The battlefield didn’t wait.

  Kaelis was already moving, his body twisting at unnatural angles, his bde-arm carving through the first goblin before it could even swing. The explosion of red and bck energy sent chunks of flesh and shattered bone across the dirt, the shockwave sending a nearby orc staggering back, roaring in fury.

  “WE MOVE TOGETHER!” Gromrak’s voice bellowed, his fist smashing the earth, sending an order through the ranks. “Don’t split up! He’s a formidable foe!”

  The orcs and goblins responded instantly, moving like a single, monstrous organism.

  A group of Sand Kenda goblins surged forward, their spears infused with the Kenda, shimmering like liquid gss, cutting through the air with razor-sharp precision. The sand in their weapons shifted mid-strike, reshaping itself into serrated edges and hooked barbs, making every swing impossible to predict.

  Kaelis dove low, his body flipping forward, his spine bending in a way no human should be able to, vaulting over an incoming give. He nded on all fours, his bde ripping upward—and in a fsh, a goblin’s entire chest cavity burst apart, molten gss pouring from the wound as its own weapon turned against it, shattering inside its ribs.

  “Hahaha!” Kaelis ughed.

  Another orc came from behind, wielding a war club infused with Mud Kenda, the massive weapon already glistening with corrosive sludge. It swung with the force of an avanche, but Kaelis caught it—

  With his bare hand.

  The sludge should have eaten through his flesh—but his own demonic energy fought back, strings of power sinking into the corrupted mud, turning it unstable. The orc’s eyes widened—

  Then Kaelis ripped the club from its grasp and shoved it down its throat.

  The orc screamed, the Mud Kenda backfiring, dissolving its own jaws, throat, lungs from the inside out, leaving behind nothing but a gurgling, colpsing husk.

  Kaelis was already gone, moving to his next kill.

  Then a voice rang out in his head, a familiar one, saying, “See? You already seem to be taking on my personality, human.”

  Kaelis grinned, replying, “I don’t care if it’s just for this moment, I’m gd you’re not possessing me.”

  “Ahh. Look at you. At this point, would there even be a difference? You’re already going crazy, killing without hesitation, when you’re first ever kill traumatized you, and still is.”

  “Shut up. I know what you’re doing.”

  Ogra burst through the ranks, yelling, “I’m taking the charge!”her dual greatswords reforging mid-swing, the shattered edges melting and reshaping in seconds thanks to their Metal Kenda enchantments. Her attacks were like a storm of fshing steel, too fast, too powerful, her strikes capable of cleaving through boulders.

  A goblin excimed to her, “Be careful! That brat can twist and move his body weirdly! He’s unpredictable!”

  “Mhm!”

  Kaelis dodged by inverting his body, his torso twisting to the side unnaturally, his legs kicking off an orc’s helmet to reposition mid-air. His bde-arm caught the edge of Ogra’s first sword, and for a brief moment, their energies cshed—her Metal-infused steel grinding against his red and bck destruction.

  The second sword came from below.

  Kaelis let it come.

  Instead of dodging, he let the bde run through his stomach, the steel carving a path straight through his gut.

  Ogra grinned in triumph—“Ha! I-I got em’! Fucking brat! Everyone charge!”

  Until Kaelis grabbed the bde’s edge with both hands, ripping it deeper into himself before snapping the bde in half with sheer force.

  Ogra barely had time to react before Kaelis grabbed her by the face, his thumb sinking into her eye socket, and smmed her into the dirt hard enough to crater the ground beneath them.

  “You still got me?!” Kaelis smiled.

  The goblins retaliated instantly, working in perfect unison, a squad of warriors shifting their weapons into fractured prisms made out of crystal, bending light to create illusionary clones of themselves, masking their real positions.

  “Break his focus!”

  Kaelis’ red eyes gleamed.

  He lunged through the nearest goblin, stabbing forward—

  And missed.

  The goblins cackled, darting in and out of the battlefield, sshing at him from multiple directions, their illusions phasing in and out, their real bodies attacking from blind spots that shouldn’t exist.

  Gromrak ughed, “We didn’t pilge hundreds of warriors and steal their artifacts and weapons of Kenda to lose to a little boy, keep applying pressure!”

  Kaelis grinned through the pain as multiple daggers pierced into him.

  Then, he moved. Not to attack, but to bite. His teeth sank into a goblin’s shoulder, crushing straight through flesh and bone, ripping its arm clean off. The goblin shrieked, its illusions flickering from the sheer shock of pain—

  And that was all Kaelis needed.

  He ripped the goblin’s severed arm free, still holding the crystalline dagger in its grip, and hurled it into another goblin’s skull.

  The remaining goblins broke formation, realizing their strategy was useless.

  But they were already too te.

  Kaelis rushed forward, using his own severed dagger wounds as a means to maneuver, his body twisting unnaturally, his torso snapping sideways at an inhuman angle, allowing him to dodge two more bdes before crushing a goblin’s throat beneath his heel with a spinning kick.

