They moved through the deadlands.
The earth was scorched black, the air thick with the stench of burning flesh. Kael walked ahead, his footsteps silent, his body wreathed in flickering lightning.
He didn't speak.
Didn't need to.
The storm spoke for him.
Behind him, Lysara and Sera kept their distance.
Smart.
Even they could feel it—the *wrongness* in him now.
The way his veins pulsed black under his skin.
The way his eyes glowed, pupil-less, like two shards of lightning frozen in his skull.
The way the Stormblade had *fused* to his arm, its hilt jutting from his wrist like a jagged bone.
He wasn't human anymore.
He wasn't sure he ever had been.
They found the first patrol at dusk.
Five Empire scouts, their armor gleaming under the blood-red sky.
Kael didn't hesitate.
He *moved.*
Lightning *cracked.*
One scout exploded before he could scream, his body reduced to charred meat. The second died with Kael's fingers buried in his throat, lightning cooking him from the inside. The third tried to run—
Kael *flicked* his wrist.
A bolt of pure storm-energy *lanced* through the man's spine, pinning him to a tree like a grotesque trophy.
The last two raised their swords.
Kael *smiled.*
And let the storm *play.*
He could have killed them quickly.
He didn't.
The first died in stages—fingers first, then hands, then arms, each limb *bursting* in a shower of gore as the lightning chewed through him. The second lasted longer. Kael *pulled* the storm back just enough to keep him alive as his skin peeled away, as his muscles *twitched* and *burned.*
Only when the man's screams turned to wet, broken gurgles did Kael finally snap his neck.
Silence.
Then—
*"Kael."*
Lysara's voice.
Shaking.
He turned.
She stood at the edge of the carnage, her face pale, her sword drawn but slack in her grip.
"That wasn't…" She swallowed. "That wasn't *you.*"
Kael tilted his head.
"Yes," he said softly. "It was."
The Stormblade *purred* in his mind.
*"She fears you. They all will."*
Kael stepped over the corpses.
Lysara didn't follow.
That night, they made camp in the ruins of a fallen temple.
Sera kept watch.
Lysara sat by the fire, her hands clenched around her sword.
Kael didn't sleep.
Couldn't.
The storm was too *loud.*
Then—
A whisper.
"I can fix you."
Kael turned.
Lysara stood behind him, her eyes glistening in the firelight.
"What?"
She reached into her cloak and pulled out a small, silver vial.
"This is Saint's Tears," she murmured. "The last of its kind. It can sever the bond between you and the storm."
Kael's lightning *hissed.*
"Why would I want that?"
Lysara's voice broke. "Because if you don't, the storm will *erase* you. There'll be nothing left of Kael Stormblood—just a hollow thing wearing his face."
The Stormblade *screamed* in his mind.
*"LIAR! SHE WANTS TO WEAKEN YOU!"*
Kael stood.
Lysara didn't back down.
"Your father gave this to me," she whispered. "The night Stormhold fell. He made me swear to use it if you ever… if you ever *lost* yourself."
Kael's hands twitched.
*Father.*
The word was a knife in his chest.
"You knew him."
Lysara nodded. "I was his squire. Before the Empire came. Before he…"
She didn't finish.
She didn't have to.
Kael remembered the fire.
The blood.
His father's last command.
*Run.*
The storm inside him *thrashed.*
*"KILL HER."*
Kael stepped closer.
Lysara held her ground, the vial trembling in her hand.
"Please," she begged. "Don't make me do this alone."
Kael looked at the vial.
Then at her.
And *smiled.*
"You won't have to."
He *moved.*
Lysara gasped as his hand closed around her throat, lifting her off the ground.
The vial *clattered* to the floor.
Kael *crushed* it under his boot.
"I don't need saving," he whispered. "I need *vengeance.*"
Then—
A *blur.*
Sera's dagger *slammed* into his back.
Kael *roared,* throwing Lysara aside as he whirled—
But Sera was already gone.
Vanished into the dark.
Lysara scrambled to her feet, her sword raised.
"Kael, *stop*—"
He didn't.
The storm *exploded* from his body, a maelstrom of lightning and rage.
The temple *collapsed* around them.
And in the chaos—
Lysara *ran.*
Dawn found Kael standing in the ruins, the storm still crackling around him.
Sera was gone.
Lysara was gone.
And the truth was clear.
They had *betrayed* him.
Just like everyone else.
The Stormblade *laughed.*
*"Now do you see? The only one you can trust is *me.*"*
Kael clenched his fists.
The Emperor had taken his family.
His friends had tried to take his power.
But no more.
No more mercy.
No more weakness.
Only the storm.
Only *vengeance.*
He turned toward the horizon.
Toward the capital.
Toward the Emperor.
And *walked.*