The two forces stood in silence for a heartbeat, the air heavy with the anticipation of blood. Aron's grin stretched unnaturally wide, his crimson eyes glowing like a predator's in the dark. His very presence was suffocating, the chaotic energy radiating from him enough to make weaker soldiers tremble.

And in less than an instant....

He moved first.

With a burst of speed, Aron blurred forward, his jagged long nails screeching against the air as it tore a black fissure toward Kaelen. The ground cracked under his momentum, his aura a storm of ruin. Gasps erupted from both armies—the upgraded power of a Chaos Twin under Endless' influence was undeniable.

But Kaelen did not flinch.

He stepped once, steady and silent, as though his body already knew the rhythm of Aron's attack. His hand tightened around the Blade of Eternity, its azure glow blazing to life. The moment Aron's strike descended, Kaelen's sword moved—just once.

A single slash.

It was so fast, so precise, that it appeared as little more than a flicker of blue light cutting across the battlefield. For a breath, it seemed nothing had happened. Then Aron froze mid-stride, his grin faltering. His blade shattered into fragments.

Blood erupted from the deep line carved diagonally across his chest. His crimson eyes widened in disbelief as the chaos energy sputtered, failing to hold his form together.

"I… impossible—"

The words barely left his lips before his body split apart in a clean diagonal, collapsing into nothing but smoldering ash beneath Kaelen's calm, unbroken gaze.

The entire battlefield fell silent. Goblins, orcs, and Labyrinth Creatures alike stared in shock as one of Endless' chosen lieutenants was erased in a single effortless strike. To them, it was as though a god had swung his blade.

But silence quickly gave way to fury.

ROAAAR!!!!

A deafening roar erupted as the Labyrinth Creatures shrieked in unison, their howls vibrating through the barren earth. The goblins screeched and raised their crude weapons high, while the orcs bellowed war cries that rattled the bones. From the shadows, more shapes began to emerge—dozens, then hundreds.

The enemy surrounded them.

"Sh*t!!! We are surrounded!!"

"Get ready for battle!!"

Kaelen's group whirled around, their blades and staves tightening in hand as they realized the scale of their bind. The enemy was not just before them—it closed in from every side, even behind them, sealing their path of retreat. They were encircled, the endless horde hemming them in with no escape.

Kaelen's eyes narrowed, his grip firm on the Blade of Eternity. His mind raced. 'They can't all be fought here… if we waste time—Endless will be untouchable.'

But before he could give the command, a firm hand landed on his shoulder.

It was Drake.

The elder Grey brother's expression was grim, but there was a fire in his eyes that Kaelen had never seen burn so intensely. His armor was smeared with the dust of the march, his greatsword glowing faintly with runes that pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat.

"Kaelen," Drake said, his voice steady, "take your chosen and move forward. End this. End him."

Kaelen snapped his head to him, eyes narrowing. "Drake—there's too many! If you stay here—"

"That's exactly why I stay here." Drake cut him off, raising his voice so the nearby Morris and the other Grey family soldiers and Eldoria fighters could hear. "We will hold them. That's what we've trained for, what we've bled for. You're the only one who can put an end to Endless' reign. Don't waste that chance."

Morris suddenly stepped forward, his voice tight. "But Drake, if you stay—"

Drake's gaze softened for only a moment, but his tone was unyielding. "I know. But someone must. And no one else can do it better than me."

The orcs roared again, the encirclement pressing tighter, their footsteps shaking the ground. The goblins jabbered with anticipation, their crude spears twitching forward. The Labyrinth Creatures began to scrape their claws against the earth, ready to pounce.

Kaelen's chest clenched. He wanted to deny it, to argue, to demand that they all stay together. But when he looked at Drake, when he saw the absolute resolve blazing in his elder brother's eyes, he felt the weight of truth.

This was a stand only Drake could make.

"Kaelen!" Drake barked, his voice filled with command. "Don't make my sacrifice meaningless. Move forward!"

The world seemed to slow in that instant. Kaelen's heart twisted painfully in his chest, but at last, he nodded—once, sharply. "...Fine."

He turned to the others. "Kelvin, Morris, Lila, Guinevere, Ethan, Maeralyn, Eirana—come with me. We break through. Now."

They hesitated for a fraction of a moment, torn between loyalty and survival, but Kaelen's voice carried a conviction they could not deny. One by one, they nodded, eyes steeled.

The encirclement tightened further, the horde howling as they prepared to crush them. Then Kaelen raised the Blade of Eternity high, azure light erupting in a brilliant arc. With a fierce roar, he charged forward, carving a path through the enemy lines with a single, devastating slash.