  The voice inside of him spoke again, “You're enjoying this aren’t you? The joy of feeling strong? The joy of feeling like you’re on top of your obstacles? Even without me taking over, you still act like this?”

  “I ugh for a different reason, you don’t know me. I’m happy I’m not being tormented while I fight.”

  “Yeah? You’re tormenting them, though?”

  “That’s because if I don’t stop them, they’ll cause trouble. More blood will be on my hands…and I don’t want that again.”

  “Yet, you haven’t realized that the woman we’re with could stop them easily. She’s powerful. Near the end of the war I’ve seen her during the war, ripping through my legion of demons. Even when I wanted to get to her, I couldn’t because of her father. And as we all destroyed each other…she was left standing. Alongside with others who may or may not have survived.”

  “Tch. No shit she’s strong.”

  “Yet you blindly trust her, doing whatever she says, you’re like a dog. She cannot be trusted.”

  “Of course you say that. She’s a Demi-goddess, a daughter to a god you fought and killed. And why would I take any advice from someone like you? I wanted you out of me, and dead. And she wants the same thing. Seems like we can be friends.”

  “You think I wanted to choose you? I did, but that’s not the point. And besides, you just met her ten seconds ago. Whatever song note or whatever she spouted about could be the ruin of all of you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Scrag the Starved, watching from afar, finally moved, his grimoire bursting open, his pages flipping violently as they drew up a spell made up of pure salt.

  He snickered to himself, “I’ll crush hi-I’ll catch him off guard! He’s strong, yes. But he can't beat all of us.”

  Kaelis turned just as the ground beneath him dried into brittle husks of dead earth, the very moisture in the air being leeched away, his lungs burning, his body weakening.

  Salt Kenda—a curse upon flesh itself.

  Kaelis staggered for a half-second.

  ‘Shit…

  But that was all Scrag needed.

  The goblin dove forward, his skeletal fingers tching onto Kaelis’ exposed wounds, the magic pulling the blood from his body, drying his veins, leaving his skin cracked and shriveling.

  Kaelis ughed.

  A deep, guttural, primal ugh.

  Scrag’s eyes widened.

  “You…”

  Kaelis’ horns pulsed with energy, his veins surging, his muscles reconstituting themselves in seconds.

  Then, he grabbed Scrag’s entire lower jaw—

  And ripped it from his face.

  The goblin screamed through torn flesh, his tongue flopping uselessly, blood spurting like a geyser.

  Kaelis shoved his arm bde through Scrag’s gut, his voice low, guttural.

  “Thanks…”

  Scrag exploded from the inside out, his entire torso liquefying into a pulpy mess, his remaining limbs colpsing lifelessly into the dirt.

  The voice said to Kaelis, “You've let the power get to your head, fool. Who are you really fighting against?”

  Kaelis’s smile faltered, but then he smiled again. Saying, “Because when I used this power before, I felt like I was being ripped apart from the inside out. Feels good to be strong and not be crushed by something controlling me at the same time.”

  “I know you, boy. Telling the half truth of someone bound to your soul is pretty crazy.”

  “Bound to me..?”

  The remaining orcs and goblins stood frozen, their bodies trembling as Kaelis rose from the carnage, covered in blood and ichor, his smile wide, his body thrumming with unholy power.

  Nyxa’s harp continued to py.

  Slow.

  Soft.

  Almost… sad.

  Kaelis exhaled, and he rushed towards them with his bde, ripping through their ranks.

  Kaelis exhaled, the scent of blood thick in the air, his every muscle pulsing with raw energy, his limbs aching with the remnants of battle. Yet despite the carnage surrounding him, the bodies of the fallen strewn like discarded scraps, he could only feel one thing—satisfaction. His chest rose and fell steadily, his fingers twitching as he slowly clenched his fist, the st wisps of red and bck energy flickering from his bde. He had done it. Even if the berserk state still cwed at the back of his mind, whispering in its endless hunger, it hadn’t consumed him this time. He was in control. Even if it was temporary. Even if the next battle might be different.

  The voice said to him, “I’m bound to your soul. If you remove me, then you die.”

  “Stop trying to warp my head around stuff I don’t understand! I can’t trust a literal demon god or whatever you are with my decisions!”

  “How do you think I know your name? Your emotions? You ughed during the battle because you felt what it meant to be stronger than what’s trying to take you down. Isn’t that what you went through in your old world? But in that case before, you were taken down by your problems over and over, and even though you yearned to be stronger and outwit them, your little young ass got too comfortable with being weak, and enjoyed the temporary pleasures. You joke around and act all edgy to hide your real emotions. I too went through it.”

  “…You don’t know me..”

  “Ahh. Too embarrassed to admit it. Lying about how rich you were on earth to some cat and crow? Eventually, you’ll need me to help you kill this Nyxa woman. She’s no good. And you’ll need my power to help you kill gods and enemies alike. The remnants of the gods that purge Kalhal…it will be used in ways you don’t understand.”

