Scene: The Shattering Calm – The Void Descends
The courtyard buzzed with laughter and the scent of celebration—fresh bread, roasted beast, and the metallic tang of reforged weapons. Children's giggles echoed as young initiates from the guild sparred clumsily with sticks, watched over by amused veterans.
Alter remained still on the balcony.
Eyes scanning empty air.
One breath.
Then another.
And then—
The world broke.
The Sky Folds Inward
There was no warning.
No flash of light.
No rumble of thunder.
Just silence—so pure, so absolute—that it swallowed the wind.
The sun above dimmed, not by cloud, but by intent.
A ripple in the air, like glass shifting underwater, shimmered over the estate grounds… and every living thing collapsed.
Kaela, mid-sentence, dropped to her knees, gasping.
Selene grunted and fell to one hand, eyes wide with confusion.
Even Darius—mountain of a man—toppled with a thunderous crash, clutching his head, groaning.
The pressure was beyond weight.
It wasn't physical.
It was existence itself trying to retreat.
Trying to un-be.
Alter's eyes flashed wide as he held Lira upright—barely. She trembled in his arms, her body convulsing slightly from the overwhelming force, but he shielded her with a wall of spatial dampening and soul warding.
"Seraphina—" he growled through clenched teeth.
"It has bypassed normal law," she responded urgently. "It is not manifesting through divinity. It is anchoring through memory. Through your wound."
"Alter— it's coming now."*
The Entity Appears
It didn't descend.
It didn't walk.
It simply was.
A tear in space peeled open like the world flinched—and the void poured in like black flame.
A mass of distortion. A form without shape. Its center pulsed with a low thrum, like a heart of devouring silence. Around it, the air warped—trees shriveled, stone cracked, and every divine rune etched on the estate's perimeter sizzled and died.
"Found you."
The voice struck like a blade across the mind. Every word was made of fracture.
Lira choked in his arms, barely conscious. Her protective wards were buckling.
Without thinking—
Alter launched.
The Clash
One instant, he stood shielding Lira.
The next—
Vastbane tore free from the ether into his grip.
With a shout that broke the stillness, Alter surged through space, slicing forward with Oblivion Crescent, the arc of voidsteel howling through the air—
—but the entity caught it.
Not with hands.
But with presence.
The crescent halted midair and imploded, its force swallowed.
"You strike with a broken truth."
Alter's eyes burned. He shifted into Celestial Dissonance, body fracturing space, limbs glimmering with Creator echoes held just beneath the veil. His sword lashed forward again, reality itself bending to the strike—
—but the entity shifted, bypassing dimensions, and—
SLASH
A tendril of void pierced straight through Alter's left side.
The world stilled.
Blood—a shimmer of silver and red—splashed across the courtyard stones.
He fell.
Collapse
Seraphina's voice screamed through his consciousness.
"ALTER!"
Time warped.
The air cracked like porcelain.
Lira cried out, trying to crawl to him, even as her body failed to move. The others groaned from the ground, struggling to rise, faces twisted in pain.
"You cannot hide."
The void began to move toward him, towering over the broken light, ready to devour.
But just before it struck again—
The ring pulsed.
The Veil of Origin, resting on Alter's finger, lit with a pulse like a thousand collapsing stars.
And the entity screeched, recoiling as if it had touched fire.
A ripple of light burst outward in all directions.
Not an attack.
But a seal.
And then—
It was gone.
Torn backward through its anchor.
Banished not by force… but by defiance.
Alter lay motionless.
Blood leaking from the gaping wound at his ribs.
Lira finally crawled to his side, her trembling hands lighting up with golden healing magic.
Tears fell, faster than she could blink them away.
"No… no, no—please…"
And somewhere far away, Seraphina whispered—
"You faced it again… and lived."
"But not unscarred."
The air had broken.
Not just trembled or shifted—but fractured, as if the world itself no longer knew what shape to take.
