The light of the Broken Star still pulsed in Kael's chest, but the crimson glow in the sky had begun to dim. The realm was fading.
He had completed the trial.
But the aftermath—was only beginning.
Kael stood at the edge of the crater, letting the echo of cosmic energy settle. His breath was steady now, his thoughts clearer than before. The shard he'd taken into himself… it wasn't just power.
It was memory.
Will.
A lingering piece of something long dead, yet not fully gone.
He looked down at his hands.
The veins along his forearms shimmered faintly with starlight. Faint silver pulses ran through them—proof that his body was adapting. But the truth was, the energy inside him was unstable. It wanted to spread. To grow. To consume.
"Another burden," Kael muttered.
And still, he walked forward.
The exit from the Broken Star's domain opened in silence, parting reality like a curtain.
He stepped through.
And immediately felt the change.
The sky above was a dull gray. Mountains of jagged black glass rose in every direction, and distant thunder rolled through a horizon caked in ash. The land here was twisted, warped by ancient wars and sealed rites.
He wasn't alone.
His boot had barely touched the new ground when he felt it—eyes watching him. Pressure building.
Figures emerged from the mist.
Five of them. Cloaked, armored, tall.
Each bore a different symbol on their chestplate—a sunless crown, a burning wheel, a skeletal serpent, a broken flame, and a spiral of inverted wings.
Kael's eyes narrowed.
"Faction scouts."
But not just any.
These were Ashlight Revenants.
Whispers of them had passed through the lower tiers—elite remnants of a forgotten order that served an exiled Sovereign. Most assumed they were dead. Kael had believed them myth.
He no longer had the luxury of disbelief.
The lead Revenant stepped forward. His voice was like gravel scraping against bone.
"You carry the Mark."
Kael said nothing.
The Revenant raised a massive glaive, etched with cracks that oozed faint red light.
"You carry the Star's echo."
Still, Kael said nothing.
"Give it up. That power does not belong to you."
Kael's gaze darkened.
"It does now."
The Revenant tilted his head.
"Then you die here, crownless."
The attack came instantly.
No flourish. No warning.
Just death.
The glaive screamed through the air like a falling comet, cleaving toward Kael's head. He ducked low, Voidfire igniting in his palm as he swept forward and countered with a burst of explosive force.
The two powers collided, hurling both men backward in opposite directions.
Kael skidded across the ash-laden ground but rolled to his feet.
The Revenants closed in.
One to his left spun a chain of bone, laced with soul-venom. Another summoned a glyph that summoned wraithlike tendrils from the sky. The third moved without sound, vanishing and reappearing in rapid succession, aiming for Kael's spine.
He didn't retreat.
He surged forward.
His aura expanded outward in a wave—void and starlight mixing, pulsing with raw defiance. His control was sharper now, the edges cleaner. No longer just reactive.
He was adapting.
Kael raised his hand and caught the bone chain mid-whip. The venom hissed against his skin, but the new trait—Echo-Bound Resilience—held strong. He yanked the chain hard, pulling the Revenant off balance, then blasted forward in a teleport burst of compressed void.
He reappeared behind the Revenant.
Fist glowing.
Crack.
The impact shattered the Revenant's spine in a sickening echo.
The warrior collapsed, motionless.
Kael turned just in time to parry the second glaive strike with his forearm. The energy rippled violently, numbing his left arm to the elbow. He responded by releasing a surge of gravitational force, yanking the masked warrior into a stone pillar that cracked from the impact.
But they kept coming.
Even injured, the Ashlight Revenants fought with suicidal fervor.
One of them unleashed a scream—not a battle cry, but a weaponized resonance.
Kael staggered, vision blurring. His head pounded as if someone were scraping his mind with claws.
A second Revenant launched a spear directly at his chest.
Kael couldn't dodge it in time.
Schunk.
Pain flared.
The spear pierced his shoulder clean through.
He fell to one knee, blood gushing.
The world tilted for a moment.
And then—
He laughed.
Low. Cold. Bitter.
"You think I haven't felt worse than this?" he growled, pulling the spear out with one hand. "You think this is enough?"
He stood.
Eyes glowing white.
And unleashed everything.
The ground cracked. The sky shook.
A ring of starlight erupted from Kael's body as he activated the full essence of the Fractured Echo.
He moved faster than the eye could follow.
One blink—he was behind the spear-wielder. A moment later—his palm slammed into the Revenant's back, sending an arc of stellar energy through his spine and out his chest.
Gone.
Another came at him from above.
Kael twisted, caught the falling blade between two fingers, and drove his knee into the Revenant's throat.
Gone.
Only the leader remained.
He hadn't moved.
Kael faced him, blood still dripping, expression hard.
"Still want the Echo?" he said.
The Revenant's grip tightened on the glaive.
"I will die to reclaim it."
Kael gave a grim nod.
"Then die."
They clashed one last time—blade against flame, void against light, fury against resolve.
The final blow came like thunder.
Kael's strike pierced through the Revenant's mask, shattering it to pieces. The warrior dropped to his knees, face revealed.
Not human.
Not beast.
Something in between. Worn, decayed. A creature who had clung to purpose even as his soul unraveled.
As he faded, he whispered something Kael couldn't quite hear.
And then—he was gone.
Ash to dust.
Silence returned.
Kael stood alone once more, the ash swirling around him. His breathing slowed. His body ached. The wounds were deep, but his core still pulsed strong.
A system notification blinked before his eyes:
[Ashlight Revenant Ambush — DEFEATED]
[Enemies faced: 5 | Status: Erased]
[Combat Performance Grade: A+]
[Soul Integrity Holding: 87%]
[New Insight: Sovereign Embers]
[You have glimpsed a memory fragment tied to the Ashlight Sovereign.]
[Path to the Sovereign's Trial unlocked.]
Kael looked at the final message for a long moment.
"Sovereign's Trial…"
He turned, walking toward the black mountains that loomed in the distance. He didn't know what he'd find there. But he felt it calling.
Not just more trials.
But revelations.
If the Broken Star had tested his pain…
Then the Sovereign would test his purpose.
And Kael had never been more ready.