  “Stop talking to me. I don’t trust you. You just don’t want her to break you outta me, ya scared?”

  “If you’re dead, I can’t live, foolish white haired human brat! And I have an agenda with you. Don’t you remember me telling you, you need to learn to control that power of mine? To bring out it’s full potential—.”

  SHIIING!

  The Runic Halo over Kaelis’ head shimmered, drowning out the demon gods voice.

  And Kaelis sat there, thinking, ‘He can’t be right. He has every reason to lie to me, especially after the hell he put me through. Nyxa is an ancient enemy of this bastard, who seems to be good. She even told me she wanted to kill the Apostles, the ones who basically rule Kalhal. But for him to know me emotionally…could he really be connected to my soul..? I don’t want that to be true…’

  He turned to Nyxa, who remained floating just above the carnage, her harp humming idly beneath her fingertips, her expression unreadable. Kaelis tilted his head at her, raising a brow. “You see that?” His voice was smug, dripping with self-satisfaction.

  Nyxa merely chuckled in response, plucking a slow, mocking note that echoed through the battlefield like a ghost’s whisper. “You were bothered, weren’t you?”

  “Yeah. You noticed?”

  “Mhm.”

  Kaelis, now curious, thought, ‘It was strange…how she knew exactly where these orcs and goblins were. If she knew about them, why didn’t she take them down herself? Does she even fight? She has to. Unless she’s been watching me? Waiting for me to end up in a fucked up state so she could use me for her little Runic Song?’

  The he heard it. Another voice, but unfamiliar. Faint. Wet with death. His gaze snapped toward a dying orc, a battle-worn warrior barely clinging to life, his massive hands trembling as they gripped a battered, rune-etched grimoire, its pages curling from the blood seeping into them. The orc’s lips moved sluggishly, his breath rattling in his chest as he muttered something in deep, ancient orcish, the sylbles grinding against the air like stone scraping against steel. The words felt wrong, uncomfortable, as if they weren’t meant to be spoken by anything that still lived. Kaelis narrowed his eyes, unable to understand the nguage, but feeling the weight of it coil through the air like a curse given form.

  Then—just before the orc’s final breath—he spoke a single word.

  “Gromm.”

  The orc slumped, lifeless.

  Silence fell over the battlefield.

  Then the world shook.

  ‘Something’s coming…’ Kaelis thought.

  Instantly, the ground split apart, jagged fractures tearing through the earth like the ripping of flesh, a deep, guttural rumble rising from below, a noise so primal and vast it felt as though the nd itself was growling in defiance. Kaelis’ body tensed instinctively as the corpses of the fallen began to rise, their remains twisting, spiraling upward in an unnatural cyclone of limbs and shattered bone, their forms merging and unraveling in a grotesque, pulsing mass of color and entropy. He could only watch, transfixed in something between awe and disgust, as the very air around them rippled, distorted by the sheer magnitude of whatever was forcing itself into existence.

  And then, he emerged.

  Towering. Unstoppable. Gromm.

  He was no longer merely orc or goblin—he was something else entirely. His body was a fusion of divine energy and raw demonic power, a being pulled together by unnatural forces, given shape through power that should not belong to him. Eighteen feet of pure, overwhelming might, his form covered in jagged battle-worn armor that seemed fused to his very flesh, his five arms outstretched, each gripping an artifact of immense power. His head was grey and dark green, with dark bck tattoos on his head in the shape of bear paws, his teeth sharp and they were tattooed as well, his hair was long, red, and in dreadlock style, and his eyes glowed a bright orange color.

  His presence alone was suffocating, the very air thickening, pressing down like an unseen weight upon the battlefield. Above him, a monolithic spirit loomed, its form a swirling mass of green and brown, something ancient and unknowable, a remnant of a god long since forgotten.

  Kaelis felt it before he even saw the movement.

  “What…no way that’s the real Gromm, right?”

  One second, he was standing tall, ready to fight. He dashed forward with a grin, “Doesn’t matter! I’m—!”

  The next—his body was split in half.

  It was instant. No warning, no motion. One moment, he was whole—the next, his torso was severed, his lower half flung in one direction while his upper half was hurled violently across the battlefield.

  Pain. Real pain.

  He hit the ground hard, tumbling like a ragdoll, his own blood spraying across the dirt in thick, uneven sections. His mind barely had time to register the sensation before another force took hold—a crushing, inescapable weight, pinning him down, keeping his two halves separated, his body refusing to stitch itself back together. Kaelis gasped, his breathing shallow, his fingers cwing into the earth as the realization hit him.

  “AGHHH!” Kaelis yelled.

  ‘He’s stopping me from regenerating..?’

  Gromm the warlord hadn’t even moved. Hadn’t needed to. It was his Gravity Kenda, coming from a weapon in his hand—the unseen force that kept Kaelis in pce, stretching the space between his halves, ensuring that his body would remain broken. He was being pulled apart at the very fabric of his being.

