The land of Nocthera was silent when Akuzai arrived—unnaturally silent. The fractured sky shimmered above, each shard holding flickers of alternate realities. In his hand, the Eternis Edge trembled, as if sensing what lay ahead. He wasn't alone.
Abhishek emerged from the dimensional rift, shaken but alive. "Anuj saved me," he said, his voice strained. "But he's gone. He knew it would cost him."
Akuzai placed a hand on his shoulder. "His death won't be in vain. We end this—together."
But time was not on their side. Rivan had already made his next move.
The Pulseblade Temple—an ancient sanctuary housing one of the five primal blades—had fallen. Akuzai and Abhishek arrived just as the last echoes of battle faded. The sky above was cracked open, bleeding light into darkness. The blade's guardian, Master Orion, lay still beneath the shattered spires. And standing at the heart of the ruin was Rivan.
He turned, calm and radiant, the Pulseblade now fused into his arm like it belonged there. "You're late," he said. "But don't worry. You'll catch up—if you survive."
"Why the Pulseblade?" Akuzai demanded. "It was never meant for you!"
Rivan chuckled, stepping down the cracked steps. "None of this was meant for me. Not the legacy. Not the power. Not even existence. So I'm taking what this broken multiverse refused to give."
Abhishek lunged first, blades spinning. His strikes were fierce but desperate. Rivan moved like a ripple through time, redirecting every hit, countering with brutal precision. Akuzai joined in, the Eternis Edge lighting up in resonance with the corrupted Pulseblade. The air between them crackled with raw temporal tension.
The duel pushed them to the limits of their strength—and then beyond. Every second, Rivan seemed more attuned to the chaotic energy around him, feeding off the frayed edges of time. He wasn't just growing stronger. He was becoming something else.
Finally, with one devastating pulse of the blade, Rivan blasted both warriors back. Abhishek crashed through a wall of shattered memory glass and lay motionless. Akuzai struggled to stand, blood on his lips.
"I didn't want to kill him," Rivan said, turning away. "But he chose the wrong side. Like Tanishk. Like Aditya."
"Then you'll face me," Akuzai growled.
But Rivan didn't fight. He stepped through a rift, leaving behind only a fragment of the Pulseblade's original core—shattered.
Akuzai crawled to Abhishek's side. He was alive, but barely. And the Pulseblade was lost—corrupted and consumed.
The war was escalating.
The weapons once forged to defend time were falling into enemy hands.
And Akuzai realized, for the first time, that defeating Rivan might mean destroying everything—even the very blades they once vowed to protect.