All around the courtyard, warriors of Mythral Dawn struggled in vain. The elite—those who had stood against calamities, aberrant bosses, and dungeon deities—now lay paralyzed, brought low not by might, but by presence.
An unseen weight pushed down on everything.
Reality pressed inward like an ocean collapsing on itself.
And in the center of it all…
Alter bled.
Lira Crawls to Him
Lira didn't remember falling.
She only remembered the light vanishing from the world.
And then—his blood.
She saw it before she could think. A spreading pool beneath his unmoving form.
Silver and crimson, flickering like dying stardust.
Her hands trembled.
Her breath caught.
The world was collapsing—
but none of it mattered.
"Move—" she whispered to herself.
Her knees scraped stone.
Her legs screamed in protest.
The pressure from the entity—this thing of impossible gravity—pinned her like a bug beneath glass. She could feel it slithering across her soul, pressing on her womb, her heart, her magic.
But she didn't stop.
She crawled.
Inch by inch.
Hand over hand.
Through blood. Through fractured time. Through that suffocating dread.
"Stay with me, Alter—" her voice cracked. "Please…"
She reached his side.
His skin was cold.
His breathing shallow—barely perceptible.
His eyes, those galaxy-blue eyes, were closed.
"No—no, no, no—no!"
Her fingers lit with golden light.
Magic surged.
Not ritualistic. Not chanted.
This was desperate. Primal.
She poured everything into the wound—every blessing, every thread of celestial mana, every stored seal and scroll she'd ever hoarded for a worst-case moment.
It wasn't enough.
The wound resisted her.
Not like an injury.
Like a curse written into existence itself.
"Why won't it close—?!"
Tears fell freely now, dripping onto his chest, mixing with the blood.
"I'm supposed to protect you too… you promised me a future…"
Her lips trembled.
She pressed her forehead to his, her voice barely audible.
"You can't die on me… not now… not after everything…"
"Please…"
And then—
The world answered.
Not with a voice.
But with light.
A silence fell again—but this time, it was sacred.
And from the cracks in the air above them, starlight bloomed.
The wind froze mid-breath.
The colors of the sky dulled.
Even the creeping presence of the void entity seemed to pause, as if sensing it too—a pressure building somewhere not from above or below, but beyond.
A sharp crack split the air, not like thunder—but like glass breaking behind the fabric of reality.
Everyone—Kaela, Darius, Selene, even the still-approaching void entity—turned toward the sound.
A line of pure light appeared in the air above the courtyard, hovering with unnatural stillness. Then—slowly, delicately—it tore open, like a curtain pulled apart from the cosmos itself.
From within that radiant tear…
A hand emerged.
Soft.
Graceful.
Ageless.
A touch of velvet light kissed the edge of the battlefield.
Then—
She stepped through.
The Seraph Emerges
She did not descend like a mortal.
She manifested.
Her feet hovered inches above the fractured courtyard, untouched by dust or ruin. Her gown flowed with its own rhythm, a living tapestry of white silk adorned in golden lace and celestial embroidery. It shimmered with threads of divine authority, catching the light like woven constellations.
Golden hair fell past her shoulders in long, fluid strands, crowned with a thin circlet of radiant silver and pale sapphire. Her face—soft, elegant, impossibly perfect—carried the calm of starlight and the gentleness of a mother's lullaby.
And from her back—
Four angelic wings unfurled.
Not white, but translucent, each feather shaped of divine essence, like curved blades of refracted moonlight and dawn-gold. They stretched wide behind her, pulsing gently as if harmonizing with the world itself.
Time seemed to kneel before her.
And so did they.
The commanders dropped to their knees.
Even those still barely conscious—Darius, Mira, Cidros—felt their heads bow involuntarily. Their souls remembered what their minds could not name.
This was no summoned angel.
No mere divine.
This was something older.
Something that existed before definitions.
Selene clutched her chest, breath shallow. "Is she… a goddess…?"
Kaela's voice trembled. "No. She's beyond that."
