Black and gold lightning tore across the sky like a tsunami of hatred and bloodlust. Stars blinked out of existence one by one. Fear and death choked the air. The ground trembled. The heavens screamed with every clash of steel.
The young man was clad in shadow, his hair black as midnight. The only light on him burned in his eyes, a violent gold like dying stars. He felt nothing. No pain. No mercy. Only the rhythm of battle, the reverberation through his hilt, the endless hunger to strike again.
He could not hear his friends screaming. Could not hear them begging him to stop.
The bloodlust was too strong.
He was no longer a man. He was a beast locked onto its prey.
Then he saw her.
Lying at his feet.
Broken.
Still.
And something inside him shattered.
His body moved without thought. Every swing of his blade sent waves of shadow crashing outward. The darkness radiating from him tore the ground apart, rotted the air, killed everything it touched.
Everything except the traitor.
The traitor only smirked.
"Just like fourteen years ago," he laughed. "You couldn't save her then either, Cova."
The name struck deeper than any blade.
Their clash echoed beyond the battlefield, rippling through time itself.
In the deepest reaches of existence, within the Voidlight Kingdom, the Primordials felt his rage.
In the most sacred heavens, the gods felt his sorrow.
Dream gates tore open across realms, drawn to his collapsing soul.
Once again, he could not save anyone. And then… something in Cova finally snapped.
He stopped moving.
Tears carved silent paths down his cheeks. His armor was torn, dented, soaked in blood that was not all his own. He stood there, hollow, staring at what he had failed to protect.
The traitor laughed.
This was it. His moment.
He had finally broken the gods' favorite boy.
He raised his rapier, eyes gleaming with triumph. Lunaris would be his prize. The heavens would finally notice him.
He lunged.
The blade shot forward, aimed straight for Cova's throat.
His friends screamed.
But they could not reach him.
Dream gates had torn open around them, surrounding the battlefield, pouring out creatures of paradox from every tier of existence. They were forced to fight just to survive. One by one, they were overwhelmed.
Trapped.
Helpless.
Forced to watch.
Some collapsed to their knees. Some turned away. Some begged.
None of it mattered.
The rapier closed in.
Centimeters from Cova's neck, it stopped.
Frozen.
One of the girls saw it first.
So did the traitor.
Cova's golden eyes fractured… bleeding into violet.
A crown of ethereal purple light began to form above his head, jagged and divine, unreal. The air rotted around him. The aura of death poured from his body in suffocating waves.
When Cova lifted his gaze, the traitor finally understood.
This was not rage.
This was extinction.
The traitor's smile shattered into terror.
Cova opened his mouth to speak.
And voidlight erupted across the world.