The destruction of the Obsidian Gate echoed across realms.
It wasn't just a blow to the Void King's influence—it was a declaration.
Leon was coming.
---
The Shifting Tides
Back in Caelum's Rise, the victory at Siberia sparked a chain reaction. Hope, once a flicker buried beneath ash and ruin, began to burn brighter.
More resistance cells emerged from hiding. Refugees who had lived in fear now volunteered to fight. Warlords and exiled Hunters pledged their allegiance, swearing loyalty to the God-King who burned away darkness.
But not everyone rejoiced.
In the heart of the Arken Syndicate—an underground power hoarding remnants of pre-apocalypse technology—trouble stirred.
Their leader, Juno Korr, watched the footage of Leon's assault with narrowed eyes.
"Too strong," she whispered, fingers tapping rhythmically on her throne of scrap. "He unites too quickly."
A younger syndicate officer stepped forward. "Do we move against him?"
Juno didn't respond immediately.
Then her voice dropped, low and lethal.
"No. Not yet. We watch. And if he slips… we bury the God-King beneath his own legacy."
---
The Flameborn Accord
Leon convened his inner circle. With one anchor of the Void King destroyed, they needed to identify the next target.
"There are three," Vex said, unrolling an ancient map augmented with Nira's reconstructed aether-detection glyphs. "We took the Obsidian Gate. That leaves the Cavern of Dread in the Atlantic trench, and the Skytear Spire near what used to be Tibet."
"Both heavily guarded," Elyra added. "The Spire is cloaked. No way to get accurate readings without someone flying straight into its kill zone."
"I'll go," Leon said.
Nira placed a hand on his arm. "Not alone."
Leon gave a small smile. "Fine. But I'll still lead."
They began preparations for a twin assault. Elyra and Vex would handle the trench, while Leon and Nira would approach the Spire from above—through the storm-layer that shielded it from detection.
Time was against them.
The Void King had begun to retaliate.
---
The Return of the Reaper
Near the outskirts of New Shanghai, a dark ripple split the ground—and from it emerged a figure long believed dead: Kael Duran, once a high-ranking Arbiter general.
But the Kael that stepped out now… was twisted.
His once-silver armor had turned black, fused with bone and voidsteel. His eyes burned with unnatural energy.
He had fallen.
And he now served the King.
With him came legions of Hollowspawn, corrupted humans who had lost their souls to the Void, their bodies now shells twisted for war.
His orders were simple: "Delay the God-King. Destroy his allies."
Kael smiled.
"I'll do more than that. I'll break him."
---
Ascent Through Storm
Leon and Nira flew through a wrathful sky toward the Skytear Spire. Lightning laced with void-fire arced through the heavens, trying to strike them from the air.
Nira formed barriers of shifting light. Leon pushed forward, his aura shielding them both.
The spire emerged from the clouds—a jagged monolith floating atop a fractured mountain, pulsing with forbidden power.
"I sense him," Leon whispered. "Another anchor of the Void King lies within."
They landed amidst broken statues and floating runes—relics of an ancient monastery, long since overtaken by corruption.
As they stepped through, whispers brushed their minds.
Temptation. Regret. Promises of lost loved ones.
Nira stumbled. Leon caught her.
"Don't listen," he said. "It feeds on doubt."
At the heart of the spire, they found it: the second anchor—twisting, alive, shaped like a beating heart of obsidian and flame.
And before it… stood a guardian.
---
The Warden of the Spire
He was once human.
Now, he was a colossus of chained energy, bound by his own madness. Eyes hollow. Skin flickering between states of decay and restoration.
"I failed to protect the world," the Warden muttered. "So I protect this. My punishment… my purpose."
Leon stepped forward. "You can't win. Let us destroy the anchor."
The Warden roared. "NO! Without the Void… there is no balance. No order!"
He charged.
The battle shook the mountain. Blades of starlight clashed against fire. The Warden's power was unrelenting—he wielded spectral chains that bit through reality, seeking to bind Leon's soul.
Nira circled behind, her magic disrupting the chains long enough for Leon to strike true.
With a cry, Leon ignited Solbrand.
And cleaved through the Warden's core.
The creature screamed—and in his final breath, whispered:
"End… me…"
Leon obliged.
And turned his wrath upon the anchor.
---
Unchained Flame
He unleashed everything.
Flame divine and furious, a memory of a god once betrayed.
Solbrand pierced the anchor, and the world shuddered.
The spire erupted in light.
From orbit, the explosion looked like a miniature sun blooming over the mountain range.
And when the light faded—only Leon and Nira remained, scorched but victorious, standing amid the ruins of the spire.
Two anchors down.
One to go.
---
Shadows Stir
In the Void Realm, the King hissed in annoyance.
His fingers curled over the shattered remnants of a vision stone.
"It begins," he muttered. "He awakens too quickly. The flame burns too bright."
A hooded figure approached.
"Should we unleash the Herald?"
The Void King didn't speak for a long time.
Then: "Yes. Unleash her. Let the girl he once failed greet him again. Let his past become his undoing."
---
Fissures of Trust
While Leon and Nira returned to Caelum's Rise, Elyra and Vex had their own troubles.
The descent into the Atlantic trench had not gone smoothly.
They found the Cavern of Dread—but it was occupied by a cult of Voidbound zealots, worshipping the heart-anchor that pulsed deep within.
Worse, they had a prisoner.
Astra, Leon's half-sister—thought dead in the early stages of the apocalypse.
"Leon doesn't know," Elyra whispered, watching from a vantage point.
"Will it help or hurt him?" Vex asked.
Elyra didn't answer.
Because she wasn't sure.
And in the war to come, uncertainty could be lethal.
---
The Flames Grow
Leon stood before a new legion.
Not soldiers born of war, but of conviction.
Survivors. Hopefuls. People who had nothing left to lose.
And all of them—willing to follow him into hell.
He looked over them and spoke.
"We will burn through the darkness. One gate at a time. One lie at a time. Until there's nothing left but truth and light."
Solbrand ignited beside him.
And the army roared.
The war had truly begun.