The Healer of Stars
Seraphina turned her gaze downward, toward the collapsed man lying in blood—and the woman clinging to him in tears.
Lira flinched.
Not from fear—but awe.
The pressure of Seraphina's presence was overwhelming, yet… comforting.
Like standing beneath the full night sky and knowing it sees you.
Seraphina knelt slowly, her feet finally touching the ground.
She reached out—not toward Alter—but toward Lira.
Her fingers brushed Lira's cheek gently, like the whisper of dawn through a frost-touched window.
"You've done all you could," she said, her voice a melody that bypassed thought and went straight to the soul.
"Now let me help him."
Lira stared, lips trembling. "Who… who are you?"
Seraphina smiled faintly.
"A friend. One who's always been watching."
She looked to Alter.
And her hand, glowing with pure light, gently pressed over the bleeding wound that refused to heal.
The divine energy didn't surge or flare.
It flowed.
Softly. Steadily.
Reality shifted around the point of contact.
As if the world was being corrected.
The corruption in Alter's wound recoiled. The jagged threads of entropy writhed beneath her palm, screeching against the cosmic order now forced upon them.
Seraphina narrowed her eyes. "You will not take him."
And her light burned brighter.
Alter stirred.
A breath returned.
His heart—stuttering, fragile—began to beat steadily again beneath her hand.
And in that moment—
Seraphina stood once more.
The light in her wings intensified.
Her voice, no longer gentle, rang with divine command as she turned to the encroaching void.
"You have no place here."
The Herald's Sacrifice – Blood for the Void
The battlefield had fallen into a stunned silence.
Alter lay unconscious, his breathing shallow but steady—his wounds bound by Seraphina's light. Lira still knelt beside him, clinging tightly to his hand, eyes wide with wonder and fear as she watched the goddess of starlight stand guard.
But the air hadn't lightened.
A foul pressure still loomed.
And then it moved.
The void entity minion, twisted and semi-formed, hovered across the fractured stone like a shadow seeking purchase. Its skeletal head pulsed with flickers of black fire. Its presence no longer trembled with anticipation, but with something else—
Conviction.
It spoke at last, its voice a scraping whisper layered with malice and resonance.
"You… do not belong here, Seraphina of the Starchamber."
"This world is not yours to meddle in."
"I was tasked to slay the Authority Gatherer—to carve the seed of creation from his chest and offer it to the Hollow Depths."
Seraphina turned to face it fully, her expression unchanged.
Calm. Eternal. Dispassionate.
She raised a hand, fingers aglow with faint golden radiance.
"And I was made to end things like you."
"So scram. Far. Away."
Her final word rang like a bell toll across the courtyard.
The shockwave rippled outward, crashing into the void entity with such force that its form snapped back, nearly flung into the ruined outer wall of the dungeon's perimeter. Cracks split the air where her voice had passed.
The creature's limbs bent and straightened with a hideous creak, and then—
It laughed.
A dry, unnatural noise. Not mirth, but madness.
"So be it."
The Ritual Begins
It straightened fully now, form expanding as if it were drawing breath through a thousand wounds.
Then it raised one gnarled, abyssal hand—blackened claws shimmering with faint glyphs.
With its other hand, it reached toward its own chest.
And drove its talons deep into its body.
There was no scream.
Only a rising hum—a frequency not meant for mortal ears.
It pulled.
With a wet tearing sound and a burst of anti-light, the entity ripped out its own heart—a twisting sphere of void essence, pulsing with unnatural rhythm. Its surface was etched with runes, each one thrumming with sacrifice.
The commanders reeled in horror.
Selene stepped forward, mouth open, whispering, "He's performing… a summon ritual—"
The blood didn't spill.
It rose—black and boiling, spiraling around the still-beating heart as if forming a cocoon.
Seraphina's eyes narrowed, her first visible reaction of unease.
"You fool…" she muttered. "You've called for something this world is not prepared to contain."
