Chapter 25: Kaelthorn’s True Strength

Kaelthorn took a step back, the ground caved in further as he wielded his battle axe.

“I have no hatred towards you, Baldric. You should learn to let things go.”

Baldric’s expression twisted, the air grew heavier, then lighter.

“Don’t you dare preach to me about forgiveness! Do you know how long I’ve waited for this moment?!”

Shockwaves travelled outwards as he screamed, Kaelthorn remained stationary, but the environment was no different from a war zone.

The green vegetation had grown deserted, the trees in a hundred meter radius no longer existed and the skeletons of the creatures turned to dust.

Without warning, they dissapeared from their spots and their fists connected squarely.

There was no sound, but the rapid darkening of the clouds and the erratic thunderstorms that followed, spoke volumes.

Aden’s eyes widened to the limit as the vibrations and changes entered his range of perception.

Despite the massive amounts of pain that bore relentlessly on him, Aden gripped his consciousness with every ounce of willpower he could muster.

’That should be Master and that Baldric person,’ he thought. ’For the vibrations to be so…vivid, I don’t want to know how devastating the battle actually is.’

Suddenly, the strange voice spoke, ’It’s been a while since I’ve felt Resonance so pure!’

Aden’s body shivered at his words, but there was nothing he could do to suppress the voice in his head.

’I thought you were sealed…’ he responded warily.

’I couldn’t be bothered to explain anything to you. Come, let’s go watch the battle. It’s more interesting than watching you bleed to death pathetically anyway.’

Aden’s face grew horrified, but before he could protest, he felt the awkward jerking of his bones.

His feet scrambled violently, the sounds of bone cracking reached his ears, and the awkward swinging of his body as his vision changed caused his face to drain of colour.

Aden’s head was snapped forward, forced to look toward the horizon where the sky was no longer blue—it was a bruised purple, flickering with the gold and black lightning of a conflict that defied logic.

“W–what?! You shouldn’t have control of my body!” Aden screamed, his feet stumbling forward, causing piles of soil to form above his feet.

’Yet, here I am.’

A small veil of energy formed on Aden’s lips as he walked forward shakily.

“This body is too uncomfortable, tsk.”

The entity spoke, as he used Aden’s arms to wipe the cold sweat that has formed on his face.

The closer they grew to the battle site. The more the intensity grew.

Aden tried to scream, but his jaw was locked in a rigid, artificial square.

He felt a sharp, crystalline snap in his left ankle as the Entity forced him to step over a jagged root without bending his knee. The pain was white-hot, but the Entity simply rerouted a thread of black Resonance through the marrow, forcing the broken bone to act as a literal pillar.

’Stop this!’ Aden’s mind whimpered.

“Quiet, little vessel,” the voice hummed, sounding almost melodic amidst the carnage. “I am merely accelerating your Adaptive nature. If the bone breaks, the Resonance fills the gap. Is this not what you wanted? Evolution?”

As they walked closer to the epicenter of the battle, the forces of nature grew wilder and stranger.

Aden’s arms involuntarily touched a tree that stood undauntedly in the midst of the chaos and it promptly turned to ashes.

He walked through a cold flame that bathed the floor of the forest, causing hot frost to form at the bottom of his feet.

“Stop screaming, foolish mortal,” the entity cautioned as he casually brushed off the frost.

As they perched on an abnormally large jagged rock, the voice spoke excitedly.

“Look mortal. This is what a real battle looks like!”

Below them, the world was a monochromatic nightmare. Baldric was a blur of golden, solar heat, his every movement trailing ribbons of plasma.

Opposite him, Kaelthorn moved like a glitch in a painting—one moment he was there, the next he was ten feet away, leaving a trail of “nothingness” in his wake.

The loose energies smashed against his face, but the entity was kind enough to shield his face from melting out of existence.

’Is…that Master?’ Aden stuttered.

The horror of being taken over was promptly replaced by the awe of the heavenly collisions that took place before him.

Although he knew his Master was unfathomably strong, the scale of the strength he portrayed was simply incomprehensible.

The terrain changed with every attack, the weather grew erratic, the world grew colourful one moment and monochromatic the next.

