It was time to strike.
The Cradle of Ashes had awoken, and its chosen weapon—Kaien—now held Fellchain in hand. No longer a rumor. No longer a shadow.
He was real.
And he was moving.
---
One hour later – Sector 9, Celestis Border Zone
Rain drizzled over cracked streets and rusted rooftops. Surveillance towers blinked red as divine enforcers lined the block, faceless and still. They stood in formation, weapons drawn, like statues forged for war.
At the center of it all, a boy in chains knelt.
Young. Barely twelve.
Liora's voice hissed through the comms.
"They've got a kid. Probably a signal sympathizer."
Kaien crouched beside her, cloaked in rags, Fellchain wrapped tightly against his back.
"How many enforcers?" he asked.
"Six."
"Too many to sneak around."
"Too many to leave alive," Liora replied coldly.
Arden's voice crackled through. "This is your first field run as a wielder. Don't overextend. In and out. Get the kid."
Kaien rose.
"I'm not leaving anyone behind."
He stepped out from the alley.
The rain stopped.
Or maybe it just felt like it did.
---
The enforcers reacted instantly—projecting shields, charging their lances with divinity.
Kaien's cloak dropped.
"Target identified," one of them barked. "Level 9 threat—Kaien Valis. Terminate on sight!"
The first bolt came fast—a golden spear of light that could melt concrete.
Kaien didn't dodge.
He moved, like water pulled by gravity, letting the bolt pass within a breath of his skin.
His hand grabbed Fellchain.
The sword howled.
He swung once.
The street cracked open.
A shockwave tore through the air, slicing the first enforcer cleanly in two. The others screamed, trying to reposition—but Kaien was already among them, a blur of motion and heat.
One raised a plasma pike—too slow. Kaien's blade caught it mid-swing, turned it into slag, and sent the enforcer spiraling into a wall.
A third one tried to cast a celestial binding seal.
"Too late," Kaien growled.
Fellchain lashed out, dragging blackened chains from the underworld, snaring the caster mid-prayer. The divine light around him flickered—then extinguished.
---
Behind him, the child trembled in place, still chained.
Kaien approached, fast but calm.
"I'm here to help," he said softly.
The boy looked up. "You… your eyes…"
Kaien knelt. "Yeah. I know. They're weird."
"No," the boy said. "They're just like hers."
Kaien froze.
"Hers?"
But before the kid could answer, a new pressure slammed into the street like a meteor.
BOOM.
The ground cratered.
From the dust rose a new figure—tall, lean, and wrapped in ceremonial red armor. A face like polished obsidian and eyes that glowed pure white.
An elite divine sentinel.
Designation: Red Angel: Serathos.
---
"You've made quite a mess," Serathos said.
Kaien shifted his stance.
"Wanna clean it up?"
Serathos laughed. It was hollow.
"No, boy. I'm here to end you. You've touched a cursed relic. Killed sanctified men. The punishment is annihilation."
Kaien looked back at the boy. Liora was closing in from the far rooftop.
"No delays," she whispered.
Kaien turned back to Serathos.
"Then swing first."
The angel blurred.
Kaien reacted, Fellchain arcing upward. Their weapons met in a clash that shattered glass two blocks away.
Serathos spun, wings of red light slicing toward Kaien's neck.
Kaien ducked, kicked off the wet pavement, and drove his knee into the angel's ribs.
The red armor cracked.
The angel grunted.
"You shouldn't be this strong."
Kaien smirked. "I haven't even started bleeding yet."
The next exchange was a blur—seraphic strikes colliding with chained fury. The air shimmered with divine energy and smoldering heat. Kaien's movements were more instinct than thought. Every strike echoed training from another life.
Finally, he caught Serathos's blade arm mid-swing.
"You fight like someone who's never been afraid," Kaien growled.
He headbutted the angel.
Chains burst from the ground and wrapped the divine being.
Kaien raised Fellchain.
"Let me teach you."
He plunged the blade through Serathos's chest.
For a moment, nothing.
Then the angel's body burned from within, collapsing into ash.
---
Silence returned.
Liora dropped down beside the boy, unshackling him.
"You okay?"
The kid nodded, eyes locked on Kaien.
"You're not normal."
Kaien chuckled. "Yeah. I get that a lot."
---
Later – Ashcloak HQ
Kaien stood before a war table, shirtless, bandaged, steam rising from his arms.
Around him sat the rebel council. Arden. Tenrai. Other cell leaders.
Arden pointed at a glowing map of Celestis.
"We have intel. A new divine structure is being constructed in Sector 3. A prison."
Tenrai folded his arms. "Not just any prison. One meant to hold beings like him."
He nodded toward Kaien.
Kaien looked at the map. "Then we burn it before it's built."
The council murmured.
Arden smiled.
"Looks like the Heavenbreaker's officially in."
Kaien turned.
"No."
They froze.
"I'm not breaking heaven."
"I'm rebuilding it."