The void entity pressed the heart between its palms—and crushed it.
The blood ignited into ink-black fire, and the space behind it fractured, lines of red and violet zigzagging like cracks in a mirror.
Something was coming.
Something that answered the call of blood and void.
The creature's body was unraveling—its very soul offered as the price.
"He comes," it whispered, its form crumbling.
"He will reclaim what belongs to the End."
"He… remembers."
A great tear opened above the courtyard.
From within, a presence surged—ancient and terrifying, a breathless gravity that warped light and time.
Seraphina stepped forward instinctively, her wings flaring wide.
And for the first time—
She frowned.
"Val'Zaruun…"
The name itself darkened the world around them, like a storm forming from the syllables alone.
The Herald's Sacrifice – Blood for the Void
The battlefield had fallen into a stunned silence.
Alter lay unconscious, his breathing shallow but steady—his wounds bound by Seraphina's light. Lira still knelt beside him, clinging tightly to his hand, eyes wide with wonder and fear as she watched the goddess of starlight stand guard.
But the air hadn't lightened.
A foul pressure still loomed.
And then it moved.
The void entity minion, twisted and semi-formed, hovered across the fractured stone like a shadow seeking purchase. Its skeletal head pulsed with flickers of black fire. Its presence no longer trembled with anticipation, but with something else—
Conviction.
It spoke at last, its voice a scraping whisper layered with malice and resonance.
"You… do not belong here, Starborn Seraphina of the Starchamber."
"This world is not yours to meddle in."
"I was tasked to slay the Authority Gatherer—to carve the seed of creation from his chest and offer it to the Abyss Realm."
Seraphina turned to face it fully, her expression unchanged.
Calm. Eternal. Dispassionate.
She raised a hand, fingers aglow with faint golden radiance.
"And I was made to end things like you."
"So scram. Far. Away."
Her final word rang like a bell toll across the courtyard.
The shockwave rippled outward, crashing into the void entity with such force that its form snapped back, nearly flung into the ruined outer wall of the dungeon's perimeter. Cracks split the air where her voice had passed.
The creature's limbs bent and straightened with a hideous creak, and then—
It laughed.
A dry, unnatural noise. Not mirth, but madness.
"So be it."
The Ritual Begins
It straightened fully now, form expanding as if it were drawing breath through a thousand wounds.
Then it raised one gnarled, abyssal hand—blackened claws shimmering with faint glyphs.
With its other hand, it reached toward its own chest.
And drove its talons deep into its body.
There was no scream.
Only a rising hum—a frequency not meant for mortal ears.
It pulled.
With a wet tearing sound and a burst of anti-light, the entity ripped out its own heart—a twisting sphere of void essence, pulsing with unnatural rhythm. Its surface was etched with runes, each one thrumming with sacrifice.
The commanders reeled in horror.
Selene stepped forward, mouth open, whispering, "He's performing… a summon ritual—"
The blood didn't spill.
It rose—black and boiling, spiraling around the still-beating heart as if forming a cocoon.
Seraphina's eyes narrowed, her first visible reaction of unease.
"You fool…" she muttered. "You've called for something this world is not prepared to contain."
The void entity pressed the heart between its palms—and crushed it.
The blood ignited into ink-black fire, and the space behind it fractured, lines of red and violet zigzagging like cracks in a mirror.
Something was coming.
Something that answered the call of blood and void.
The creature's body was unraveling—its very soul offered as the price.
"He comes," it whispered, its form crumbling.
"He will reclaim what belongs to the End."
"He… remembers."
A great tear opened above the courtyard.
From within, a presence surged—ancient and terrifying, a breathless gravity that warped light and time.
Seraphina stepped forward instinctively, her wings flaring wide.
And for the first time—
She frowned.
"Val'Zaruun…"
The name itself darkened the world around them, like a storm forming from the syllables alone.
Titans Beneath a Shattered Sky – The Demon God Descends
The sky wept stars.
