Steel shrieked as black clashed against red, blades locked in a searing standoff. A shockwave burst outward, hurling dust and debris into the air. Salena's black sword crackled with void energy, grinding against Neil's crimson edge. The earth beneath them splintered under the crushing force.
Kael watched, unmoving, eyes narrowed. Beside him, Sira knelt over Rivan's limp form, her grip fierce around his hand.
Kael's inner voice stirred.
He can't hold her. That thing didn't come to fight—it came to erase.
His fingers twitched. The broadsword at his back hummed, alive to his intent.
This is what we trained for. What we bled for.
You hesitated once, Kael. Not again.
He stepped forward.
---
Across the chaos, Neil's mind burned—not from pain, but memory.
Rilveer.
That twisted grin.
Jay's blood on the ground.
Jay's torn throat in Rilveer's claws—raised like a prize.
He remembered the sound—the crack—as Rilveer crushed it. And Jay's last words, gurgling through the ruin.
"You… only… my brother..."
Grief exploded in Neil's chest, a second heart pounding fire. His aura blazed, red blade forcing the void back.
Then, in a blink, they separated—Salena and Neil blasted apart by the force of their clash.
Wham.
Kael struck from behind, his broadsword a comet crashing down. Salena twisted mid-air, blade rising just in time. Sparks erupted. Her boots skidded backward, carving trenches in the battlefield.
Kael pressed in. "You don't look so divine when you're distracted."
Salena snarled and blasted him back. Kael flipped mid-air, landing steady, sword raised.
Neil stepped beside him, chest heaving. Their eyes locked.
"You always make an entrance," Neil muttered, bloodied lips twitching.
Kael rolled his shoulder. "And you always wait 'til death to call for backup."
Together, they raised their blades. Salena stood between them—no longer toying.
Now, lethal.
She rose, dust swirling like smoke. Her smile cracked across her face—cold, jagged, cruel.
Then—gone.
A heartbeat.
She was behind Kael.
Her blade fell—a whisper of death.
Clang.
Kael turned, broadsword arcing up, steel met steel. The ground shattered. He held the line, muscles trembling, gold aura flaring for a blink—enough.
Salena's eyes widened.
She retreated, flipped back, landed light. Her smirk was gone—replaced by a predator's curiosity.
Velvet and venom, her voice coiled:
"You're not Awakened. Yet… your power stirs, just beneath. Who unlocked your gate, Kael?"
Kael glanced at Neil, a ghost of a grin on his lips.
"Let's end this. Hold back—I'll take her."
Neil's brow rose. Then: a nod. "Don't die."
Kael stepped forward, gold aura cracking underfoot.
Salena laughed softly. Relaxed. Coiled.
"You think I'll give you a chance?" Her voice sharpened. "I'll give you nothing."
They moved.
No steps. No sound.
Gone.
A shockwave split the air. Blades collided in a storm of sparks—metal thunder.
Neil tracked them with effort—two blurs dancing in the sky, colliding in flashes of fire and steel.
Sira couldn't follow.
She squinted, searching the dust and sky, reading the ripples.
> "I can't see them... not even a flicker. Kael was never this fast. He hasn't Awakened… has he?"
Neil stood grounded, blade ready, mind spiraling.
> "What are you hiding, Kael?"
There was power in his friend—something ancient, sealed deep.
And now, it was waking.
The battlefield was chaos incarnate.
Salena struck—one slash, then two more in rapid succession, black steel cutting arcs through the air. Kael parried each with precision, his broadsword flashing to meet every blow. Steel rang, sparks flew. He blocked, countered, drove forward with a fierce retaliation. Their blades blurred, matching strike for strike.
They looked evenly matched.
Salena's eyes narrowed.
> He's holding his ground... every strike matched. This shouldn't be possible.
Another slash—Kael deflected. She twisted, blade low, then high—but again, he blocked. His movements were fluid, deliberate. Too deliberate.
> No… he's not just strong. He's restrained. Hiding something?
Her instincts flared. Salena suddenly leapt back, boots skidding as she rose mid-air. Dust spiraled beneath her as she began to float, her black cloak unfurling like wings.
Her voice rang out, low and sharp.
"You... human. You've already Awakened. But somehow—you're hiding it."
Kael didn't respond.
He stepped forward once, then stood still—arms down, broadsword held loose at his side.
A hum filled the air.
His blade began to glow—first a pure white, then deepened, shifting into a burning crimson. The runes etched along its spine pulsed like veins of fire.
From a distance, Neil's eyes widened.
Sira gasped, clutching Rivan's hand tighter.
Kael didn't speak. But his silence was louder than thunder.
And Salena, for the first time, truly looked afraid.
