Chapter 67 – The Price of Defiance

The storm of chains hammered down like judgment itself.

Kael fought within it, his blade cutting light and shadow through the darkness, every strike defying the weight of inevitability. The earth shook with each collision. The soldiers could barely stand, yet none dared look away.

Mira clenched her daggers, desperate to leap forward, but Seris caught her arm. “No. Look closer. This battle isn’t only his fight—it’s his choice.”

At the center, Kael staggered. Each swing of his blade left cracks not only in the air, but in himself. Shadows clawed at his arms, veins glowing faintly with the unstable energy of Tsuyoi. His breathing turned ragged, his vision edged with white.

The general’s voice cut through the chaos.
“You burn yourself to deny me. Every strike you make devours what little remains of your existence. Soon, nothing will be left.”

Chains lunged again, wrapping around Kael’s torso, forcing him down onto one knee. The soldiers cried out, Mira struggled against Seris’s grip, and even Seris’s barrier flickered under the pressure.

But Kael’s hand never let go of his sword.

Through gritted teeth, he growled, “If it costs me everything to break fate—then I’ll pay.”

The shadows surged, no longer just clinging to his blade but spiraling out from his very body. His form blurred, as though the world itself struggled to define him.

The chains tightened. His pulse roared in his ears. His name—whatever fragments of it history had stolen—seemed to vanish again.

And still, he rose.

One step.
Two steps.

The ground beneath his feet cracked, the storm of chains recoiling from the force of his will. The soldiers gasped as the glow of his blade flared so brightly it etched their silhouettes into the broken battlefield.

The general paused for the first time. His voice lowered, resonant with something close to respect.
“You bleed yourself into myth.”

Kael leveled his sword, the storm of shadows spiraling higher. His voice, raw but steady, carried across the ruined plain.
“Then let this myth begin with me.”

With that cry, he struck.

The chainstorm shattered outward, fragments dissolving into the night. For a heartbeat, the battlefield lay silent, the impossible having become real.

But as Kael lowered his blade, his body faltered. His outline flickered, as though the world itself tried to push him back into nothingness.

Mira broke free from Seris’s grip and screamed his name.

The price of defiance had only begun to show.