They fell like dying embers across the broken courtyard as the rift widened, jagged cracks bleeding anti-light and warping the heavens themselves. Winds howled in every direction—not with force, but with grief, as if the world itself understood what had just arrived.
And then—
Val'Zaruun stepped through.
The rift didn't close behind him.
It pulsed—like a wound that refused to heal.
He was colossal, yet indistinct. His form defied simplicity—ten horns coiled like obsidian thrones; wings sculpted from voidflame and collapsed constellations; half his face a bleached skull, the other a molten tapestry of agony and divinity. Every step he took rippled through the air like an execution drumbeat.
He wasn't just an invader.
He was a cataclysm made conscious.
The moment he touched the ground, the very laws of existence faltered.
Time slowed. Gravity spiked.
Stone cracked. Mountains groaned in the far distance. And across the field, the Twelve Commanders of Mythral Dawn dropped to their knees as if the planet itself had buckled beneath them.
"So… this is where the Starborn chose to reveal herself."
Val'Zaruun's voice was not spoken—it was declared. Reality carried it. It passed through the air, through stone, through every cell of every living thing.
"To guard a mortal? This mortal?"
He looked toward Alter's unconscious body, then back at the winged figure of Starborn Seraphina, who hovered midair in radiant defiance.
She floated still, haloed by silver starlight, yet her expression remained solemn.
"You are not welcome here, Val'Zaruun," Seraphina said. "Turn back now."
"Your presence scars this realm. I will not allow you to harm him."
Val'Zaruun laughed—a deep, booming resonance that rattled the bones of the world.
"You speak of allowance… as if you stand equal."
"You—a god barely kissed by light—would command me?"
"I bear an Authority of 82%, Starborn."
"And you…"
His eyes burned through her.
"You barely reach 45%."
"Do not pretend that we are peers."
Seraphina's wings flared outward in a blaze of luminous force, pushing back the veil of shadow that tried to envelope the field.
"My strength is enough to protect what matters."
"If that means standing against you—I will."
Val'Zaruun stepped forward, and the sky screamed.
"Then you will fall like the rest."
And in a breath—the heavens detonated.
Clash of Authority
Light and void collided above the ruined dungeon grounds in a thunderous crash that cracked open the sky.
Starlight met abyssal fire.
The entire world went white.
An enormous shockwave blasted across the terrain—flattening trees, splitting boulders, and launching debris into the air like meteors. Winds of pure divine force screamed outward, shredding the clouds above and turning them into glowing ribbons of entropy.
On the Ground
The Twelve Commanders struggled to breathe.
Each one, elite in their own right—S-rankers, Mythic-class warriors—was crushed beneath the pressure of the two clashing authorities.
Darius knelt, shield plunged into the ground to brace himself, yet cracks snaked beneath his feet.
Selene clutched her sword, panting, her knees buckling under invisible weight.
Revyn collapsed fully, cloak fluttering as he used his last strength to remain conscious.
"It's like standing beneath two collapsing worlds…" Cidros gasped.
Nearby, Mira had frozen mid-incantation, her voice caught in her throat.
Kaela, feeling the tremor ripple through the ground, darted across the battlefield toward Lira.
She found her crouched low beside Alter, her face pale but determined, one hand protectively over her stomach.
Kaela didn't speak.
She simply wrapped her arms around her—one behind Lira's back, one braced in front—shielding her with her own body.
"You're not losing anyone today," Kaela whispered, forcing a smirk through the pressure. "Not him. Not the baby. Not you."
The sky groaned again.
Another impact.
And then—
A scream of pain.
Not from the ground.
From above.
Wings Broken, Light Dimming – The Fall of the Starborn
The heavens cracked like porcelain.
Blinding light and voidflame collided again—an apocalyptic duet of divinity and destruction. Their resonance tore at the skies, shredding clouds and rending celestial lines across the firmament.
But then…
One force gave way.
A burst of starlight was smothered beneath the weight of an ancient, malevolent will.