Salena hovered above the fractured earth, cloak billowing, void energy crackling at her fingertips. Her eyes flicked between Kael and Neil.
> Two of them… both Awakened. Level Two.
This could be a problem.
A second blade of black void surged into her left hand—sharper, sleeker, pulsing with malevolence. She now held twin swords, their edges humming with the promise of annihilation.
On the ground, Neil glanced at Kael, a faint grin on his bloodied lips. "So... you've been holding out on us."
Kael didn't look back. His voice was calm—measured.
"When I found the black box… I Awakened. Not fully, but enough to feel the gate open."
His grip on the broadsword tightened, the crimson glow intensifying.
"But when Rilveer ambushed me... I wasn't ready. My mind was scattered. Power without focus is nothing."
He raised his head, gaze locking on Salena.
"But now—I'm focused."
Neil stepped up beside him, his red blade flaring once more. The air between them thrummed with raw power, synchronized and surging.
Sira, still shaken, glanced one last time before turning. She lifted Rivan's limp form and began walking toward the camp, knowing this battle was no longer hers to fight.
High above, Salena tilted her head, her smile returning—feral, curved, and cold.
"You think you're ready?" she whispered.
She spread her arms wide—twin blades dancing with voidlight.
"Then come prove it."
Kael and Neil moved like twin storms, flanking Salena from opposite sides. Steel flashed, air cracked—blades striking in tandem, aiming to break through her defense. But Salena floated, unbound by gravity, slipping between them like shadow. Her twin voidblades spun in her hands, intercepting every blow with terrifying speed.
Even two-on-one, she held her own.
No—she dominated.
Kael's sword howled as it arced toward her chest, but Salena twisted mid-air, flipping over the strike and answering with a vicious slash. Neil lunged, red blade aiming for her side—but she deflected and spun backward, hovering just out of reach.
> Damn it… she's reading us, Neil thought, sweat mixing with blood on his brow.
Kael pivoted for a low strike—but Salena feinted. In a flash of black, her blade slipped past his guard.
Slash.
A deep cut carved across Kael's back. He staggered forward, teeth clenched, blood spraying.
"Kael!" Neil shouted, rage igniting.
He surged forward, blade blazing. Salena turned to meet him—but this time, he didn't aim to cut. He dropped low, spun, and with a burst of strength, drove his foot into her side.
Wham!
Salena flew, crashing into a broken concrete wall with a brutal thud. Dust exploded around her.
The battlefield stilled.
Kael dropped to one knee, clutching his wound, breath ragged. Neil stood guard, blade ready, chest heaving.
Then—movement.
From the rubble, Salena rose. Slow. Deliberate.
Her body floated above the cracked stone, blades in hand, eyes glowing with dark fire.
A smirk curled on her lips.
"You thought that was enough?" Her voice dripped with contempt. "I was holding back... for your sake."
The air trembled.
Void energy spiraled around her like a cocoon, her cloak disintegrating into swirling shadow. Her skin darkened, veins glowing violet. Horns began to form, curling back from her forehead like obsidian crowns. The voidblades twisted, merging into jagged, demonic scythes.
She spread her arms wide, voice resonating like thunder:
"Let me show you what a Queen of the Darvok really is."
And with a scream that cracked the sky—her transformation began.
Neil stepped back beside Kael, eyes locked on the storm of dark energy coiling around Salena. The air had turned heavy—thick with something ancient, something wrong.
Kael winced, straightening through the pain, his hand slick with blood from the gash on his back. "You seeing this?"
Neil's voice was low. Tense. "Yeah. And I wish I wasn't."
Salena's body floated higher, now unrecognizable—her skin obsidian, laced with glowing runes, her face twisted with regal wrath. Her eyes were no longer eyes—just burning void.
Kael narrowed his gaze, then spoke like someone remembering a half-forgotten nightmare.
"I've seen something like this… not in reality, but in the old war records. Myth fragments—classified files the EEDC never published."
Neil turned sharply to him. "You're saying this is in our archives?"
"Not human records," Kael said grimly. "Alien myth. Pre-Extinction Era—back when Earth was just one battleground among thousands. She's not just Awakened, Neil."
He swallowed.
"She's something older."
Neil's jaw clenched. "You're saying she's not one of us?"
Kael shook his head slowly. "She's Rakshasa."
That name hung in the air like a curse.
Neil felt his stomach drop. "I thought they were wiped out—sealed, gone."
"Some were," Kael muttered. "The rest… went quiet. Watching. Waiting."
A crack of thunder split the clouds above them as Salena opened her arms wide, wings of black flame unfurling behind her. Her voice echoed like it came from beneath the earth:
> "We were gods before your kind learned to crawl. And now, we return… to reclaim what was ours."
Neil took a slow breath, blade rising.