Kael stood beneath the sky still humming with ancient tension. The message echoed in his bones:
"The Trials begin soon."
He didn't wait.
Didn't meditate.
Didn't prepare.
He lifted one hand—and tore the sky open like parchment, stepping through reality itself with a single thought.
He entered the Thronehold.
A realm beyond reason. Gravity bowed to thought. Time bent around will. Light fled from the power that lingered here.
The six thrones were now fully formed, floating across the canvas of infinity. Mountains drifted in the background, pierced by rivers of plasma and silence.
The Throneborne turned their gaze toward him.
Each was unique—unimaginable in form, yet terrifyingly aware. They weren't just strong. They were the laws of their own existence.
Kael floated before them like a mortal before pantheons.
"I came to fight."
The air cracked.
One of the Throneborne—wrapped in twisting chains made of collapsed timelines—stood. A voice like a thousand bells rang from it:
"You demand trial before the Circle of Six?"
Kael's voice was calm.
"No. I demand you."
The being paused.
Then it stepped down from its throne.
And the universe shuttered.
The First Duel: Kael vs. Malqirion, Warden of Time's End
The battlefield was created on the spot—a drifting arena formed from the bones of dead dimensions.
Malqirion raised its hand.
A staff of obsidian timelines appeared.
With a flick, the entire battlefield reversed—Kael's body shattered in reverse, unshattering, then shattering again, locked in a time loop.
Kael grinned through the pain.
He clenched his hand—and the loop broke.
He whispered:
"Loomheart Resonance: Thread Severance."
With a wave of his finger, he cut the concept of time from the duel.
Malqirion staggered. Its power began to unravel.
Kael blurred forward—Shadow wings out, cloak of the Rift trailing like a god's commandment.
One punch.Then another.Then a thousand in a moment.
And finally—one touch to the core of the Warden's mask.
"Fall."
With a whisper, Malqirion was cast from the arena—thrown into a collapsing paradox, screaming as it was erased from its own past and future.
The other Throneborne remained silent.
One throne—empty.
Kael floated before them, body glowing faintly from strain, breathing steady.
"Who's next?"