The Heart of Azarath was dying.
The sky was cracked, bleeding violet light.
The ground was broken, the air thick with ash and screams.
At the center of the chaos —
two monsters collided.
Max, reborn in his full Demon Rageform —
and Kardas, the Chained Prince.
---
Max was no longer the boy they knew.
He stood calm, silent, eyes burning pure white, his body wrapped in a second skin of living black markings —
runic, sharp, slithering under his flesh like ancient curses.
The Blade of Fivefold Dawn floated at his side —
untouched, yet ready to strike at a thought.
The ground beneath him cracked just from his heartbeat.
He said nothing.
He simply existed —
And the world shook.
---
Kardas charged.
Chains lashed toward Max like striking serpents — enough to level cities, each heavy with the weight of fallen souls.
Max moved.
No roar.
No warning.
Just impossible speed.
---
In a blur of black lightning, Max dodged every chain —
appearing behind Kardas without even disturbing the dust.
Before Kardas could react,
Max slashed once.
A clean, perfect cut.
One of Kardas's massive arms hit the ground, severed at the shoulder.
The Chained Prince bellowed in rage.
Max didn't even blink.
---
The battle was beautiful. And horrifying.
Max didn't waste a single movement.
Every step left black veins crawling over the earth.
His black aura crushed weaker enemies just by existing near them.
The Blade of Fivefold Dawn sang — harmonizing with his fury, not trying to tame it anymore.
For the first time in his cursed existence, Max wasn't resisting the darkness.
He was mastering it.
Becoming something more.
---
Kardas howled, calling the full weight of his chains to crush Max.
A prison of a thousand souls, wrapped in steel and blood, fell upon the Keybearer.
It was enough to bury mountains.
To extinguish stars.
---
Max lifted one hand.
And broke them all.
With a single pulse of power —
pure, silent, terrifying —
the chains shattered.
Not cut.
Not dodged.
Erased.
---
Kardas stumbled, wide-eyed.
"No," the Prince gasped.
"You are not supposed to be... this."
Max finally spoke.
His voice was low.
Cold.
Final.
"I was never supposed to be anything," Max said.
"I am what you made me."
---
He surged forward, Blade flashing.
Their duel became a blur of destruction.
Black lightning tore open the sky.
Cracks spread like spiderwebs across reality itself.
The Heart of Azarath became a battlefield between gods.
---
But even as Max overwhelmed Kardas,
even as the demon within him roared for blood,
something deep inside Max whispered:
This is not victory.
This is surrender.
You are losing yourself.
---
Talon watched from a crumbling tower, hand clenched around his sword.
He saw the black wings beginning to form behind Max's back —
wings made not of feathers, but of pure elemental wrath.
He saw the last human parts of Max burning away.
And he knew what he had to do.
---
Talon leapt from the tower, plunging toward the battlefield, sword drawn.
If Max could not stop himself —
then Talon would.
---
[End of Chapter 10]