And the figure of Starborn Seraphina was hurled downward like a shattered comet.
Her wings, once majestic arcs of celestial brilliance, were tattered—one twisted at an angle no divine limb should endure. She struck the earth in a brilliant detonation of dust and light that shook the entire region.
BOOM.
The explosion left a glowing crater where polished stone had once been.
Shards of silvery marble and burnt earth rose in waves. Pillars crumbled. What remained of the surrounding forest bent away in silent terror.
For a moment, nothing moved.
Then—
She stirred.
The Fallen Star
Seraphina rose to her knees.
Her body trembled as she pressed a hand into the fractured ground to support herself. Her once-pristine gown was torn, its white silk stained with dust, dirt, and traces of radiant scorch marks.
Golden blood—pure and shimmering like molten sunlight—ran in a thin stream from the corner of her mouth.
Her breathing was labored, chest rising and falling with ragged, uneven gasps.
Her gaze lifted to the sky—still defiant, still burning.
Floating high above, wreathed in flames of void and laughing with thunderous contempt, was Val'Zaruun.
His arms crossed, wings outstretched like a king surveying a ruined temple.
"Is this all the famed Starborn can muster?"
"A pitiful flicker of resistance. I expected more from you, Seraphina. Truly, I did."
He chuckled, molten laughter oozing like tar through space.
Seraphina's eyes narrowed, one hand still glowing faintly as she reached for a new spell—but her strength was waning.
A Spark Amid the Ash
Below them, amidst the shattered ground, a figure shifted.
Alter.
His fingers twitched first.
Then he stirred, groaning faintly, rolling over onto his side. His eyelids fluttered open—blue galaxies reflecting a world torn asunder.
Confusion flooded his expression.
His muscles screamed in protest as he tried to sit up. Every bone ached, every nerve protested.
"W-What… what happened…?"
His voice was hoarse, caught between exhaustion and instinct.
He saw Seraphina—wounded.
He saw Kaela, crouched protectively over Lira.
He saw the sky—burning.
And then—
Val'Zaruun saw him.
The demon god's molten gaze snapped downward.
A slow, predatory grin spread across his half-dead, half-burning face.
"Ah… he rises."
"Even now, you endure."
"Perhaps your body has not remembered yet what pain truly is."
He raised a single hand.
One finger extended.
At the tip: a dense, pulsating sphere of compressed void energy, the color of extinguished stars.
"Let's fix that."
The Beam
With a flick—
A beam of obliteration screamed through the sky, aimed directly at Alter's chest.
It tore the air apart as it passed, slicing through multiple layers of space with no sound, only pressure—the very concept of reality bowing around its path.
It was not a warning shot.
It was a kill.
Seraphina, kneeling in front of Alter, snapped her gaze to the approaching annihilation.
No time to speak.
Only to act.
Seraphina's Last Stand – Love's Final Shield
The beam descended like a judgment from beyond the stars—silent, merciless, a spear of voidfire that denied existence itself.
Seraphina was the first to act.
Still kneeling, she summoned what divine energy she had left. Her remaining wing flared, catching the beam's approach. Her left hand extended, palm glowing with a radiant lattice of starlight—a divine barrier forged from pure Authority.
It met the beam mid-air.
For a moment, it held.
The world paused.
But Val'Zaruun had not lied.
His Authority was absolute.
The voidbeam cracked Seraphina's shield with a deafening rupture—then shattered it entirely. Light fractured into splinters.
Seraphina's eyes widened.
Without hesitation, she threw herself aside, shielding Alter with her body—just barely escaping the core blast.
But her right arm—
Gone.
The disintegration was instant. A searing flash of golden light as her arm vanished, leaving only trailing threads of divine energy and burning cloth.
She hit the ground hard, gasping—wounded, half-blinded, and unable to recover in time.
The beam surged onward.
A Sudden Sacrifice
Alter, still half-dazed and bleeding, reached forward.
"No…!"
But he wasn't fast enough.
