One Death, One PowerChapter 19 – The God of Judgment Descends
They stood atop the glassy cliffs of the Crimson Shardlands, three souls reborn from ruin.
Elyos, the once-dead creator of the cheat code system.
Kairen, the sky-wielder, torn between loyalty and rage.
Nareth, the Deathless One, carrying centuries of despair.
Valen stood a few steps behind them—watching, calculating, adapting. Still human, yet more than she'd ever known she could be.
Above them, the air split with a deafening roar.Velst the Decayer, god of Judgment, descended in a cascade of gold fire and molten ash.
He towered above mortal shape. His form shimmered between armor and rotting bone, face hidden behind a thousand-eyed mask. Chains of soulsteel coiled behind him like serpents, bound to the sins of mortals long judged.
"Elyos," Velst's voice rang, not from his mouth but from the air itself."Twice you have died. Twice you have broken the cycle.""There shall not be a third."
Elyos stepped forward. Calm. Unafraid.
"I don't need a third. Two was enough to remember who I am."
⚖️ Divine Law: The Verdict Flame
Velst was not a war god. He was a judge.
He did not attack for sport—he delivered sentences.
From the moment he arrived, he read their sins.
Kairen: Abandonment of comrades.
Nareth: Sacrilege by denying final death.
Valen: Blood guilt through unatoned murder.
Elyos: Creation of a system that defies divine order.
Velst raised a hand. One finger.
A Verdict Flame burst forth.
Everything it touched would be judged. Not by power—but by truth.
"Stand down," he said."Or be unmade."
🌍 Character Moment: Valen's Stand
Valen stepped forward.
"You call yourself justice, but you've never stood where we did.""You never felt what it's like to die helpless and come back chained."
Velst turned. The eye-masks on his body all looked at her.
"You are a speck in eternity," he said."Your soul does not carry weight enough for defiance."
"Then weigh this," she whispered.
She threw a dagger etched with Nareth's soul code.
It shattered on impact—but momentarily blinded one of Velst's masks.
A mortal had landed a blow.
And the god paused.
Elyos seized the moment.
He activated a forbidden glyph—one not written into the cheat system, but into the very fabric of his soul.
"Mirror Chain – Echo of Power: Nareth, Kairen, Elyos."
The glyph split. Three fragments shot outward.
One struck Kairen.One struck Nareth.One remained in Elyos.
They linked.
Soul resonance.
Now, for the first time since the fall… the Mirrorborn fought as one.
The battle was not balanced.
Velst's chains struck with the weight of cosmic law, each one targeting a core sin or weakness. Kairen nearly fell from a guilt-induced paralysis. Nareth began remembering all his past lives at once, his mind fracturing.
But Elyos—Elyos endured.
He carried guilt.He carried knowledge.But he had already died for both.
Velst struck him directly.
And Elyos stood.
"You are broken," Velst said."Incomplete."
"Wrong," Elyos replied."I'm focused. One life. One power. One truth."
He slammed both hands together—channeling the cheat-code's full release, for the first time.
A black halo erupted behind him—not holy, not evil.Just absolute.
🌌 Revelation: The Goddess's True Purpose
As Velst faltered, as divine law trembled, a second light appeared above the battlefield.
Not gold.
Not flame.
Moonlight.
The Goddess who summoned Riku appeared again—but this time, her form fractured slightly, like a porcelain statue filled with cracks of starlight.
"I told you you were different," she said."But I never told you why."
Elyos turned, surprised. "Then tell me now."
She spoke, but only he heard:
"You were not summoned……you were recalled."
And then she vanished.
Velst, bleeding divine ichor, fell to one knee. "This world is not yours to judge."
"It never was," Elyos said."But I'm done obeying."
He looked down at the Verdict Flame—and consumed it.
Not destroyed.
Integrated.
Now, his soul didn't just break the system.
It rewrote it.
End of Chapter 19