Chapter 7: The Rise of Blood and Rot
The Blood Moon burned like a bleeding eye in the heavens.
Its crimson light struck the ruins below, igniting rivers of chaos. The air smelled of iron, smoke, and death. Every living creature felt it — the tremor of power that was no longer human.
Riven stood on the shattered remains of a skyscraper, blood dripping down his fingers, eyes glowing like molten rubies. Each heartbeat pulsed with unnatural rhythm — thump… thump… — every pulse releasing waves of energy that melted steel and burned the ground.
Below him, Kael walked through fire, his presence cloaked in rot and decay. Wherever his feet touched, plants withered, corpses stirred, and ashes danced like shadows reborn.
The earth itself seemed afraid of him.
The Guardian of the Rift roared again — a monstrous titan of bones, fangs, and decayed wings. Lightning surged around it, tearing through clouds. Its voice thundered through the world.
> "The kings have awoken… the balance shall bleed."
The Guardian lunged.
Riven vanished in a blur of red light, reappearing midair. "I'll end this nightmare before it consumes us all!"
He thrust his arm forward, crimson flames bursting from his veins. Blood spears shot toward the beast, piercing its wing. The Guardian screamed, shaking the earth.
Kael's eyes turned hollow gray. "You fool," he muttered. "It's not an enemy — it's a test."
He raised his hand. From beneath the ruins, hundreds of corpses erupted — soldiers, civilians, monsters — all rising under his command.
> "Kneel before your king of decay!" he roared.
The undead army charged toward the Guardian like a tidal wave of bones and claws.
Humans screamed in the distance. Fighter jets flew overhead, launching missiles at the rift — but their explosions only widened the crack in the sky. From it, blood-like rain began to fall, burning everything it touched.
In the chaos, Liora, covered in dirt and blood, shouted into her radio,
> "This isn't war — it's judgment! They're not fighting for us; they're fighting for dominion!"
Riven and Kael's powers collided, creating a storm that swallowed everything around them.
Crimson flames met rotting shadows — light and darkness twisting, clashing, and screaming through the sky.
Riven leaped toward Kael, his fist glowing with burning sigils. "Stop this madness, Kael! You'll destroy the world!"
Kael blocked the blow with a wall of shadows. "This world already destroyed us! Now it's our turn to rule it!"
Their strikes shook the earth. Entire buildings collapsed under their power.
Riven's blade — forged from his own blood — clashed with Kael's skeletal scythe, each hit releasing shockwaves strong enough to tear the clouds.
And then — silence.
The Guardian, wounded but alive, spread its wings and roared toward the sky.
> "The kings of Blood and Rot have been chosen. The world shall fall beneath their reign."
The rift pulsed once more — and thousands of portals opened across the planet.
From them descended legions of Crimson Vampires, eyes glowing with hunger, and Rot-born Zombies, crawling out of darkness.
Humanity's last cities burned.
Riven knelt, his energy fading. "We were meant to protect… not destroy…"
Kael stood above him, his expression cold but conflicted. "Protection is just another word for weakness."
And as the Blood Moon burned brighter, two thrones began to rise from the ashes — one carved from bone, the other from bloodstone.
The prophecy had been fulfilled.
The apocalypse had a name.
And the war… had only begun.
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