Chapter 98 – The Collision

The marshland shook as their powers clashed.

Kael’s blade cut arcs of shadowfire, each strike reshaping the air itself. The Eraser’s runes flared, answering with symbols that twisted reality like clay—turning Kael’s slashes into fading echoes, dispersing each strike before it could land.

“Every step you take defies reason,” the Eraser said, his voice layered with countless echoes. “Your existence bends the weave. You are not a man. You are a wound.”

Kael gritted his teeth, pressing forward. Each swing of his sword carried more than rage; it carried the weight of denial, the refusal to vanish again. Sparks burst where steel met sigil-light, fragments of shattered reality raining down like burning feathers.

Aria held the sinking earth at bay, her staff glowing as she channeled light to anchor them. Still, the mire clawed upward, hungry to consume them. “Kael—he’s not just defending! Every rune he casts is unraveling the ground itself!”

Kael’s eyes locked with the Eraser’s glowing runic gaze. “Then I’ll carve through him before there’s nothing left to stand on.”

The Eraser lifted both hands. Sigils spiraled outward, filling the sky with a lattice of burning marks. They spun like a cosmic script, each line rewriting the rules of existence. Gravity warped. Water twisted upward in rivers. Time itself seemed to shiver.

And yet, through the storm, Kael stepped forward. His shadow lengthened unnaturally, stretching beyond him, wrapping around his sword. The obsidian flame along the blade darkened to a hue that devoured light.

The Eraser froze for a fraction of a second. “…That power. It does not belong to you.”

Kael smirked, though his heart pounded against the visions he had seen. “Does it matter? It answers me.”

They clashed again—sigil against shadow. Each impact echoed like the tolling of a celestial bell. The marsh could no longer hold their battle; it sank entirely, replaced by a void of boiling light and seething dark.

In the chaos, Aria whispered to herself, eyes wide:
“This isn’t just a fight. It’s a war over who gets to write reality itself.”