Two figures moved before him.
Lira.
Kaela.
Lira sprinted, her long golden hair streaking behind her like a comet of light. She didn't hesitate. Didn't look back. She stood between Alter and death.
Both hands outstretched, she poured all her mana into a desperate barrier.
Kaela was behind her instantly—arms wide, bracing, her own mana reinforcing the trembling dome of protection.
The beam struck.
The air shrieked as the shield cracked.
Lira turned around—her face dusted in tears, eyes wide with both fear and absolute love. Her voice trembled, but her words rang clear in Alter's soul.
"I love you."
Then the barrier shattered.
A howl of light and entropy swallowed them both.
The Scream
"NO—!!"
Alter's voice tore from his throat like a broken soul. It didn't echo—it detonated, so full of raw agony and horror that the very sky recoiled.
When the light faded…
They were gone.
No bodies. No remnants.
The Light That Dares Defy the End – Arrival of the Celestial War God
The beam continued forward—unstoppable, world-ending, but it never reached Alter.
The air suddenly stilled.
Then time itself froze.
Dust halted midair. Embers paused mid-flicker. Even the ripple of the voidfire beam stilled like a frozen wave of death suspended in glass.
Everyone remained mobile—but stunned.
The very laws of reality groaned.
Then, with the sound of shattering crystal, the world cracked.
Lines of radiant fracture danced across the sky, like someone had taken a hammer to the dome of existence itself. A rift tore open directly above Alter's collapsed form, brilliant and impossibly wide, rippling with golden starlight and celestial threads.
A voice followed—booming, absolute, resonating not in ears but in souls.
"This light… shall not be extinguished."
From within that tear, a single hand emerged—encased in radiant celestial armor, its fingers tipped in gold and white flame. It moved with grace and divine purpose.
The hand reached toward the void beam—
And with a simple grip, it crushed it.
The beam exploded like shattered glass, dissolving into sparkling dust, harmless and silent.
The God Descends
A moment passed. Then—
The full figure emerged from the rift.
A being of awe.
He floated downward slowly, not falling but descending, like a star returning to the heavens that birthed it. His entire body was clad in brilliant silver-and-gold plate, runes glowing along every inch. A radiant helm veiled his face, but six wings of light unfurled behind him—each one thrumming with power, fluttering with the wind of a higher realm.
His presence was perfect balance—serenity and fury, compassion and judgment.
Divinity incarnate.
Authority overflowed from him, crashing into the world below like warm tides of light—so powerful it made the void seem lesser.
Creator Authority Detected: 83%.
The Name of Light
Seraphina, wounded and kneeling, stared up at him with widened eyes.
For the first time since her descent, her voice trembled.
"It can't be… you."
She bowed her head slightly—not out of worship, but recognition. A former peer. Perhaps… something more.
"You've returned… Solien Astridane, the Radiant Sovereign."
The name struck the air like a chime of pure harmony.
Even the void seemed to shudder.
Solien Astridane.
The War God of Eternal Light.
Bearer of the Sixth Flame.
The Sword of Heaven's Judgment.
And now… protector of the Authority Gatherer.
Light's Judgment – The Seal of Authority
The silence after Solien's arrival hung like the breath between thunderclaps.
Even the void stilled, uncertain.
Above, Val'Zaruun hovered in disdain—his vast wings beating with waves of anti-light, warping the sky with every pulse. Flames of black entropy licked his silhouette, burning holes through the dimensions around him.
Solien Astridane rose slowly from his descent, hovering over the battlefield. His radiant wings extended wide, starlight rippling from his armor like waves through an endless sea. His helm tilted up to face the Demon God directly.
His voice, calm yet absolute, rang like celestial bells across reality.
"Leave this realm, Val'Zaruun."
"You and I both know what our battle would mean."
"This world is not strong enough to bear the clash of our Authority."
A faint shimmer of golden rings pulsed behind him—echoes of the heavens themselves.
