At dawn, the skies darkened.
Not from clouds.
Not from storms.
But from wings.
Thousands.
A legion of armored angels—gold-plated, faceless, their spears humming with divine law—descended in a perfect, terrifying formation. Behind them, war priests chanted in languages that made the air tremble. Holy banners snapped in unnatural wind.
Above them all… floated a figure in crimson robes and radiant chains.
He was tall, beautiful, inhumanly graceful. His golden hair shimmered, eyes closed, hands clasped around a single, jagged staff.
Kael stood atop Ashdeep's highest spire, cloak rippling.
He recognized that staff.
And he recognized the voice that echoed next:
> "Kael Ardent. Blood Sovereign. Ashborn King."
"By divine order, you are sentenced to final death."
Kael narrowed his eyes.
Lilith appeared at his side. "He's strong."
Valeskar growled. "He's too calm."
Kael didn't blink. "He's worse than calm."
He stepped forward, voice deep, fire already pulsing beneath his skin.
"Hello again… Therion."
---
The figure in the sky opened his eyes.
They glowed like suns.
"Brother," he said.
Lilith turned sharply. "Brother?!"
Kael nodded once, quietly.
"Therion of the Seraphim. Chosen blade of the Pantheon. My blood. My executioner."
Therion hovered above the army, expression unreadable.
"I begged the gods to spare you, Kael."
Kael stared into the storm of wings and light.
"And they sent you to finish what they started."
Therion raised his hand.
> "Let it be quick, brother."
Kael raised his own.
> "Let it be loud."
---
The battle began.
The air cracked like thunder.
Ashdeep roared to life.
As the divine legion descended, the ancient city—once a mausoleum—moved. Walls realigned. Tower gates opened. Flame-etched glyphs along the streets lit in pulses, forming a massive sigil across the entire city—Kael's crest: a broken sun wrapped in flame and chains.
A voice echoed across the battlefield—not spoken, but sung from the bones of the city itself:
> "Ashdeep rises.
The blood returns.
The King awakens.
Let no god pass unburned."
---
On the walls, Valeskar's war-beast form loomed over the battlements. His molten chains spun like living serpents as he shouted to the gathering defenders—Ashborn soldiers, necro-constructs from Cassira's frozen crypts, and cursed monks who had once served Kael in his first life.
Valeskar bellowed, "Hold the line! This isn't war—it's revenge!"
The divine army reached the city perimeter.
They came fast.
Not human fast—divine fast. Winged knights struck down like meteor hammers, their impact craters shaking streets. Seraphic mages rained purification spells that scorched rooftops and boiled stone. The chants of their priests echoed like divine radiation, dulling minds and suppressing magic.
But Kael's army was ready.
Cassira appeared at the front, arms outstretched. She muttered a hymn in an ancient, dead tongue.
The shadows answered.
A wave of frostfire washed over the first line of angelic warriors, freezing their wings mid-flight. From the cracked ice, her dead rose—burning with blue flame, eyes hollow, blades jagged.
Lilith leapt between them, blades out, slashing through divine armor like paper. Blood sprayed across the spires. Her violet eyes shimmered with glee.
"This," she whispered, "is my kind of worship."
---
On the high spire, Kael didn't move.
Not yet.
He watched the battlefield as the gods' forces struggled to breach Ashdeep's inner glyphs. The divine magic was potent—but his city fed on it. Every spell cast strengthened the defenses instead of weakening them.
> [Ashdeep Core Sync: 71%]
[Gate Threshold: Holding]
[Sovereign Ability: Ready – "Burn the Sky"]
Kael looked to Aurelia, who stood quietly at the center of the throne platform, arms spread, blindfold fluttering in the wind. Her presence alone sanctified the corrupted soil beneath them.
"Keep the balance," he said.
"I'm holding it," she replied softly. "But they're pressing hard on the lower rings. Skarion's taking the east. Cassira's frozen the west… but the north flank won't last long."
Kael exhaled—and rose.
Then he stepped into the sky.
---
He didn't fly.
He walked, each step supported by runes of bloodfire forming beneath his feet—Ashdeep carrying him upward.
Therion met him in the air, hovering in silence above the slaughter.
"You rebuilt your grave," he said.
Kael answered, "And you became their blade."
"I became their mercy. You don't see it yet."
"No," Kael said calmly, "but I will show you something you've forgotten."
---
They clashed.
And the sky exploded.
---
Therion moved like thought—his staff a blur of golden light, each strike echoing with divine resonance. Kael parried with flame-forged gauntlets, his cloak lashing like a whip, his body burning brighter with every hit taken.
Therion's eyes flashed. "You're slower than before."
Kael smirked. "Then stop dodging."
He feinted low, flared his cloak—and struck high with a bloodflame blade that formed mid-air. The slash caught Therion's shoulder, searing through divine cloth and drawing a single drop of golden blood.
The skies shuddered.
Therion looked down at the burn. His face, always calm, flickered—for just a moment—with something close to fear.
Kael's eyes glowed brighter.
"Remember this feeling, brother," he said.
