The battlefield was at its breaking point.
Nullframe and Zero Step clashed endlessly—one halting reality, the other tearing through it. Every second stretched into eternity, then collapsed back into a single heartbeat. No one could tell how long this had been going on.
Zevak wiped sweat from his brow, staring at his failing readouts. "I can't… even process this anymore…"
Veyra's hands trembled. "Kael… can you move?!"
Kael's body pulsed — veins of shimmering light ran beneath his skin, his heart pounding like a war drum. A voice — deep, resonant, layered with countless harmonics — echoed within his mind:
"RISE…"
"YOU ARE NOT BOUND…"
"ASCEND."
Kael's eyes snapped open—now glowing with a divine brilliance, irises fractured like stars. His voice came out layered — as if dozens of Kaels spoke at once:
"It's time."
The ground beneath him cracked from the surge of his aura. Veyra gasped. Orion and Lyra stepped back instinctively.
KAEL: DIVINE ASCENSION FORM — ACTIVATED
An aura of radiant living will engulfed him — a fusion of purpose, light, and cosmic resonance. His body materialized, intricate and gleaming, woven from symbols of absolute dominion and truth.
Even the broken, flickering reality around them stabilized in his presence — light began to flow correctly again, time's jittering slowed.
Nullframe paused mid-assault. His head tilted unnaturally.
"Ah."
"An anchor… forged from will…"
"This changes nothing."
Zero Step's voice cut through the warped space:
"Kael — now! He is vulnerable!"
Without hesitation, Kael moved—no, he became movement itself. In Divine Ascension, his presence radiated an undeniable command over cause and effect.
Nullframe's Event Nullification faltered. Where Kael's fist struck, the paradox broke. Each blow forced reality to exist, denying Nullframe his perfect stillness.
BOOM! — A punch shattered Nullframe's chest frame.
BOOM! — Another cracked his face, sending shockwaves across the dimension.
Veyra shouted in awe: "He's… forcing Nullframe to obey reality!!"
Zevak's eyes gleamed: "The Core of Continuum effect — Kael's will is binding the space around them!"
Nullframe stumbled — something never seen before.
"…Unwritten… yet… inevitable…"
Kael's voice echoed with unwavering power:
"You will FALL."
With a final surge of pure Ascendant force, Kael launched a blow of unimaginable weight — a strike that resonated with absolute purpose, impossible to erase.
CRACK—!!
Nullframe's form fractured completely—his stillness undone, scattered into broken frames of existence.
As the space around them began to stabilize, Zero Step landed beside Kael.
Zero Step: "Well struck. The eye closes… but the war is not done."
Kael, his form still blazing with Divine Ascension, looked to his team—voice still layered:
"It's only beginning."
⸻
TO BE CONTINUED…