  A low growl rumbled in Kaelis’ throat, his bloodied fingers digging deeper into the dirt. His vision swam, his mind burning, his breath quickening as the shadows in his soul coiled and surged, the hunger creeping in. This time, he wasn’t fighting it. This time, he wanted it.

  “Oh..? Now you want me to possess you?” The voice in his head spoke.

  “Tch…it hurts…”

  “Should’ve listened to me.”

  His bck veins pulsed, his horn grew thicker, his energy crackling in resistance against the gravitational force keeping him pinned. The halo over his head flickered violently, Nyxa’s song still clinging to him, still trying to hold the berserk state back. But Kaelis was done resisting. His lips curled, his eyes darkening, his teeth gritted in something between agony and ecstasy.

  “I don’t care…I can’t lose!”

  ‘Losing..my worst fear. Lost too many times already, don’t wanna lose anymore..’

  Nyxa finally descended, her harp still pying, her voice smooth and calm as she spoke. “I pity you,” she mused, her golden eyes flickering as she regarded Gromm with detached amusement. The warlord’s massive head tilted slightly, an acknowledgment, but not an immediate response. Nyxa’s smile remained as she floated before him. “You let your own underlings make you into a familiar. That’s what this is, isn’t it? A desperate grasp for power? To be something more than what you were?”

  Gromm finally spoke, and his voice was an earthquake given sound, ancient and reverberating, yered with countless voices as if he was more than just one entity. “Mm,” he hummed in a deep, knowing tone, before his gaze fixed on her. “Demi-goddess. Of the god of harmony and song. I remember you from the battlefield..”

  Nyxa merely tilted her head, plucking another note.

  “And you,” Gromm rumbled, “are nothing more than a lingering note. A song unfinished.”

  Silence stretched between them for a moment before Nyxa chuckled softly. “Perhaps,” she murmured, strumming another delicate chord, letting it echo across the broken battlefield. “But at least I was meant to exist.”

  Gromm’s aura darkened, his artifacts humming, the weapons in his grasp thrumming with contained devastation, the very ground beneath them trembling under his presence.

  Nyxa exhaled, tapping her fingers gently against the frame of her harp. “Orcs and goblins,” she continued, her voice light, almost disappointed. “Borrowing power from ancient relics, using the weapons of greater beings that fell from divine warriors during the war. You are able to wield them all at once—a talent, truly.” She let out a breath, her fingers dragging across the strings, weaving a melody both haunting and gentle. “But that’s all you have, isn’t it?”

  Another note.

  “You have no power of your own. You stole power first, so your underlings do the same to this day. Even after hundreds of years. Embarrassing. It’s tragic…the very few who survived the war, wandering about out there…had to survive with you in their ranks of the ones who endured. You should’ve died then.”

  Another note.

  “You are a mistake.” Nyxa continued.

  Nyxa finally lifted her head fully, and her hood fell, revealing the full radiance of her presence. Bright golden eyes, glowing like celestial embers. Soft white hair, cascading in a perfect braid, untouched by the filth of battle. Bck veins trailing beneath her eyes, a cursed inheritance, an eternal reminder of what she was.

  With a single, elegant motion, she plucked one final note.

  “You’re nothing.”

  The battlefield vanished.

  Kaelis’ vision was swallowed by light.

  When it returned, they were somewhere else entirely.

  A vast, endless realm of pure white.

  Notes drifted through the air like glowing embers, and a soft, peaceful melody surrounded them, weaving through existence itself.

  Nyxa smiled.

  “Now,” she whispered. “Shall we begin?”

  Gromm nodded, “I should’ve killed you back then..”

  “You got your chance to make up for that mistake.”

  Kaelis watched, still separated by the gravity, gritting his teeth in pain.

  ‘I see it now…I can regenerate, but there’s a fault in it. If something keeps me from regenerating, magic or not, then it’ll be treated as a regur fatal wound! I really thought my regeneration was broken! I can't lose here, not like this! Not when I haven’t even made Espen at least chuckle one fucking time. While Nyxa and Gromm are murdering each other, I have to get out of this…but how?!’

  The first strike was a whisper.

  The second was a storm.

  Nyxa’s fingers danced across the harpstrings, and the world she crafted obeyed her command. Her melody was neither loud nor overpowering—it was sharp, delicate, precise, like a bde gliding across the throat of reality itself.

  Gromm reacted instantly. The moment her fingers touched the strings, he unched forward, swinging the Titan’s Judgement, his colossal war axe forged from the bones of the first giants, capable of twisting gravity itself with every swing. The moment the bde cleaved through the air, the pressure shifted violently, forcing the entire battlefield to tilt toward him, making Nyxa slide forward into the axe’s trajectory.

  But she was already countering.

  “Precious, indeed.”