“This is true strength. I wish I was sealed in one of them rather than this useless body,” the entity whined.

’What are you anyway?’ Aden asked, his eyes trying to follow the battle but failing to do so.

’You’re too weak to comprehend my existence.’

A loud voice suddenly boomed.

“You’re protecting a Redwyn? After what that family did to your squad at the Black Gates?”

His attention returned to the battle before him, questions forming in his head.

“I know you’ve grown weak, but don’t tell me you’ve become foolish as well!”

Aden managed to glimpse an attack this time.

His master’s Battle axe collided with Baldric’s Longsword, but the result wasn’t what he predicted.

The space distorted around them and the sound of glass shattering resounded in his ears, then silence followed.

For a moment, everything else screeched to a pause.

And the next, outer space was made visible to him.

The stars shone majestically, large pulses of light flashed through the dark void and the brightness of the closer stars blinded his view.

“Dissonant Severance! It’s been hundreds of years since I’ve seen this move, and although it’s half-baked, it’s rather impressive for mortals,” the Entity nodded

Aden was too shocked for words.

The space patched itself quickly, almost as if a hand had picked the pieces of reality and glued them back together.

Kaelthorn and Baldric flew apart, and crashed into ground, creating craters thousands of meters deep with each bounce.

***

Throughout the battle, Kaelthorn had not spoken a word to Baldric. Not because he was lost for words, but because telling him what he needed to hear would cause the collapse of the kingdom and the world as a whole.

’Even after all these years, you’re still as blind as ever, Baldric.’

Kaelthorn sighed heavily before he glitched forward and smashed his Battle axe against Baldric’s blade.

Baldric moved to parry it, the golden light that coated Baldric’s blade collided with the purplish hue that coated Kaelthorn’s weapon.

Then something even stranger happened.

Aden watched, paralyzed, as the two figures collided again. This time, the impact didn’t cause an explosion. It caused a Vision.

The sheer intensity of their combined Resonance acted like a projector. For a split second, the jungle disappeared. Aden saw a sky choked with ash and a massive, crumbling fortress of black iron.

’The Black Gates,’ the Entity whispered, its voice dripping with nostalgia. ’Watch the tragedy play out again.’

In the center of the crater, Baldric’s Solar Resonance flared, turning into a majestic, burning lion of gold. “You didn’t even hesitate, Kaelthorn! He called your name! He begged for his Master to help him as the Dissonance took his mind, and you… you cut his throat before his first tear could hit the dirt!”

Baldric lunged, his fists trailing sunfire. “You called it mercy. I call it murder!”

Kaelthorn caught the blow, his feet carving deep trenches into the stone. The grayscale “Silence” surrounding him didn’t just swallow the heat; it flickered with the images of a young boy in silver armor, his face twisting into something monstrous, and a younger Kaelthorn standing over him with a cold, steady blade.

“He was gone, Baldric,” Kaelthorn’s voice was a low, vibrating growl that shook Aden’s teeth. “The moment his resonance hit the frequency of the Abyss, he wasn’t your brother anymore. He was a gateway. If I hadn’t closed it, the Legion would have been slaughtered.”

“Liar!” Baldric roared

He clapped his hands together, and a Solar Halo erupted behind him. The heat became so intense that the rocks beneath Aden’s perch began to liquefy into lava.

“You did it because you were afraid! You saw your own future in his eyes, and you struck it down to prove to yourself that you were still ’Aligned’! You’re not a hero, Kaelthorn.

“You’re just a coward who’s been hiding in a jungle for eighty years to escape the blood on your hands!”

Baldric raised his arms, and the sun itself seemed to dim as he drew the ambient heat into a single, massive spear of white-hot plasma.

“SOLAR COLLAPSE!”

Kaelthorn didn’t move. He lowered his battle-axe, letting the head rest in the dirt. He took a deep, rattling breath, and the “Silence” around him began to spin, turning into a terrifying, light-consuming vortex.

“Here it comes” the Entity giggled through Aden’s lips. “The move that ended the First War, and killed half of my brothers. The ’Soul-Breaker’ frequency.”

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