The battlefield was silent.
Not the silence of peace, nor the silence after victory. It was a silence born of dread — heavy, suffocating, alive. Ash floated lazily through the air, carried by a wind that smelled faintly of iron and decay. Black mist clung to the ground like a second skin, creeping through every crack and fissure in the scarred land.
Celestial Tempest stood in formation, bruised, battered, and gasping for breath. The waves of A-rank abyssal beasts had finally withdrawn, dissolving into smoke and tar after hours of relentless assault. Their bodies bore cuts and burns, their mana was nearly spent, and their spirits trembled on the edge of exhaustion. But none of them moved.
All eyes were locked on the haze ahead — on the shape that now stood within it.
A silhouette, faint and wavering, yet impossibly heavy. Every instinct screamed who it was, even if their minds refused to accept it.
Kairos.
Bolt floated slightly above the cracked ground, his boots hovering over molten stone, lightning crawling faintly along his arms and shoulders. His storm — once a blazing tempest — was dim now, little more than a whisper of the fury it had been hours before. Yet his gaze was steady, locked onto the figure that had emerged from the fog.
"That's him…" Ren breathed, voice trembling. "It has to be…"
Kaori swallowed hard, her spirit energy flaring nervously. "It is. But… something's wrong. That aura… it isn't just Kairos."
"What do you mean?" Darian asked, shifting into a defensive stance, water spiraling weakly around his hands.
Kaori's eyes narrowed as she focused on the shadowed figure. "It's layered. There's Kairos — buried deep — but something older, darker, is wrapped around him. It's using him."
Damian exhaled slowly, his own shadows curling tighter around his body like a cloak. "I've felt this before. That thing inside him… it isn't just darkness. It's hunger. Endless. Primeval."
Akane clenched her fists, fire flickering in her palms. "Then we burn it out. Whatever's controlling him, we'll rip it to shreds."
"No," Valea whispered, her usually radiant light dim and trembling. "This is beyond fire. Beyond darkness. Even beyond light. I've read fragments of prophecy that speak of this… a consciousness older than the stars. A will that devours creation."
Aether's eyes narrowed. "What will?"
Valea hesitated. Speaking the name felt like inviting it closer. But the truth had to be known. "The Abyssal Sovereign."
The name alone made the air colder. Even the wind — Aether's oldest ally — seemed to shy away from the battlefield.
Bolt's jaw tightened. He had seen that name once before, scrawled in a forbidden manuscript deep within the archives of the God of War. A being sealed beyond time itself, born before light, before order — a living void that once threatened the fabric of existence itself. And now…
It was here.
A low tremor rolled beneath their feet, followed by a faint hum in the air. Then, from within the swirling mist, a voice broke the silence.
"...Bolt…"
It was soft — a whisper more than a sound — but it carried with the weight of thunder.
The squad froze.
That voice was Kairos's. The tone, the cadence, even the faint trace of warmth that once defined him… but now twisted, hollow, distant.
"…You've come far."
Bolt's heart hammered in his chest. "Kairos… is that you?"
The figure took a step forward, and for the first time they saw him clearly.
It was Kairos — but not as they remembered. Abyssal chains coiled around his arms and chest, pulsing with violet-black energy. His eyes, once alive and warm, now glowed like dying stars, their light swallowed by an ocean of shadow. And around him, reality itself bent — space twisting in subtle ripples, like gravity itself bowed to his presence.
"I am what remains," he murmured, his voice echoing as if layered with something vast and ancient. "I am what was always meant to be."
"What the hell does that mean?" Akane snapped, stepping forward. "Are you Kairos or not?!"
Kairos's gaze drifted to her, not with anger but something worse — pity. "Kairos was a spark. A flicker in the dark. But sparks fade. Darkness endures."
The ground beneath them lurched, shifting like water. The sky dimmed, clouds shredding into ribbons as if devoured by some unseen force. Around them, the elemental forces they commanded faltered — Akane's fire guttered, Darian's water trembled, Aether's winds stalled.
