The world screamed.
Where once the Golden Realm stood majestic and proud, it now trembled beneath a storm of divine power unleashed.
The battlefield split into two realms:
One of chaotic carnage, where the Brash Chosen roared and raged against the Martial Gods, and another of silent annihilation, where Kael faced the Calm Chosen in a duel that bent the very bones of reality.
The Brash Chosen laughed, a sound like the crack of a dying star.
His muscles rippled as he swung his arm invoking a technique born from unbridled destruction...
"Rage Titan's Smite."
The air condensed around his fist, forming the silhouette of a massive golden titan. As the fist dropped, the titan followed, a mirage that could smash mountains to powder.
The Martial Gods reacted instantly.
"Formation Two!" roared an elder.
Golden light flared as a hexagonal sigil materialized beneath them — a six-pointed star of martial essence binding their energies together.
Each point of the star pulsed with a different law: Flame, Metal, Wind, Water, Earth, Thunder.
Together, they forged:
"Heaven-Shielded Lotus Formation."
A great lotus of woven martial energy bloomed, petals folding inward to intercept the falling titan-fist.
Impact.
The world shook.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the ground; mountains in the distance crumbled into dust.
The lotus shuddered violently, petals dimming, but it held.
The younger Martial Gods darted outward from the formation's gaps, counterattacking with deadly precision:
"Azure Fang Spear."
"Thousand-Cut Gale Blades."
"Severing Thunder Howl."
Each technique screamed through the air, sharp, focused, deadly.
But the Brash Chosen twisted, grinning wildly. His body blurred, moving faster than sight.
"Mirage Step."
He flashed across the battlefield as though it were his own personal playground,it would have been his playground if his attacks were getting through but the Martial gods were also holding their own.
With each step he left behind a golden afterimage , a false target, an echo, causing half the attacks to miss entirely.
Then he retaliated:
"Broken Starfall!"
He stomped the ground, sending meteor-like fragments of golden energy arcing toward the Martial Gods, each impact devastating enough to vaporize a mountain range.
---
"Playtime is over!!"
Elsewhere, amid the strange starlit plane, Kael and the Calm Chosen clashed at last.
No words now. Only intent.
The Calm Chosen raised his hand, tracing a sigil into the air with a single fingertip ,not rushed, but deliberate. The sigil pulsed, binding the laws around them into a singular force.
"Seal of the Unyielding Monarch."
The ground below Kael twisted, space itself locking him in place, weight upon weight stacking atop his existence.
Kael grunted, feeling the strain of it, the world trying to freeze him into a still-life.
But he was no passive river to be dammed.
He called forth his own law , no sigil, no words.
Just his will and they responded.
The starlit plains around him responded, swirling into a vortex of chaotic elements.
"Aetheral Spiral."
After regaining his memories, he realised something amazing even to him , there was an energy or perhaps element that was beyond all the elements, it was an element one cannot just skip and gain access to through affinity or anything of sort, the only way to gain access to this element was by having all the basic elements in your control.
And with that call , Kael tapped into this unknown but powerful element. An endless current of elements fire, wind, water, stone erupted around Kael and formed into a spiral of whirling colors, it was a sight to behold, the spiral of the newly formed element shattered the binding seal that coiled around him like brittle glass.
He darted forward.
Their first real collision...
Kael's fist, wrapped in "Primordial Riftforce", smashed against the Calm Chosen's open palm,that was glowing with "Crown of Absolute Dominion." A skill Kael knew too well, it was a very troublesome skill and he wished he could learn it but of all the people in the world, Kael happened to be the one and only person who couldn't learn this skill.
The impact exploded outward in silent devastation , light rippled, stars flickered, and the plane bent inward as if about to collapse entirely.
The Calm Chosen's feet slid half an inch.
Kael was thrown backward across a hundred meters, but he flipped, landing soundlessly.
He grinned, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth.
The Calm Chosen's face remained serene.but his sleeve was torn, a faint red mark staining his pale wrist.
A small victory.
"I see you're aware of this skill" the calm voice echoed amidst the labyrinth of floating stars.
"And I see you bleed," Kael said, voice hoarse but triumphant.
The Calm Chosen stared at him for a heartbeat longer than necessary.
Then, softly:
"You will not smile long."
He moved.
Reality around them blurred as he invoked his next art:
"Imperium Chainstorm."
Thousands of thin, silver chains manifested from nothingness, each imbued with the will to bind and suffocate.
Kael inhaled sharply.
He slammed his hands together, forming the ancient sign of dissolution.
"Chains of Azazel!"
Dark chains manifested around him curling around the thin silver chains and they both seemed to melt and blend into each other and the next second they were no more. Kael summoned the chains once more and swung wildly towards the chosen who was in the motion of rushing towards Kael . He had to stop abruptly and defend against the chains but it proved futile .
"Fractured pulse!!". He called out .
A single pulse of distorted reality burst from his core, tearing through half the chains in an instant.
But not all.
The remaining chains coiled, binding chosen's right arm and left ankle.
Kael blurred forward, a short blade of condensed twilight forming in his grip:
"Aetheral Execution."
And once again the swirl of colors formed, taking the shape of a great blade.
It gleamed meant to sever not flesh, but existence itself.
The chosen gritted his teeth.
His bound arm ignited — wrapped in molten, chaotic fire:
> "Eclipse Burst."
The fire devoured the chains, freeing him in the split-second needed.
He sidestepped the execution blade by a hair's breadth, feeling the kiss of void against his cheek.
He countered with a vicious uppercut, channeling:
"Moonspliting barrage!!"
The phantom of countless fists flashed towards Kael , the raw force launching the him skyward.
And after a couple of backflips he came to a halt. His eyes now calm , his aura withdrawn, his gaze sharp and with a shake of his wrist a giant sword twice the size of his body frame appeared in his hand. He pointed it towards the chosen.
"Pull out your weapon!"