Kael and the Sovereign soared within the rift their own fury had carved into the heavens. The sky itself bled, threads of fire and storm weaving into a tapestry of annihilation. Every strike shook the firmament, every breath threatened to unmake creation.
The Sovereign's wings of flame spread wide, blotting constellations as if he were crowning himself emperor of the void. His voice thundered across the realms:
"Mandate of Eternity!"
With the decree, the stars aligned into sigils of power. Whole constellations bent downward, their light compressed into burning javelins that screamed toward Kael with the force of collapsing suns.
Kael's crimson eyes blazed. His Mark ignited like a second heart, pumping storm through every vein. Black lightning clawed across his skin, eating into the world around him. He raised Ashrend, the blade singing with its own hunger, and roared:
"Stormrend: Tempest Crucible!"
The storm obeyed.
A sphere of black and crimson lightning erupted around him, devouring the Sovereign's star-lances one by one. Each impact lit the sky brighter than dawn. The tempest did not simply shield him—it absorbed, grew, and then lashed outward, a cyclone of raw, sovereign-breaking power.
The Sovereign snarled, fire mantle cracking. His eyes burned molten gold as he thrust his hand forward again, forging a blazing halberd from his own essence. He descended in a comet of fury, halberd aimed straight for Kael's chest.
Kael met the plunge head-on. Ashrend's edge screamed against the halberd, sparks cascading into the storm like falling stars. For an instant they were locked—two titans straining, the heavens quaking beneath their wills.
Then Kael's aura flared brighter, crimson veins pulsing across the broken sky. He leaned into the lock, voice like a thunderclap.
"You're not eternity. You're the end of chains."
He pushed.
The halberd shattered. The backlash hurled the Sovereign back through the firmament, his flaming wings ripped ragged. A scar cut across the sky itself, where Kael's strike had bitten into more than just steel and flame—it had marked the heavens.
Below, mortals and immortals alike watched the wound in the sky. Across kingdoms, priests fell silent, kings trembled, and armies stared upward in terror.