"What's happening?!" Darian shouted, panic creeping into his voice. "The elements — they're refusing us!"
"They fear him," Kaori whispered, her aura quivering. "That thing inside Kairos… it's older than the elements themselves."
Bolt gritted his teeth, forcing lightning to crackle across his arms. "I don't care what he's become. We won't back down."
Kairos tilted his head slightly, the chains around him tightening. "Still clinging to defiance," he murmured. "Still chasing strength you do not understand."
The air screamed as a sigil of abyssal energy ignited beneath his feet. A pulse tore outward — not an attack, but a declaration. The very world seemed to hold its breath. And then, slowly, Kairos began to walk toward them.
Step by step.
Each footfall warped the ground, leaving behind patches of withering earth. The mist parted as he moved, as if bowing before something far greater than itself. His presence pressed down on them like the weight of the ocean, threatening to crush lungs and hearts alike.
Bolt floated forward, meeting his gaze head-on. "If you want to destroy this world, you'll have to go through me."
Kairos stopped a few paces away. The faintest hint of a smile curved his lips — not kind, not cruel. Simply inevitable. "You mistake me, Bolt. I have no need to destroy this world."
"Then what do you want?" Sylva asked softly, stepping beside Bolt despite the terror in her chest.
Kairos's eyes drifted skyward. "I want to unmake the lie that binds it. I want to strip the illusion of order from chaos." His gaze returned to them. "I want to show you what it means to exist without the cage of light."
Akane flared with fire again. "Then we'll stop you before you even start!"
Kairos regarded her quietly, and for the briefest moment, something human flickered in his eyes — sorrow, maybe even regret. Then it was gone. "You cannot stop what has already begun."
A second pulse rolled outward, stronger than before. Cracks snaked through the ground, and the black mist began to churn violently. The abyss stirred, alive and hungry. Even the air trembled with the weight of his presence.
Bolt's lightning surged. "We're not afraid of you."
"You should be." Kairos's voice dropped to a whisper, but it carried through the chaos like a blade through silk. "Because the storm is coming. And it will not be yours to command."
Then, as if his work here was done, he turned away. One step back into the mist. Then another.
"Wait!" Bolt shouted, launching forward. "Face us, Kairos! Don't run from this!"
Kairos paused at the edge of the fog, his back to them. "I am not running. I am waiting."
And then he was gone. Swallowed by the mist. Vanished as if he had never been there at all.
Silence reclaimed the field.
The squad stood unmoving, the weight of what had just happened crushing them more than any battle ever had. The elements remained quiet, subdued, almost frightened. The ground still hummed with abyssal residue.
Ren was the first to speak. "He's not the same. That's not Kairos anymore."
Sylva hugged herself, shivering. "It's part of him. But something else is driving that body now."
"And it's stronger than all of us combined," Damian muttered.
Kaori's voice was quiet but steady. "This was a warning. He wasn't trying to kill us. He was showing us what's coming."
Bolt stared into the mist where Kairos had vanished. His hands shook — not from fear, but from the pressure of the storm building inside him. "Then we prepare," he said, his voice low but unwavering. "We grow stronger. We dig deeper. We find out what's inside him — and how to rip it out."
"And if we can't?" Ren asked.
Bolt's lightning flared, his eyes burning with defiance. "Then we'll break the impossible. Like we always have."
The wind shifted, carrying with it the scent of smoke and something older — something not meant for this world. The battle had ended, but none of them felt victorious. Because they all knew the truth:
This was only the beginning.
Far beyond the veil of mist, deeper than any mortal eye could see, Kairos stood at the heart of the abyss. Tendrils of void energy coiled around him like living chains, pulsing in time with his heartbeat. The abyss whispered to him, ancient and infinite.
And as he opened his eyes, the darkness stirred.
"The storm gathers," he murmured, a faint, almost tender smile ghosting across his lips. "And when it breaks… they will know despair."