BOOM!!

BANG!!! BANG!! BANG!!

BOOM!!!

The sky was tearing itself apart.

Celestial brilliance clashed against shadowed wrath as Aegon battled the gods above.

Each strike shattered the air, and each collision sent molten streaks of light raining across the plains of Aetheris. The ground convulsed; trees turned to ash; the rivers themselves steamed.

And in the crater — beneath that divine war — two broken figures sat within the trembling silence.

Kaelen and Kelvin.

Dust fell in slow drifts around them as Kaelen leaned against the jagged earth, his chest rising and falling unevenly. His armor was cracked and blood-soaked, and his eyes — normally filled with determination — were dim, distant, and trembling.

He swallowed hard. "…Kelvin," he rasped, voice almost drowned by the distant thunder of gods. "Eternity… told me something."

Kelvin frowned, his expression hard yet confused. "What did it say?"

Kaelen hesitated. The words clawed at his throat. When he finally spoke, they came out as a whisper that seemed to shake the air around them.

"…The only way I can ever stand against Aegon… is if I become one with all of Eternity's power."

Kelvin blinked, uncertain. "…And what does that mean?"

Kaelen closed his eyes, his jaw tightening. "It means…" His voice broke. "…I have to take the fragments from Endless…" He paused, his hand trembling as it gripped his sword's hilt. "…and from you."

"What?"

After that, and for a long, awful moment, neither of them spoke.

The only sound was the sky itself splitting above them — divine light clashing with darkness.

Huuuuu...

Then Kelvin let out a long, shuddering sigh. His eyes softened, not with anger or fear, but with something far quieter. Acceptance.

"…Then do it."

Kaelen's eyes widened. "What?"

Kelvin gave a weak, lopsided smile — one that looked far too tired for his young face. "You heard me. If that's what it takes to end this… then do it."

Kaelen shook his head violently, his voice rising with panic. "No! You can't just say that!"

Kelvin's gaze didn't waver. "Kaelen… I'm serious."

He looked down, his expression growing distant. "You don't understand what it's like — waking up every day feeling like you're just walking through the ashes of everything you loved."

Kaelen's hands trembled.

Kelvin's voice grew softer, but heavier. "My father… Bowen… was everything to me even if I never showed it. He was a pillar at Pacesetters, one of the last men who believed we could make something better out of this world despite his methods on how to achieve that. Although I resented him at the later part of my life, he was actually my reason to fight — the man who taught me to stand, to protect, to be proud of who I was." He swallowed, his tone faltering. "But he's gone, Kaelen. Dead. I didn't even get to say goodbye or even see his dead body before I ever understood what it meant to be strong. All I saw as proof that he was dead was a simple grave that probably was created Al ost out of nothing."

He looked away, his eyes glistening faintly under the flashes of light from above. "And my sister… she was my last reason to keep breathing. When Alen the Dark Magi took her from me, everything… just went dark. I swore I'd live for revenge — but now even that's gone. Alen's dead. And I'm still here, for what?"

His breath hitched as he laughed bitterly. "For what, Kaelen? To keep pretending I still have something to fight for?"

Kaelen could feel his heart cracking with every word.

"So if I can give you what you need to stop this monster…" Kelvin said quietly, eyes on the trembling heavens above, "then maybe I can finally do something that matters. Maybe I can make my life mean something again — even if it ends."

Inside Kaelen, Eternity's voice stirred like a calm current through a storm.

"He has accepted his role. This choice is in alignment with fate. His fragment yearns for reunification."

Kaelen's head snapped upward, his eyes burning. "No. I refuse."

"Kaelen—"

"No!" Kaelen snarled aloud, slamming his fist into the dirt. "I'm not killing him for your 'alignment' or for fate!"

He grabbed Kelvin's collar, dragging him close. Their foreheads nearly touched as Kaelen's voice cracked with fury and grief.

"You've already lost enough! Your father's gone, your sister's gone—Don't you dare throw yourself away too!"

Kelvin's lips parted, stunned.

Kaelen's eyes glistened, his voice shaking as emotion overpowered reason. "You're alive, Kelvin! You're still here! That means something! You think your father would want this? You think your sister would smile seeing you die for me? No!"

He clenched his jaw, his words spilling like broken glass. "They'd want you to live. To breathe. To carry their names and remember them — not vanish like they never existed! Hell!! I have been carrying out my life pretty decently despite losing both my parents and my only mentor right in front ofy eyes! And I was only 5 at that time!!! Not only that, but the people who brought their demise are my relatives whom are already wiped out up to the head of the family which apparently was my grandfather!!"

Kelvin's eyes shimmered under the faint golden glow of the Celestials' light reflecting off the crater. His voice trembled. "…Kaelen…"

Kaelen's grip softened, then he pulled him into a tight embrace, his voice raw. "So I think you get now why I can't lose another person I care about, Kelvin. Not for this war. Not for power. I'll find another way — I swear it."

Kelvin froze for a long time, the weight of Kaelen's words pressing against every scar in his heart. Then, slowly, he lifted his arms and returned the embrace, resting his forehead against Kaelen's shoulder.

"…It seems like both of us are idiots," he whispered hoarsely.

Kaelen gave a weak chuckle, tears cutting through the grime on his face. "Takes one to be friends with one."

Above them, another explosion ripped through the heavens. A Celestial fell, trailing golden fire as their body dissolved into radiant dust — raining down like divine tears upon the ruined field. The world trembled.

But in that crater — in that fleeting, fragile silence — two friends held onto each other, refusing the logic of gods, refusing destiny itself.

One ready to die for purpose.

The other ready to defy eternity for friendship

----

At this moment, the battlefield of Aetheris was breaking apart.

