lived by the sword and the fire burning in her heart.
Kael stepped forward from the ridge, feeling the weight of every glance and whisper that trailed him. The Sinbound Mark glowed brightly beneath the sleeve of his worn coat, a beacon of his growing power.
"I have come to claim your sin, Raela," Kael said, voice steady despite the raging storm inside him. "To bind Wrath to me, to strengthen the mark—and to stand stronger in the face of what's coming."
Raela's laugh was a savage roar that rolled like thunder across the shattered valley. "Then prove you're worthy. Not with words, but with blood and fire."
The battlefield was their crucible.
Steel sang as it met steel, sparks flying with every strike. Raela was a whirlwind of wrath—each blow thunderous, each movement charged with the pain and fury of countless lost battles. Her eyes burned with a ferocity that seemed to set the very air alight.
Kael met her with the power of the Sinbound Mark coursing through him, a wild surge of energy that sharpened his reflexes and strengthened his blows. But Wrath was more than strength—it was a tempest of passion and pain that twisted and tore at his resolve.
Raela's voice rang out over the clash of weapons, biting and fierce. "Wrath is not mere rage, Kael. It is justice. Vengeance. The fire that ignites when all else has failed, when mercy is a lie."
Kael dodged a brutal blow that would have split bone and flesh alike, countering with a pulse of sin-infused magic that crackled through his veins.
"Then let me be your justice," Kael replied, voice steady even as his body burned from the ferocity of the fight. "Together, we will light a fire to reshape this shattered world."
The duel raged on, a tempest of fury and willpower, until finally Kael saw the moment—the briefest opening in Raela's defense, a flicker of hesitation behind her blazing eyes. With a deft movement, he disarmed her, the sharp clang of her sword hitting the stone echoing like a death knell.
Breathing heavily, they stood face to face—two storms colliding.
Raela's eyes smoldered with unspent fury, but beneath the fire, Kael glimpsed something deeper: scars not just of flesh, but of soul.
She lowered her gaze, voice softer but no less intense. "Wrath is pain, Kael. Pain born from betrayal, loss, and endless battles fought for causes that bleed into ashes."
Kael nodded, feeling the weight of every unspoken story hidden in her fierce gaze. "Then share your pain with me. Let me bear it as I bear yours."
As the sun climbed higher, casting harsh light on the ruined fortress, Kael and Raela settled amid the rubble. The battlefield's silence was thick with tension—charged with a fragile trust born from conflict.
Raela peeled back a layer of armor, revealing a tattoo burning with the sigil of Wrath—fiery runes that pulsed with raw magic.
"You wield the sins like weapons," she said softly, tracing the mark on Kael's wrist with a calloused finger. "But they can consume you just as easily as they empower."
Kael met her gaze, eyes shadowed with the burden of the Sinbound Mark. "I know. But I will face the fire within me. For the throne. For the fate of all Lustravia."
Her smile was a flicker of warmth amid the ruins. "Then prepare yourself, Kael. Because Wrath will test you beyond the battlefield. It will tear at your soul—and in that destruction, you may find your true strength."
The ritual to bind Wrath was nothing like Kael had expected.
Under a sky streaked with smoke and ash, Raela led him through a series of grueling rites—a brutal dance of power and submission, where every act was charged with raw emotion and dark magic.
They stood in a circle etched with glowing runes, flames licking the air as Raela chanted in the ancient tongue of the sinbound.
Kael felt the power swell within him, the Sinbound Mark burning hotter than ever as Raela's fury mingled with his own growing storm.
Their connection was wild and jagged—fierce as fire but fragile as glass.
Raela's hands gripped his shoulders, her eyes locked onto his with unflinching intensity.
"To bind Wrath," she whispered, voice a fierce promise, "you must surrender to the storm within and face what you fear most—your own capacity for destruction."
Kael closed his eyes, feeling the tumult inside him—the rage, the pain, the hunger for vengeance and justice.
And then he surrendered, letting the fire consume him, binding his soul to Raela's in a blaze of power and pain.
When the ritual ended, the world seemed different—sharper, darker, and infinitely more dangerous.
Raela stood beside him, not just a warrior, but a fierce guardian of his heart and soul.
"Wrath is bound to you now," she said, breathless from the ordeal. "But remember—sin is a double-edged blade. It can protect or destroy."
Kael nodded, the Sinbound Mark blazing across his wrist, pulsing with the power of four sins.
His journey was far from over. The throne of desire still awaited, shadowed by the prophecy threatening to unravel all mortal pleasures.
But with Raela by his side—fury incarnate—Kael felt ready to face the war that was coming.