  Her right hand plucked a note—Resonance of Defiance.

  The very air around her tensed, locked, and reversed. The unnatural pull that sought to drag her into death’s embrace was unraveled, the space around her settling in an instant, making it seem as though Gromm’s gravitational force had never existed at all.

  “You allowed yourself to be pulled into my symphony, my world of song. You won’t win.” Nyxa said calmly.

  Gromm’s red eyes narrowed.

  ‘She’s not just nullifying my attacks, he thought. She’s redirecting it into her own movements.’

  Gromm adjusted, his second arm unsheathing the Fang of Rot, a dagger kissed by the lips of dying gods, its bde exhaling a green mist of death. With a simple flick of his wrist, he sshed at nothing, sending a near-invisible arc of necrotic poison coiling through the air, seeking any open wound or breath to infect: any breath or wound it touches, it clings onto it.

  Nyxa’s fingers glided effortlessly across her harpstrings—Reverberation Waltz.

  The very sound of the dagger twisting through the air became a weapon against itself, the poison mist suddenly spiraling backward, compressing into a solid sphere, before violently bursting in Gromm’s face.

  The warlord snarled as his cheek and upper torso began to rot away instantly, the flesh dissolving into darkened veins and exposed muscle.

  That wasn’t just a deflection.

  She trapped the attack inside its own sound.

  Gromm didn’t hesitate.

  He brought forth the Bck Hole Rosary, an ancient relic forged from colpsed stars, worn around his thick wrist. With a snap of his fingers, a singurity bloomed into existence behind Nyxa, the overwhelming force threatening to drag her into oblivion.

  She tilted her head, her fingers brushing across her harp—Echo’s Banishment.

  The singurity colpsed on itself.

  Gone.

  Just like that.

  Kaelis, fighting hard to fight against the gravity to tch his body together, gritting his teeth, his bones cracking due to the pressure, screamed as he finally grabbed hold of it, slowly moving because of the force of power.

  Now free from his split-body prison, clenched his fists as he watched the battle unfold. His breathing was sharp, his muscles tense, sweat mixing with blood as he analyzed every movement, every counter, every exchange. His mind raced.

  ‘Gromm isn’t just brute force. He’s learning as he fights. He’s adjusting. Changing tempo. Adapting. But Nyxa—She’s not just countering. She’s controlling the tempo of the fight itself. She’s making it so that no matter what he does, it pys into her hands. This wasn’t just a battle. It was a duet.’

  Gromm’s war axe came down in a devastating crescent, and at the same time, his fifth arm raised, palm open—the Veil of Ruin, a force that could decompose anything over time, surged forward in a st-ditch effort to erase her harp itself..

  “If I can’t beat you, I’ll take away your weapon!” Gromm excimed.

  Nyxa’s fingers didn’t hesitate.

  She plucked one note.

  And suddenly, Gromm was no longer holding his weapons.

  His axe, his dagger, his relics—all vanished.

  Kaelis gasped.

  No—they were still there, but they were silent. Their power, the song of battle and camity within them, had been muted.

  Kaelis’ eyes widened. “She… she just silenced the magic inside them?”

  Gromm growled. His fingers flexed, his grip tightening around the now-powerless Titan’s Judgment. “Clever.”

  Nyxa smiled. “I know.”

  Gromm’s nostrils fred, his massive legs tensing beneath him.

  Then—he moved.

  For the first time, he charged with nothing but his own body, Kaelis barely registered the movement. One moment, Gromm was standing still.

  The next—he was upon her.

  His sheer momentum cracked the air, his bare fists swinging like an avanche, his brute force far beyond anything mortal. This was no longer a battle of magic and relics, this was war.

  ‘No matter the magic I throw at her, as long as I’m in this world of hers…this dreadful symphony, she has the advantage! That harp of hers, she can manipute power itself, as long as you’re not trapped in her world, but going in with brute force..with my sheer power, even she’ll have trouble trying to contain it!’

  Nyxa watched him approach, her eyes calm.

  Then—

  Gromm pierced her chest.

  His fist, still wrapped around his useless bde, plunged through her ribcage, her body jerking from the sheer force of impact. Blood spttered across the battlefield, a red mist painting the air.

  Kaelis froze. “Nyxa…?”

  ‘Why did she let him stab her?! Can she regenerate like me?’

  For the first time—Nyxa bled.

  Her lips parted, a soft gasp escaping her throat. A cough, followed by a sptter of crimson dripping from her mouth.

  Gromm snarled, “You got too arrogant for your own good, Demi-goddess. You being the daughter of a powerful god that's fallen filled your head with false fantasies of victory over a corrupt mistake like myself. My people..weren’t meant to live like this. We were supposed to change the tide of the war. We were supposed to live like kings and queens once Kalhal was formed! But even being mistakes on the field of war, let us become mistakes in Kalhal. This world wasn’t meant to be formed from the corpses of gods and demons, but of the gods hand crafted creation.”