The heavens above burned with gold and black, each flare tearing new holes through the clouds. The Celestials—radiant beings of will and law—had descended, surrounding Aegon like twelve suns caught in orbit around a devouring void.

Yet for all their glory, they were losing.

Each time a Celestial's spear pierced Aegon's skin, the wound closed with a hiss of shadow. Every swing of his arm brought the crash of a world ending — light bled, sound fractured, and somewhere deep in the land, mountains trembled as if kneeling before something older than themselves.

And in the crater below that chaos, two figures still breathed.

Kaelen. Kelvin.

While wiping blood off the corner of his mouth, Kaelen suddenly said"You know," he muttered, half to himself, "we really shouldn't be alive right now."

"Yeah," Kelvin said hoarsely, "but if we're still breathing, it means we still have something to do."

Kealen turned his head toward him, his one open eye dull but not lifeless. "…You mean take him on?"

Kelvin managed a shaky smile — equal parts defiance and despair. "Even if I have decided not to waste my life away, I'm not running anymore, Kealen. We face him. No matter how suicidal it sounds."

Kealen gave a bitter chuckle. "Suicidal doesn't even begin to cover it."

He pushed himself up with a groan and planted his sword into the earth. "But fine. I'm in. I'd rather die beside you than live watching him burn the world."

Kelvin then answered. "Then we do this together."

As their battered figures stood silhouetted in the crater's glow, something ancient and stubborn pulsed between them — not power, but purpose. Two mortals standing beneath gods, choosing defiance over fear.

And then—

"—You idiots."

The voice came sharp as a blade through the wind.

Kaelen and Kelvin turned. From the haze of dust, she emerged — light blue hair wild in the wind, her cloak torn, her staff glowing faintly with runic light. Lila.

She landed between them and the horizon like a living command. "You actually thought you could take on that thing alone?"

Before either could answer, a rush of new energy filled the air. One by one, more familiar figures appeared from the fog, as if summoned by the sound of her anger.

Guinevere — her crimson aura flaring around her hands.

Charlotte — her Divine shield which radiates like a beacon of light.

Rodriguez — his devouring magic still swirling around him.

Ethan — executing the same aura as Rodriguez with his mist mana

Morris — battered, but still looking like someone that can put up a fight with his all elemental affinity

And finally, Eirana — and her Voidcloak — stepping out of a shimmer of warped light, her fist deeply imbued with Juggernaut magic.

They gathered in the crater around Kaelen and Kelvin, forming a loose circle — battle-worn, bruised, and bleeding, but very much alive.

Kaelen blinked at them, stunned. "You shouldn't be here—"

Lila cut him off instantly, pressing a finger to his chest. "Save it. You think you're the only one with something to fight for?"

Her tone was sharp, but the way her eyes trembled betrayed everything — fear, love, fury, hope — all tangled together. "You've carried this war alone long enough, Kaelen. You're not doing this without us."

Kaelen tried again, weaker this time. "But if you all stay, you'll—"

Lila didn't let him finish. She stepped in closer, so close he could see her pupils dilate under the glow of the sky. "If you fall, I fall. If you fight, I fight. I don't care about fate, I don't care about gods, and I sure as hell don't care what the Celestials decide up there."

Her palm found his cheek; her voice softened just slightly. "You're not dying alone, Kaelen. Not while I'm here."

She smiled — the kind of smile that made the world's chaos feel suddenly far away. "Face it. You're stuck with me, sweetheart."

Kaelen froze, every word he might have said caught in his throat. Around them, Guinevere smirked faintly, Charlotte's lips quirked with something unreadable, Ethan chuckled, and even Rodriguez gave a grunt that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

Kelvin shook his head, trying to hide a grin. "Well, looks like you don't get a choice anymore, brother."

Kaelen stared at all of them — at the bruises, the blood, the trembling limbs that refused to bow. And in that single, shattered moment, his heart steadied.

"…Then we face him," he said finally, voice clear. "Together."

Lila's smirk widened. "That's more like it."

A surge of collective mana pulsed through the crater — six, seven, eight distinct energies blending into a single, blazing symphony. It wasn't enough to rival a god, but it was enough to defy one. The ground cracked, golden light blooming beneath their feet as their auras synchronized in raw harmony.

Above, Aegon felt the auras Kealen and the others where emanating which made him to finally turned his gaze downward. His expression twisted in faint amusement — as if he could feel their challenge.

"Foolish little sparks," his voice rumbled, echoing through the battlefield. "You think you can burn brighter than the sun?"

Kaelen lifted his sword. "We're not trying to outshine it," he shouted back. "We're trying to survive it."

"Well then, let's test that theory"

Aegon grinned — a hollow, vicious grin — and descended like a collapsing star.

The Celestials screamed warnings, light flaring around them, but Aegon's body sliced through their ranks, tearing three from the sky with a single swipe. The others scrambled to intercept, forming sigils and runes of protection that only barely held.

As the earth shook from Aegon's descent, Kaelen and his friends braced themselves. Mana flared; air warped. They were small before him — infinitesimal — but they stood anyway.

And far to the west, beyond the chaos, two figures herding the wounded halted in their tracks. Drake Grey and Naena.

They had been urging the remnants of their forces to retreat — shouting over the noise, rallying broken lines — when suddenly, a stillness swept through the land. Not the silence of exhaustion, but of something arriving.

A shadow peeled itself from the horizon — not moving fast, but with such intent that every hair on Drake's neck rose. It didn't walk. It hovered. Its presence was calm and cruel, like gravity given form.

And the moment some of them caught sight of this silhouette, Naena's breath caught. "No… it can't be…"

Drake's grip tightened on his spear. "What is that?"

Before she could answer, the figure's cloak rippled once, and a voice filled the entire battlefield — deep, refined, echoing with millennia of buried emotion.

"Time to exact my revenge."