Chapter 81 – Ashes of Judgment

The chamber lay in ruins. Pillars splintered, marble shattered, the air thick with smoke and shadowfire.

Kael staggered, black flames still coiling around him, licking at his skin like serpents of hunger. Serin knelt opposite, his blade cracked, blood trailing from his lips.

For a heartbeat, silence hung—then the Council’s voices rose in triumph.

“It is done. The Abyss-Hero cannot be controlled.”
“This duel proves it—his existence is a threat to the world.”

Aria threw herself against the ward, tears streaming. “No! You don’t see! He fought to protect—he held back!”

But no one listened.

Serin, trembling, forced himself to stand. His blade lifted once more, trembling but resolute. “Kael… if I fall here, the world calls you enemy. If I strike you down, the world calls me savior. There’s no path where we both walk forward.”

Kael’s shadows writhed violently. He wanted to scream, to deny it—but the truth hung heavy. This wasn’t their choice. It was the Council’s narrative, written long before either of them had lifted a blade.

With a roar, Kael drove his power into the earth, cracking it wide. Black fire surged up, swallowing the chamber in a storm of burning runes. The Council cried out, scrambling behind wards as the world bent and twisted.

When the smoke cleared, Kael stood alone.

Serin’s blade lay shattered at his feet. His brother’s body was gone—whether dead, lost to the void, or taken by the Council’s machinations, Kael did not know.

But the judgment was passed.

Outside the chamber, bells tolled. Not in mourning, but in declaration.

The Abyss-Hero had been condemned.

Kael looked up at the hollow sky he had torn open, his voice trembling with fury.
“Then let this world see… what a condemned hero can do.”