  “Yeah..like you.”

  And in that moment, her fingers moved.

  A single note rang through the battlefield.

  A single sound.

  Soft. Gentle.

  Then—

  Gromm’s chest exploded.

  Not just a wound.

  His entire torso ripped apart in a violent eruption of blood, bone, and raw energy, his body caving inward as his insides shredded themselves. The warlord’s mouth opened in a silent scream, his massive form jerking, convulsing, his movements mirroring Nyxa’s wound.

  Kaelis stared in shock.

  “He stabbed her first…” His voice was barely above a whisper. His eyes flicked to Nyxa, then to Gromm, then back again. His mind put the pieces together, the realization smming into him like a hammer.

  “As soon as she pyed the note—” he swallowed hard, “—the wound he did to her happened to him a hundred times over.”

  ‘She really is strong..’

  Nyxa let out a slow breath, her head tilting slightly as she met Gromm’s eyes, his once-monstrous presence now faltering. His knees buckled, his strength failing.

  “Mm,” she hummed softly, her bloodied lips curling into a faint smile. “Music is powerful, isn’t it?”

  Gromm’s remaining arm twitched. His mouth opened, but no words came out. His knees finally gave way.

  And he colpsed.

  The warlord of the fallen orcs and goblins, the towering monster who had once defied death itself—Lay broken in the silence of her final note.

  ….

  Kaelis stood frozen, his body still tense from the aftermath of battle, his mind struggling to process what had just happened. The battlefield that had once been suspended in a world of white was gone. The haunting melody that had shaped the fight, bent reality to its will, had faded into memory. Now, he was back. Back in Kalhal. Back in the familiar yet twisted nd where death was never the end, where monsters rose from the graves of their fallen, where the weight of power bore heavier than the bde of any weapon.

  ‘That was insane…I need to know more about her..’

  Nyxa, standing before him, plucked a single note on her harp—a soft, zy tune, a whisper of amusement. In response, the mutited corpse of Gromm lifted from the blood-soaked earth, his massive frame floating effortlessly, suspended in an unseen current of melody. Around him, the severed limbs, shattered bones, and unrecognizable remains of the orcs and goblins also rose into the air, twisting into a slow, methodical dance, as if they were performers in a macabre orchestral piece.

  Nyxa’s smile was serene, almost childlike in its delight. “Well then,” she mused, grinning as if none of this was horrific at all. “Time to get some goat legs.”

  Kaelis blinked. His mind, still rattled from the fight, couldn’t immediately process what she had just said. “Wait—what?”

  She turned to him, eyes bright with amusement. “Goat legs, Kaelis. You didn’t forget, did you? This was all a very important part of my pn.”

  His stare was bnk. He slowly lifted a blood-soaked arm, gesturing vaguely toward the floating remains of their enemies. “You’re telling me… you were serious about that?!”

  Nyxa’s fingers plucked another note, making the mangled bodies spin slightly in the air, like meat on a skewer. “Yes. And quite the effective pn it was, don’t you think? Now, be a dear and help carry some of the body parts.”

  Kaelis scoffed, taking a step back. “HUH?! YOU CAN LITERALLY MAKE THEM FLOAT. NUH-UH.”

  Nyxa blinked at him, tilting her head in mock surprise. “Oh, haha, right.”

  Kaelis rolled his eyes as she continued humming her song, leading the grotesque procession back to Othvendell. He followed behind, still shaking his head, wondering how the hell his life had led to this moment.

  ____________________________________________

  The moment they crossed the borders of Othvendell, Kaelis was met with something unexpected.

  A roar of approval.

  Warriors, Hunters, even children gathered in the streets, eyes wide with admiration as they took in his bloodstained figure, the remnants of battle etched across his body in deep scars and tattered clothing. The men and women of Othvendell thrived on strength, on resilience, on survival—and Kaelis looked like he had walked through hell itself and cwed his way out with his bare hands.

  They swarmed him instantly.

  Kaelis panicked, and said to himself, “No no no no no get away from me..”

  Massive warriors cpped him on the back so hard he nearly lost bance, their booming voices shaking the air. Some grabbed his shoulders, shaking him pyfully, their ughter deep and rowdy. Others bumped their chests against him, a warrior’s sign of respect, their strength pressing into him like the weight of an avanche.

  “YOU SEE THIS?” One Hunter grabbed his friend by the shoulders, pointing at Kaelis’ wounds. “THAT’S A MAN WHO’S SEEN A REAL FIGHT!”

  “LOOK AT ‘IM! LOOK AT THIS MESS! BOY LOOKS LIKE HE’S CRAWLED OUT THE GUTS OF A BEAST AND CAME BACK TO TELL THE STORY!”

  A young child, barely ten, ran up to him, staring at him with stars in his eyes. “Mister! Mister! Did you fight a whole army? A dragon maybe? Vampires?! Ooh, ooh! What about some bandits?! Or maybe those ugly Orcs of Goblins?!”

