Chapter 9 — THE FALL OF THE CELESTIAL GATES
Single Chapter
The sky did not tear apart all at once.
At first, it trembled.
Across the world—on every continent, in every kingdom, in every hidden land—people felt it. A pressure behind the eyes. A weight in the chest. Birds fell silent mid-flight. Oceans stilled as if holding their breath.
Ushinai felt it before anyone else.
The Fragment within his chest pulsed violently, no longer warm, no longer distant. It beat like a second heart—panicked, furious, awake.
"Something's wrong," Aria whispered.
Then the heavens cracked.
A sound like shattering crystal rolled across the world. The sky above the Eastern Front split open in jagged lines of blinding gold, spreading outward as if reality itself were breaking under strain.
From those fractures poured divine light—so intense it burned shadows into the ground.
The First Law had been broken.
Not weakened.
Not bent.
Broken.
When Ushinai struck the Celestial Herald days earlier, he had not known what he truly shattered. That blow had severed a divine rule older than written time: no mortal shall harm a being of the heavens.
Now the heavens were responding.
The world entered Dawnlock.
The sun froze halfway above the horizon. The moon hung opposite it, pale and unmoving. Day and night overlapped unnaturally, casting long twisted shadows across cities and battlefields alike.
Time stuttered.
Wounds refused to bleed for seconds—then bled all at once. Flames burned without heat. Winds blew in reverse.
Reality itself faltered.
From the cracks in the sky, massive silhouettes formed.
War horns sounded—deep, ancient, and absolute. Each blast shook mountains and split stone.
Aria dropped to one knee.
Garo clenched his teeth. "Those aren't spells… those are announcements."
The first Celestial Legions descended.
Angelic formations assembled in the clouds—thousands upon thousands—each soldier clad in radiant armor, wings aligned in perfect symmetry, spears of condensed judgment held forward.
This was not an invasion.
This was an execution.
A single figure stepped ahead of the formations.
His presence alone bent the air.
Golden armor engraved with moving scripture. Six burning wings. A spear that hummed with inevitable force.
Archon Seraphel — Spear of Radiance.
His voice echoed across the battlefield and beyond, carried into every nation by divine resonance.
> "MORTALS.
THE FIRST LAW HAS BEEN VIOLATED.
SURRENDER THE GODBREAKER."
Silence followed.
Kings watched from crystal mirrors. Generals froze in command tents. Entire armies waited for someone else to answer.
No one did.
Until Ushinai stepped forward.
Aria grabbed his arm. "Don't—"
He gently pulled free.
"If I hide," he said quietly, "they burn the world looking for me."
Seraphel's gaze locked onto him instantly.
"Ushinai of the Fracture Mark," the Archon said.
"Submit to divine judgment."
Ushinai's hands trembled.
"…If protecting this world makes me a criminal," he replied, "then come take me yourself."
The air screamed.
Seraphel moved.
Not flew.
Not dashed.
He simply appeared.
The first spear strike missed Ushinai by inches and carved a glowing tunnel straight through a distant mountain. The second shattered the ground beneath his feet.
Aria leapt in, firing spirit arrows.
They evaporated midair.
Garo charged, intercepting a divine soldier as Tempest summoned a storm front that collided violently with angelic ranks.
Sylpha erected layered barriers, each one cracking under holy pressure.
Seraphel advanced calmly, reading every movement.
He was not fast.
He was perfect.
Every strike landed where Ushinai would be, not where he was.
Within seconds, Ushinai realized the truth.
"I can't outfight him," he gasped.
The Fragment surged.
A whisper slipped through his thoughts.
Mortals cannot win fairly.
"Get out of my head!" Ushinai shouted.
Marks ignited across his arms.
He activated Fragmented Radiance.
The world sharpened. Motion slowed. He could finally follow Seraphel's rhythm—just barely.
He landed a hit.
The first strike ever to connect with an Archon.
Seraphel staggered half a step.
Then drove his spear through Ushinai's shoulder with surgical precision.
Pain exploded.
Aria screamed his name.
Seraphel lifted him by the throat.
"Defiance ends here."
The sky darkened.
A shadow swallowed the battlefield.
A roar thundered across continents.
The Dragon King descended.
His true form tore through the clouds—scales older than empires, wings spanning the horizon, eyes burning with ancient fury.
His breath melted divine shields. His claws tore angelic ranks apart.
For the first time, Seraphel was forced backward.
God-beast and Archon clashed.
Fire met radiance.
The ground split. The sky warped.
Yet even the Dragon King was pushed back inch by inch.
Seraphel turned—
And in that instant, Ushinai fired a desperate blast.
It struck Seraphel's blind side.
The Archon spun—and drove his spear straight into Ushinai's chest.
Everything stopped.
Aria collapsed.
Tempest screamed.
Sylpha's barriers shattered.
The Dragon King caught Ushinai as he fell.
Blood soaked the earth.
Inside Ushinai, something cracked—not flesh, not bone.
Spirit.
The Fragment pulsed violently.
A voice whispered:
Shall I take over?
Ushinai coughed, barely conscious.
"…No," he whispered.
"This fight is mine."
He stood.
Bleeding. Shaking. Fading.
But standing.
Something new formed within his palm—not divine, not mortal, not spirit.
A self-forged energy born from refusal itself.
He slammed it into Seraphel's chest.
The Archon froze.
His armor fractured.
His wings flickered.
His spear dissolved into golden dust.
Seraphel dropped to one knee, staring up—not in anger, but confusion.
"…What are you?"
Ushinai breathed heavily.
"Someone tired of running."
Seraphel collapsed.
Dead.
For the first time in recorded existence, a mortal had slain a celestial Archon.
The heavens screamed.
Golden blood rained from the sky.
Every angel cried out in agony.
Reality convulsed.
The Celestial Gate above the world—an immense divine construct anchoring heaven to reality—began to shudder.
Then it fell.
Shattering into countless burning shards that rained across the planet.
Each shard became a disaster.
A divine zone.
A battlefield.
Entire cities vanished.
Oceans boiled.
The age of balance ended.
The Godfall Era began.
A voice echoed across every mind.
> "USHINAI OF THE FRACTURE MARK.
YOU HAVE MURDERED MY ARCHON.
HOLY ANNIHILATION IS DECLARED."
Ushinai collapsed unconscious as the Dragon King shielded him.
Aria held him tightly, shaking.
The sky burned.
The war was no longer coming.
It had begun.
The Godbreak War had started.