The guardian's three heads snapped toward him, teeth grinding against one another like millstones. Its body shuddered, limbs elongating until they scraped the broken stone with a sound like claws on bone. The air around it thickened, heavy with a hunger that did not belong to any living thing.
Kaelen steadied his breath, forcing his pounding heart into rhythm with the Abyss within. His blade pulsed black fire, and for the first time, he felt not just its weight—but its will.
The creature lunged first.
A claw the size of a man's torso slammed down, splintering the stone. Kaelen rolled aside, the shockwave nearly tearing him from the floating shard. He came up slashing, his blade carving across the guardian's limb. Black ichor sprayed, sizzling against the void floor, but the wound knit shut instantly, flesh twisting back together.
It won't die easy.
The three heads shrieked, and tendrils of mist lashed out. One wrapped around Kaelen's arm, burning cold against his skin. He snarled, abyssal fire flooding through him, and the tendril burst into ash. But another slammed him square in the chest, hurling him across the field.
Stone cracked as he struck the ground, the breath torn from his lungs. The guardian advanced, each step shaking the plain.
Kaelen forced himself up, spitting blood. Then he did what instinct demanded—he let the Abyss in.
Dark fire erupted from his body, his shadow stretching taller than he was, curling into jagged wings. The guardian faltered, its shriek shifting to something almost… afraid.
Kaelen charged. Their clash lit the dark, fire against shadow, steel against teeth. He carved through limbs, severed heads, only for the beast to reform again and again.
But for every strike it healed, the Abyss lent Kaelen strength—raw, dangerous, endless.
At last, he drove his blade into the creature's core, the fire exploding outward in a storm of black flame. The guardian's scream shook the realm as its body shattered into fragments of mist, dissolving into the void.
Breath ragged, Kaelen staggered forward. Behind the fading ash, the fragment's glow pulsed steadily—waiting.
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