The forest was quiet, yet the silence carried no peace. Selene's footsteps crunched softly against damp soil as she walked ahead, her lantern swinging weakly in the night. The glow did little to dispel the weight pressing against her heart.
Behind her, Arion trudged heavily, every step like an admission of guilt. Lyra followed close, her sharp eyes restless, scanning the treeline as though the shadows themselves might lash out at any moment.
Finally, Lyra broke the silence. "We can't keep chasing him like this. The further he goes down that path, the less likely he'll ever come back."
Selene spun on her heel, fire in her eyes. "And what? You'd have us leave him? After everything he's sacrificed for us?"
"Sacrifice?" Lyra's voice cut like glass. "He's not sacrificing anymore—he's consuming. Every enemy he kills feeds that abyss inside him. The Kael we knew… he's slipping away."
Arion clenched his fists, staring at the ground. His voice cracked when he finally spoke. "She's right. This is my fault. I betrayed him, and now he's…" He swallowed hard, shame etched into every line of his face. "…a monster."
"No." Selene's tone was fierce. "He's ours. That's what matters."
Her words hung heavy in the night. Lyra didn't reply, but for the first time, her expression softened. Selene's conviction was a fragile flame, but it was the only light they had left.
Arion finally raised his head, eyes burning with a new kind of resolve. "Then if there's even a chance to save him, I'll fight for it."
Selene nodded, gripping her lantern tighter. "Good. Because we may not have much time."
SomethIng Far from them, Kael stood at the edge of a broken cliff, the air around him still trembling from his clash with the celestial emissary. The abyss writhed in his veins, drunk on power, hungry for more.
He looked to the heavens. Where once stars had burned steadily, now they flickered—some dimming, others flaring unnaturally bright. He could feel their gaze upon him, the weight of divine attention pressing down like mountains.
Kael smirked. "So. You've finally noticed me."
The abyss whispered eagerly. "Strike them down. Take their thrones. Rule."
He spread his wings wide, shadows dripping from them like molten ink. The ground beneath him split as if reality itself feared to hold his weight. For the first time, Kael felt untouchable.
Yet beneath that exultation, a hollow ache gnawed at him. He heard Selene's voice echo faintly in his mind—pleading, trembling, "Kael… you're scaring me."
His smile faltered. For a brief heartbeat, the abyss recoiled, leaving silence in its wake. But then the sky itself growled—a deep, resonant thunder that shook the world.
A rift opened above. From it poured legions of light, divine soldiers clad in radiance, their eyes burning with judgment. Behind them, vast celestial engines hummed, each one brimming with the destructive force of a dying star.
Kael's grin returned, sharper this time. "Finally. Something worth killing."
As Kael raised his hand, abyssal fire surging, the divine army descended.
Far away, Selene stumbled, clutching her chest. She gasped, her lantern flickering wildly.
Lyra grabbed her arm. "What's wrong?"
Selene's eyes widened, glistening with fear. "He's fighting again. I can feel it."
The ground trembled faintly beneath them. In the distance, the sky glowed—bright and terrible, as though night itself had been set ablaze.
Arion drew his blade, his jaw tight. "That light… it's not human."
Selene's voice was a whisper. "They've come for him."
The three of them stood frozen, caught between awe and dread, as the heavens and abyss clashed on the horizon.
Kael leapt into the air, his wings slicing the storm. Shadows unfurled around him, vast as oceans, writhing serpents of flame and darkness. The first wave of divine soldiers met him head-on—shields of starlight clashing against claws of void.
Every strike was cataclysm. Mountains crumbled. Rivers boiled. Forests turned to ash. The sky itself split, one half burning gold, the other drowning in black flame.
Kael laughed, his voice reverberating across the battlefield. "Is this all the gods can offer me?!"
The abyss surged, expanding his form—horns longer, wings darker, fire hotter. He struck once, and an entire host of celestial warriors dissolved into dust.
But even as he reveled in destruction, a booming voice echoed through the rift above:
"Kael of the Abyss. You are no longer mortal. You are no longer ours. You are a blight upon creation, and for that, we will unmake you."
Kael looked up, and for the first time, saw a silhouette looming behind the army—taller than mountains, its face veiled in burning light.
A god.
His grin widened. Shadows coiled tighter around him, his aura spiraling higher, darker, hungrier.
"Good," he whispered, eyes blazing with both fire and void. "Come down here and try."
As the god's colossal hand reached through the rift, blotting out the stars, Selene fell to her knees miles away, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"He's… he's fighting the gods themselves."
And though her heart broke at the thought, one truth burned sharper than any other: if Kael continued on this path, he wouldn't just defy heaven—he would destroy it.