But Val'Zaruun grinned, his skeletal side twitching in amusement.
"Then let it break."
"So long as he lives…"
His clawed hand pointed downward toward Alter, still crumpled in the crater.
"I will never stop."
"He is the spark of a new order. A threat to the void. A mistake your kind made by leaving him untouched."
"You protect a child who should never have been born into power."
Solien lowered his head for a moment.
Not in defeat, but in decision.
He then turned—briefly—toward Alter.
The boy who bore Creator Authority too early. A man fractured by pain and loss. The one who had survived, endured, risen… and now stood on the brink of being undone.
And Solien understood.
The battle was not one of just might—but timing.
"Then so be it," Solien whispered, his voice barely audible.
He raised his hand—and the world screamed.
The Divine Seal
A ring of golden light expanded outward, encompassing the sky.
Divine runes of unimaginable complexity spun into existence, glowing with holy fire, ancient and absolute. The ground pulsed beneath them. Mountains in the far distance wept, trembled—as if all of creation recognized what was being done.
Alter, still weak, blinked as his body began to glow—not with power, but with chains.
"W–Wait… what's happening—?!"
The runes slammed into him.
One after another.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Each one embedding deep into his flesh—not just his skin, but his soul.
"AARRRRGHHH!!"
Alter screamed—his voice raw, primal—as divine fire surged through him. His eyes flashed blue, then gold, then white—
Until everything shattered.
His golden tattoos, long etched into him by the system itself, began to crack.
They splintered like brittle glass and broke off into the wind—turning to glittering dust.
Then his eyes—
Those twin galaxies that had marked him as something greater—
Dimmed.
The stars within faded.
And died.
Fading Star – The Cost of Salvation
Alter's scream faded into silence.
The divine runes that had burrowed into his body left no light behind—only soot-black scars where golden tattoos had once glowed. His eyes, once deep galaxies of Creator fire, were dull now… human.
And then—
His body gave out.
He crumpled mid-kneel, collapsing forward like a puppet with its strings severed.
But before he hit the ground—
Seraphina caught him.
Her one remaining arm trembled as she pulled him close, cradling him like a dying flame. Her face, bruised and bloodied, pressed softly to his hair. Her breathing was ragged.
"Alter… no, no—stay with me…"
Her voice cracked—divinity faltering beneath emotion. Golden tears streamed down her cheeks, falling onto his ashen face. Her right side still bled light from the missing arm, yet she ignored it. Her only focus was the boy in her grasp.
But then—
A golden glyph shimmered above them.
Solien Astridane, still aloft, raised his hand calmly.
"He must be hidden."
With a flick of his palm, radiant energy spiraled outward. A complex array formed midair, ancient and unstable—a teleportation seal without a destination.
Seraphina's eyes widened.
"Wait—Solien, where—?!"
But there was no time.
The light surged around Alter's unconscious body and in a flash of blinding brilliance—
He vanished.
Gods in the Sky
Above, Val'Zaruun's smoldering form loomed with narrowed eyes. His voice rumbled like an avalanche of burning stone.
"Where did you send him?"
Solien hovered calmly, arms at his sides.
"I don't know."
"Somewhere distant. Random. Safe."
"He is sealed. His Authority gone. He will no longer threaten the balance."
Val'Zaruun's molten eyes flared, scanning the shattered landscape.
Even with his power, tracking the boy now—was impossible.
His fanged jaw clenched.
Then came a sound. Low. Cold.
Hrrrmmmph.
A frustrated harrumph echoed across the ravaged plains.
The Demon God turned his massive body, folding his voidflame wings inward as a tear in space cracked open behind him—a portal into realms unknown.
But just before stepping through, he cast one last glance back—at Solien, at Seraphina, at the broken battlefield.
And he spoke.
"He was chosen once.
He will be chosen again.
And next time…"
His eyes locked with Solien's.
"…you won't be there to intervene."
Then, without another word—
Val'Zaruun vanished, swallowed by the void.