The battlefield shuddered as molten veins split the earth, smoke rising like ghosts through shattered stone.
Kaen's breath came ragged blood dripping down his lip, sizzling as it hit the burning ground.
He wiped it away with the back of his hand, smirking despite the pain.
"Heh… still stronger, huh?" His voice rasped, cracked from the heat.
He looked up at Khael, the one standing calm amid chaos, crimson Shinrei pulsing faintly behind him.
"Then let's do this, Khael. You and me."
Khael's eyes, cold but steady, met his. For a moment, there was silence then, a slow exhale.
He nodded once.
"Looks like I have no choice…"
His boots ground into the molten stone, the air thickening as his Shinrei shifted from azure calm to something deeper, older, alive.
"The form I forged… the one I honed for three long years beneath the breath of the storm."
Wind spiraled around him, carving sigils into the ground.
