Chapter 66 – Storm of Chains

The sky itself seemed to collapse.

Chains rained down from the general’s outstretched arms, blotting out the light, their weight crushing everything beneath them. Walls crumbled, the ground split, and even the air trembled with each strike.

Yet Kael stood his ground.

His blade flared with light and shadow interwoven, cutting arcs through the storm. Each swing left trails like burning constellations, clashing with the falling chains in bursts of blinding force.

The soldiers shielded their eyes. To them, it looked less like a battle and more like two laws of reality colliding—Silence against Defiance.

The general’s voice rolled like thunder:
“You cannot sever what is eternal. You are nothing but a memory that was erased.”

Kael’s muscles trembled, his stance nearly broken—but his will burned fiercer. “Then I’ll carve a place where even erasure cannot reach!”

Chains wrapped around his sword, tightening like serpents. For a moment, it seemed as though the blade would be dragged from his grasp. But Kael closed his eyes and let the Tsuyoi answer.

The weapon pulsed. A resonance spread outward, shaking the bindings apart. The shadows and light upon his blade surged higher, spiraling together until it no longer seemed like steel, but a fragment of something greater—an idea given form.

The general’s helm tilted slightly.
“…Impossible.”

Kael raised the blade skyward. The energy it released split the clouds, parting the choking veil of chains for the briefest instant.

Around him, the soldiers stared in awe. Some wept openly. Others clenched their fists, whispering his name. Even Mira and Seris, though battered, stood straighter, as though Kael’s defiance flowed through them.

The general spoke again, slower this time.
“You… dare to write yourself into existence. Even as the world denies you.”

Kael lowered his sword, pointing it directly at the helm’s burning eyes.
“That’s right. And I’ll keep writing—until even Silence remembers my name.”

The battlefield shook as the two forces collided again, chains whipping against Kael’s storm of shadow and light.

The second phase had begun.