Therion summoned six radiant lances behind him.
"I remember too well."
---
Back on the ground, Lilith's forces were being pushed to the brink. Several Ashborn defenders were overwhelmed by celestial shock troops. Just as one angel raised his spear to impale a fallen soldier—
Valeskar's chains whipped through the air and ripped the angel in half.
"Still not dead enough," he muttered, stomping through divine fire like it was dust.
Cassira, standing atop a spire of bone, raised both hands to the heavens.
"Kael, now would be a great time to cheat again."
---
He heard her.
And smiled.
---
Kael raised his hand.
The sky cracked.
Ashdeep's power surged through him.
> [Blood Sovereign: Authority Release – Unlocked]
[Limit Break: Domain Override – "Burn the Sky" Initiated]
He looked Therion in the eye.
"You should have never come."
And then he shouted:
> "ASHDEEP—DEVOUR THE HEAVENS!"
---
The sky turned red.
Not fire. Not light.
Blood.
A burning eclipse opened above Ashdeep, and from it rained not meteors—but living flame, shaped like dragons, serpents, blades, and memories.
Everything the gods thought buried—returned.
Divine wings burned.
Holy shields shattered.
And Kael?
He stood amidst it all.
Smiling.
Above the ruined spires of Ashdeep, two brothers clashed.
Kael, Sovereign of Blood and Flame—crowned by fire, cloak torn, fists burning with unsealed power.
Therion, Archblade of the Pantheon—radiant, precise, surrounded by floating spears of light and divine memory.
Every blow they exchanged cracked the air.
Kael struck with the weight of vengeance.
Therion moved with the grace of absolute purpose.
Below them, Ashdeep raged.
Cassira's undead ripped through crumbling angelic ranks. Valeskar crushed entire formations beneath his molten fists. Lilith, blood-drenched and laughing, danced between corpses, blades singing as she dueled three divine knights at once.
But in the sky—the war came down to two.
---
Therion dashed forward, golden chains lashing out—binding Kael's left arm mid-strike. He twisted, slammed his staff into Kael's chest, and flung him through a spire.
Kael landed hard—then caught himself, flames flaring to heal his ribs.
Therion floated above, calm.
"You've forgotten what we fought for."
Kael rose slowly, eyes glowing like twin dying suns.
"No. I remember everything." He stepped forward. "I remember when we believed in justice."
He clenched his fists.
"I remember when the gods watched mortals burn, and called it balance."
He ignited.
"I remember standing beside you when we vowed to change everything."
His voice dropped.
"And I remember… when you chose them over me."
---
The wind howled with divine energy.
Therion's jaw tensed. "You were losing yourself."
"I was becoming myself!" Kael's voice roared across the battlefield. "And you—you tried to erase me."
Therion's golden aura flared.
"I saved the world from what you were becoming."
Kael looked down at Ashdeep—his people, fighting and dying for him.
Then up at his brother.
"No… You saved the gods."
---
They charged.
Not like mortals. Not even like legends.
Like forces.
Kael's flames twisted into jagged red halberds mid-flight. He hurled one—Therion deflected it with a radiant blade and countered with a column of light. Kael vanished—reappeared behind him—and slammed his fist into Therion's back, sending a shockwave through the clouds.
Therion retaliated, wings flaring—his staff cracked with thunder, and the very laws of gravity bent around it. He drove it down—
Kael caught it.
And grinned.
"Too slow, brother."
---
He pulled Therion into a headbutt that cracked divine bone.
Then—
> "Ashdeep Pulse: Breakpoint."
Kael's aura detonated outward—not fire, but memory. Visions poured into Therion's mind:
Kael standing over Aurelia's dying body.
The gods above, watching silently.
The day Kael was sentenced to death.
The moment Therion raised the blade.
Therion screamed.
The images overwhelmed his divine vision—shaking his resolve.
Kael didn't stop.
He surged forward, fists glowing.
"This is for her."
He struck.
"And this is for me."
He struck again.
"And this—"
He grabbed Therion by the collar, eyes glowing with tears and fire.
"—is for what we could've been."
---
He drove his fist into Therion's chest.
The golden aura around him shattered.
Therion dropped from the sky like a falling star, slamming into the central courtyard of Ashdeep. The earth cracked.
Kael descended slowly, his flames dimming, his body burned and bloodied.
He stood over his fallen brother.
Therion coughed blood.
"You've won…"
Kael didn't reply.
Therion looked up at him. "So what now?"
Kael knelt beside him.
"You live."
Therion's eyes widened.
Kael whispered, "You live so the gods know. That the Blood Sovereign doesn't kill for sport. He burns for truth."
---
> [Archblade Therion – Defeated, Not Slain]
[Ashdeep Influence +17%]
[Pantheon Response: Escalation Tier 3 Imminent]
[Therion's Faith Shaken – Potential Future Ally]
---
Lilith arrived a moment later, bloodied but smiling.
"You actually spared him?"
Kael stood, eyes on the horizon.
"I didn't spare him."
He turned toward the ruined skies.
"I spared the next me."