  Kaelis opened his mouth, “Uhh,” unsure of what to even say, when a warrior wrapped an arm around his neck in a half-chokehold, ughing.

  “I KNEW IT! YOU WERE OUT THERE TAKING CONTRACTS OFF THE BOARD, HUH?! BIG MAN, BIG GOLD!”

  A woman spped his shoulder, grinning. “What’s your Kenda, stranger? You gotta tell us now.”

  Kaelis couldn’t breathe. Not because of his injuries, but because this was the most attention he had gotten in years.

  ‘I’m getting custrophobic! I wanna tell them to buzz off, but that would be super mean. I know they mean well. It still feels embarrassing, but…nice?’

  His face was burning, his ears red, his mind struggling to process the overwhelming energy. He wasn’t used to being celebrated—not like this. These people were treating him like he was some kind of legendary warrior.

  What the hell was he supposed to do?

  Nyxa floated past him, baskets of goat legs in hand, smirking. “My, my. A hero’s welcome. How sweet.”

  Kaelis gritted his teeth. “Don’t. Say. Anything.”

  Nyxa giggled.

  As they finally moved through the streets, Nyxa still stuffing herself with food, Kaelis exhaled, finally free from the mob of warriors. He gnced at her, still feeling the remnants of their fight, still feeling the way his own battle instincts had been enhanced by her power.

  He tilted his head. “Alright. Enough of the vague cryptic bullshit. What’s your power, really?”

  Nyxa swallowed another goat leg whole and exhaled deeply, licking her fingers. “Mm. Fine. You deserve an answer.”

  She held out her hand, the glow of her golden eyes flickering slightly. “My power isn’t just music, Kaelis. It’s control.”

  Kaelis narrowed his eyes. “Control?”

  She nodded. “Every note I py isn’t just sound. It’s a w. A binding rule that dictates reality as I see fit in my symphony, my world.” She plucked a single note. “My power isn’t Kenda in the traditional sense,” she continued, “because it isn’t bound to elements or raw energy. It’s a command—a direct order to existence.”

  Kaelis swallowed.

  ‘That’s terrifying.’

  Nyxa grinned. “Now do you understand why I don’t need to be afraid?”

  Kaelis exhaled, rubbing his temple. “Yeah.”

  Nyxa chuckled. “Mm. Good boy.”

  Kaelis scowled. “Don’t call me that. I already deal with a birdbrain who acts like that.”

  ‘Hael.’

  As Kaelis and Nyxa finally entered the heart of Othvendell, the air thick with the scent of cooked meats, smoke from bcksmith forges, and the lingering metallic tang of blood, two familiar figures were already waiting for them.

  Ripp stood first, bouncing anxiously on his heels, his mask tilted slightly as if he had been scanning the crowd for Kaelis. Beside him, Song stood with her arms crossed, leaning against a wooden post, her golden eyes flicking zily over the blood-covered warrior approaching them.

  And then they saw him.

  Ripp’s entire body stiffened. Song’s eyes widened dramatically.

  Kaelis, covered in blood, bruises, and scars, casually waved a single hand. “Yo.”

  The reaction was immediate.

  “WHY THE HELL ARE YOU COVERED IN BLOOD?!” Ripp’s voice cracked so hard he sounded like he was going through puberty all over again. His hands spped against his mask, his entire body trembling.

  Song’s expression was even more exaggerated, her jaw hanging open before she suddenly gasped and grabbed Ripp’s shoulders. “HOLY SHIT. KAELIS, WHO HURT YOU? WHO TOOK YOUR MONEY? WHO TOOK YOUR VIRGINITY? WAS IT AN APOSTLE?! DID YOU LOSE TO A GOD? WAIT—” She snapped her fingers as if she just realized something. “DID YOU SELL YOUR BODY FOR MONEY? I MEAN, I SUPPORT IT, BUT DAMN—”

  Kaelis stared bnkly.

  Before they could continue their theatrical breakdowns, Kaelis reached out, comedically grabbed Ripp by the throat, and effortlessly lifted him off the ground. “My head…HURTS.”

  Ripp’s legs kicked uselessly, his arms filing. “H-H-HEY—L-L-LET’S TALK ABOUT THIS—”

  Song dramatically gasped and grabbed Ripp’s shoulders, pretending to try and pull him free. “NOOO, NOT LIKE THIS! I NEED HIS MONEY!”

  Kaelis huffed, dropping Ripp, who nded in a heap, gasping like a dying fish.

  “Gd you worried about me, Ripp. But yeah, this Nyxa almost got me ripped in half.” Kaelis muttered, wiping blood off his face.

  Song, still ughing, nudged Ripp with her foot. “Hey, bud, you still breathing?”

  Ripp weakly lifted a single thumb. “Yeah… just lost a few years of my life.”

  Then, their attention snapped to Nyxa, who was standing just behind Kaelis, still devouring an absurd amount of goat legs.

