Chapter 22: The Lord of the Titans
The temple loomed like a slumbering god.
Black stone spires curved into the sky, crowned with silver chains that clinked faintly in the wind. Each step toward it felt heavier, as if the air thickened with unseen chains of fate.
The doors were colossal—twenty meters tall, carved with constellations that twisted and rearranged themselves under Keal's gaze. The moment his palm touched the cold stone… they opened on their own.
The sound was like the grinding of mountains.
Inside, there was only darkness. The air smelled of ozone and something older, like dust that had never known sunlight. They walked forward in silence, the sound of their boots echoing through the endless chamber.
Then, the darkness moved.
Two pinpricks of light appeared—no, not light. Eyes. Eyes like collapsing stars.
A voice, deep enough to rattle their bones, spoke without sound.
"Child of the Rift… you finally step into my domain."
A shape stepped forward, and the shadows clung to it like armor. The being was titanic, even by giant standards—fifty meters tall, its frame wrapped in living black steel. Chains of silver and starlight draped from its shoulders, each one pulsing with runes.
This was no ordinary Titan. This was Vaelgor, Lord of the Eternal City.
"We're not here to bow," Keal said, his voice calm, but his cosmic eyes were already burning.
"Bow?" Vaelgor laughed, the sound splitting the air like thunder. "No… you are here to be tested. And broken."
The floor exploded beneath the Titan's first step. He vanished.
Keal's instincts screamed. He barely shifted dimensions in time as Vaelgor's fist struck where he'd stood—shattering the stone into dust. The shockwave hurled Astrili, Selvaria, and Nyx back into the air. Myros slammed his staff down, summoning a wall of skeletal giants to intercept, but Vaelgor's second strike annihilated them instantly.
Keal reappeared above the Titan, fist glowing with condensed dimensional energy. He struck downward, the impact tearing a hole in space itself.
Vaelgor didn't even flinch. His hand shot upward, catching Keal mid-strike, and slamming him into the floor hard enough to crater it.
"You bend dimensions," Vaelgor rumbled. "But I bend the truth those dimensions are built on."
The world flickered. For a heartbeat, Keal was no longer in the temple—he was falling through an endless void, stars shattering around him like glass. He bit his tongue hard enough to taste blood, forcing his consciousness back into reality.
Astrili unleashed a cascade of golden spears from the sky, each one exploding with divine light. Vaelgor swung his chained arm, the silver links spinning into a shield that deflected them all.
Nyx lunged from the shadows, twin blades aimed at the Titan's spine, but Vaelgor twisted impossibly fast for his size, catching her by the throat. He squeezed, shadows burning away under his grip—until Selvaria's daggers sliced across his wrist, forcing him to drop her.
Myros snarled, pouring his will into the floor. The corpses of the fallen Sub-Titans outside answered his call, crashing into the chamber like an undead tide.
For the first time, Vaelgor's eyes narrowed.
Keal pulled himself up, breathing hard. His cosmic eyes sharpened, trying to find the Titan's weakness—but Vaelgor was right. The giant wasn't bound to the laws of this dimension. His presence bent reality around him.
Which meant Keal had to go further.
He closed his eyes.
The sounds of battle dimmed. His awareness stretched—not just through space, but through possibility. He saw himself striking. He saw himself dying. He saw a thousand timelines, a million outcomes.
And then… he saw something beyond all of them.
A place outside the weave of fate.
When he opened his eyes again, they weren't just glowing—they were bleeding light.
Vaelgor's chains lashed out, but Keal didn't dodge. He stepped sideways—not into another dimension, but into an outer layer of reality itself. The chains passed through him like smoke.
His fist clenched, wrapped in an aura that wasn't energy, or flame, or shadow—it was pure denial of existence.
[Skill Unlocked: Reality Sever]
Effect: Your strike exists beyond the concept of 'possible.' Anything it touches is severed from reality itself.
Keal moved.
To the others, he seemed to vanish completely—not with speed, but because their minds couldn't hold the sight of his movement.
He reappeared at Vaelgor's chest. His fist connected.
There was no sound. No impact. The space between Keal's knuckles and Vaelgor's armor simply ceased to exist—and so did everything in its path.
Half of Vaelgor's chest dissolved into nothingness, chains unraveling into silver dust.
The Titan roared—not in pain, but in recognition.
"Yes… YES! That is the power I sought to awaken!"
The battle exploded into chaos.
Vaelgor's swings tore the room apart, collapsing whole pillars in a single blow. Astrili's divine light lit the chamber like a newborn sun, searing molten cracks into his armor. Nyx's shadows bound the giant's legs, slowing him just enough for Selvaria to carve through glowing veins.
Keal appeared and disappeared at impossible angles, each Reality Sever strike ripping chunks out of the Titan's form—not with force, but with erasure.
Still, Vaelgor fought on. Even as half his body unraveled into stardust, he pushed forward, every blow carrying the weight of worlds.
Finally, Keal gathered his power for one last strike—compressing all of Reality Sever into a single point.
"Fall."
He thrust forward.
The point of contact expanded into a spiral of unmaking, swallowing the Titan's core. Vaelgor froze. The light in his eyes flickered… then went out.
His body collapsed into silver chains, which shattered into starlight and faded into the dark.
The silence that followed was heavy.
Astrili floated down beside Keal, her eyes still wide.
"What… was that?"
"Something I wasn't supposed to touch yet," Keal said, his voice low. "But he forced me to."
Myros glanced at the fading chains.
"If that's what you can do now… then the Third Zone won't be ready for us."
Keal didn't answer. His eyes were still glowing—not with power, but with the faint reflection of a place beyond reality… a place that was now watching him back.