Chapter 111 – Defiance

The abyss trembled.

The last god husk advanced, its steps echoing like hammers on broken heavens. Its body was sculpted from fractured constellations, each shard glowing with light that refused to die. Atop its head burned a crown of searing gold, brighter than the void itself.

“I am what remains,” the husk intoned, voice both holy and hollow. “I am memory, law, eternity. You cannot surpass me, shadow-born.”

Kael raised his sword. The runes along the blade flared, answering the god’s light with fire stolen from his defiance.

“Eternity’s nothing but chains,” Kael growled. “And I’ll shatter them all.”

The husk raised its hand. The abyss obeyed. Stars unraveled, collapsing into spears of light that rained down in a storm. Each impact carried the weight of divine law—absolute, unyielding.

Kael moved. His blade became a streak of shadows, cutting through the spears, splitting the storm in half. Sparks of fading starlight burst around him, but his footing never wavered.

The god husk’s crown blazed brighter, and chains of scripture surged forth again, but this time their words were sharper, rewriting Kael’s very presence. For a heartbeat, he vanished—his form erased.

Aria’s voice whispered in his memory. You erase him, you erase hope itself.

Kael’s flame roared. His body reformed, runes igniting across his skin. He surged forward, his blade dragging light like a comet’s tail.

“You call me a shadow,” he spat, clashing against the husk’s arm, “but even shadows prove the light exists!”

The impact tore the abyss apart. Fragments of gods’ thrones shattered, spinning into endless night.

The husk staggered. Its crown cracked.

“Impossible… no shadow resists eternity.”

Kael’s voice rose above the collapsing void.
“Then I’ll be the first!”

With a final strike, he cleaved through the husk’s chest. Light and darkness erupted together, swallowing everything.

When the glow faded, Kael stood alone—his blade burning, the last god’s crown broken at his feet.

And the abyss… was silent.