  Song blinked. “Uh. Is she—”

  Kaelis sighed, already exhausted. “Don’t mind her. She’s a lunatic.”

  Nyxa waved zily with a bone in her hand, still chewing. “Heyooo!”

  Ripp turned his attention to Kaelis, “Are you okay? What really happened?”

  “Oh the usual. Fighting for my life, pretty normal at this point.”

  Nyxa brought up, “I was using my Runic Song on him to help him. To control that berserk state so he can one day conquer it.”

  Ripp let out a sigh of relief, “That’s good. I’m gd.”

  ‘After what happened with the butterflies…I’m still gd he’s not pissed at me for getting him involved with that. But I still can’t help thinking I made him suffer. All because I wanted to be adventurous and explore.’

  Ripp then suddenly jerked upright. “Oh, Kaelis! I almost forgot!”

  Kaelis arched his brow. “What happened? Is it still about the trapped king?”

  “Not that, not right now. The evil cat and crow who tormented me are waiting for you outside the town.”

  Kaelis’ heart skipped a beat. His body tensed.

  He inhaled sharply. “Hael and Ness…?”

  Ripp nodded. “Yeah, they said they can’t be seen in town because—you know what.”

  Kaelis didn’t hesitate. He turned to Song. “Stay here.”

  Song raised a brow. “Bossing me around already? Hot.”

  “Gross.”

  Outside the town, where the towering trees cast long shadows beneath the golden glow of Othvendell’s setting sun, two figures waited.

  Ness and Hael stood in the open, their bodies stiff with tension.

  Ness, usually a picture of smug amusement, was pacing, his bck tail flicking erratically, ears twitching like he was barely containing himself. Hael, the ever-graceful and flirty crow, had her wings half-spread, her feathers ruffled, her usual smirk absent.

  Kaelis immediately felt something was wrong.

  ‘I missed them both actually. It’s refreshing to see them again. I got so used to being alone, that the first people I come across, I’m fond of.’

  He narrowed his eyes. “What happened?”

  Ness’ head snapped up. His ears fttened, and for once, his eyes didn’t hold an ounce of arrogance. “It’s Espen.”

  Kaelis’ entire body locked up. “Is she okay?!”

  Hael spoke next, her voice calm but urgent. “She vanished st night.”

  Kaelis felt his heartbeat sm in his chest. “What do you mean ‘vanished’?”

  Ness crossed his arms, exhaling through his nose sharply. “She left while we were sleeping. Didn’t say shit. Just took off.”

  Kaelis gritted his teeth. He should have expected this. Espen wasn’t the type to sit still.

  “She didn’t leave by accident,” Hael added, adjusting her talons. “She had a pn, or so it seemed. And whyyy are you covered in blood?”

  Kaelis exhaled sharply, his frustration growing. “Fought some orcs is all. And you just let her leave? Aren’t you bound to her or something?”

  Ness’ ears twitched violently. “Oh sure, Kaelis. We just LET HER WALK OUT INTO A KINGDOM FILLED WITH HUNTERS WHO WANT TO MOUNT HER HEAD ON A WALL. BECAUSE WE WANTED TO GET A LITTLE EXTRA BEAUTY SLEEP.” His tail shed aggressively, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

  Kaelis held up a hand. “Alright, alright. I get it.”

  ‘Man that was a stupid question I asked. What was I thinking?’

  Ness took a deep breath, composing himself. “We know where she is. She’s far, but we can track her—we’re bound to her power because of Mae.”

  Kaelis didn’t hesitate. “Let’s go.”

  Hael lowered her wings, gesturing with her talons. “Hop on. The longer we wait, the farther she gets.”

  Kaelis moved instantly, climbing onto Hael’s back, with Ripp scrambling on behind him.

  Kaelis told Ripp, “Gonna make a detour on our little trip. I suggest you get off and make some money for us here so we can get a ride to your king.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna just abandon our mission to free the king. I just really need to help them. Nothings gonna stop me.”

  “..O-Oh okay. Got it. I’ll be here, working my ASS off.”

  “Good, good.”

  Ripp thought, ‘I wanted to go with him, just in case he had a reason not to just up and leave, like everyone else does. I still feel bad about what happened, it’s made me scared of creating bonds and making friends. Because of how I am, eager, adventurous, reckless, nervous…I don’t wanna change my whole persona just to keep people around me. Let’s hope he comes back.’

  Then, as they lifted into the air, a single thought crept into Kaelis’ mind.

  ‘Why was I so eager to help her? To help Espen? She tied me up, and even bsted me with her darkness…’

  The answer never came.

  As Hael’s wings cut through the air, they vanished into the sky—

  Then at that moment, Nyxa was in front of them, pying her harp, and asked, “Where are you going, Kaelis?”

  Ness and Hael said at the same time, “Who the hell is she?”

  Ness added, “Big ass harp.”

  Hael said, “She a bard of something? Move dy.”