The six figures on the horizon didn't move.
Their silence wasn't hesitation—it was certainty.
Kael stood firm, blood trailing from his brow, the Riftblade humming with chaotic energy. He had faced celestial beasts, gods of time, and the architects of forgotten realms.
But this… this felt different.
"You're just echoes," Kael said, voice defiant. "I've torn down worse."
But the Voidwarden—merely a clone—tilted its head. Then, without a word, it shattered into obsidian dust.
Revealing something behind it.
No... something beyond it.
A massive, rotting gate materialized—carved from the bones of dying stars and sealed with chains that whispered names in forgotten languages. It groaned open, reality bending and tearing around it.
And from the darkness stepped Nihlari Prime.
Towering. Infinite.
Its form was cloaked in black nebulae, crowned with crystalline void spires that pulsed with anti-light. Its eyes—if they were even eyes—pierced across dimensions, locking onto Kael's very soul.
Kael didn't speak.
He couldn't.
Something primal within him recognized this being. Not as a rival… but as the end.
An ancient predator. The true enemy of all Gatekeepers.
The Rift inside him flared—not in power, but in fear.
"You touched the Rift," Nihlari Prime murmured. Its voice echoed like collapsing stars. "But you were never its master… Only a fragment of my broken key."
Kael roared.
He charged, unleashing all he had.
Echo Step. Dimensional Strike. Worldbreaker. Rift Storm.
A storm of raw dimensional fury exploded across the battlefield.
But Nihlari didn't flinch.
It raised one hand—and with a simple snap, Kael froze in mid-air. His entire being halted, powerless.
Then—tap.
A single void-tipped finger touched Kael's forehead.
His vision turned white.
Was he… dead?
Snap.
Reality cracked.
Kael's body was hurled across the multiverse, breaking through dimensions like glass until—
BOOM.
He slammed into Earth with cataclysmic force, carving a massive crater into the forest floor.
His forest.
Smoke rose from the impact. Silence followed.
And then… a flicker.
The last ember of Rift energy, buried deep inside him, stirred.
It moved—sluggish but defiant.
Kael's skin began to mend. His bones realigned. Breath returned.
He gasped, coughing violently, blood streaking his lips. He lay sprawled across moss and dirt, eyes wide, heart pounding.
The sky above was clear. The wind, gentle. Birds chirped, oblivious.
Kael blinked.
Alive.
But something was… wrong.
He reached for the Riftblade—nothing.
Tried to bend time—nothing.
No portals. No space manipulation. No Rift.
Only the pain in his chest—and a faint, glowing wound where Nihlari had touched him.
He checked his status with shaking fingers.
[STATUS REPORT: ALTERED]
Name: Kael
Class: Gatekeeper(Dormant)
Level: ???
HP: 600 / 10,000
MP: 800 / 25,000
Form:Mortal Shel
lRift Energy:Severely WeakenedCondition
:Marked by Nihlari PrimeStatus Effect
:Rift Suppression
Kael sat up slowly, clutching his side.
He looked down at his hands—scarred, bloodied, fragile.
No longer the sovereign.
No longer the realmshaper.
Just a man.
But in the silence, he felt it—that flicker.
The Rift still stirred.
Faint.
But alive.
Kael closed his eyes, feeling the Earth beneath him.
"I was cast down," he whispered, breath ragged. "But not broken."
And with trembling strength, he stood—dirt and leaves clinging to his body.
The forest rustled around him.
Somewhere beyond the stars, Nihlari Prime watched.
But Kael?
Kael had just begun again.
end of chapter