The others followed, unleashing their power in full. Morris' elemental might surged like a storm, Guinevere cloaked in divine flame, Lila's seer aura shimmering with ancient elven grace, Ethan melting into mist and striking unseen. Maeralyn's arrows of pure light rained down, and Eirana with her Voidcloak ripped open shadows that swallowed enemies whole.

They carved a brutal, unstoppable path forward. The cries of goblins and orcs rang out as they were cut down, Labyrinth Creatures shrieking as their bodies split under divine fire and eternity's blade. The earth shook with their advance, their speed tearing through the horde.

Behind them, Drake raised his greatsword high, his voice carrying like thunder as he rallied the remaining warriors of Eldoria. "HOLD THE LINE!"

And as Kaelen and his chosen finally broke free of the encirclement, rushing ahead toward Endless' domain at full speed, the battlefield behind them erupted in chaos—Drake and the armies of Eldoria clashing headlong against the endless tide.

Morris did not look back. He could not. But in his heart, he felt it—the weight of his brother's choice, and the burning vow to make it mean something.

-------

The world blurred past as Kaelen and his chosen sprinted beyond the collapsing encirclement. The screams and clangs of steel had started and has now faded behind them, swallowed by distance and blood. Their breaths were steady, their pace unwavering, but beneath the calm, there lingered unease.

Because their escape had been too easy.

"Why does it feel like they let us through rather than it was us that escaped?"

Kelvin's aura still fluctuated faintly with chaos' mark as he asked suspiciously, and Morris' eyes narrowed as he muttered, "They let us through. That's what it felt like to me though."

Kaelen said nothing, his eyes forward, but his grip on the Blade of Eternity tightened. The silence of this land was oppressive—no whispers of wind, no living presence, no breath of the world itself. The Abyssal Labyrinth had swallowed even nature.

Then, like a blade piercing his mind, a voice rang within Kaelen.

"Kaelen… do you feel it?"

Eternity's tone was sharper than usual, tinged with warning.

Kaelen's steps faltered for a fraction. 'What?'

"That energy. Similar to the Heir of Chaos, but more potent… more malignant. It lies ahead, not far. This domain itself is its cradle."

Kaelen's gaze flickered toward Kelvin. The boy's brows furrowed, as if he too had sensed something, though less defined. "You feel it, don't you?" Kaelen asked.

Kelvin gave a grim nod. "It's like… something calling. Something that wants me to kneel."

Kaelen's expression hardened. "Then we walk toward it. Together."

The group pressed on. Through shattered towers of obsidian stone, through fields where the bones of beasts and men alike lay turned to dust, through corridors of black rock that pulsed faintly as though alive. Each step they took deeper into Endless' dominion felt like they were trespassing upon a forbidden truth of Aetheris itself.

At last, after hours blurred into a haze of silence, they came before a castle carved of jagged black stone. It rose into the ashen sky like the fang of a god, its surface covered with veins of crimson light that pulsed faintly, as if a heart beat within its core. The gates stood impossibly tall, wide enough to swallow giants. They opened of their own accord at Kaelen's presence, groaning as though the stone itself resented them.

Inside was darkness. A suffocating, endless dark.

But as they walked deeper, torchlight flared to life—flames blacker than night, illuminating walls painted with horrors of the past: wars waged, races annihilated, Celestials bowing to a singular shadow. Each mural carried the mark of Endless.

And then—

The throne room.

Vast. Hollow. Its ceiling stretched so high it vanished into shadows, the walls lined with pillars of black crystal. At its end sat a throne of writhing obsidian, carved into the shape of countless screaming faces.

And upon that throne—

Endless.

His new form was terrible in its allure. He looked almost human now—long black hair falling in silken strands, skin pale as moonlight. His eyes burned a deep abyssal crimson, and yet behind them lingered something greater, something that made the air itself bend in servitude. His aura spilled lazily across the chamber, and still it felt like drowning.

But he was not alone.

To his right, lounging as if it were his rightful place, sat Kael Dragonyx, his scarlet cloak pooling like blood at his feet, a cruel smile twisting his lips. To the left, Alen the Dark Magi, shrouded in robes that drank the light, his gaze a storm of calculations and silent hunger.

And in front of the throne, stepping forward the moment Kaelen's group entered—

Selene.

The other half of the Chaos Twin.

If Aron had been menacing, Selene was terrifying. Darkness coiled around her frame like living serpents, her form sharpened by Endless' blessing. Her aura was heavier than mountains, her eyes twin pits of void.

"Kaelen Dragonyx," she hissed, her voice like a serpent's caress. "So you came after all. Foolish… but expected."

The others braced themselves. Kelvin's hands were already close to his scythe as it burned with chaos fire, Morris summoned the crackling storm of elements, Guinevere's divine flame flared like a sun.

But Kaelen—Kaelen stepped forward, dangerously calm. The Blade of Eternity shimmered faintly in his hand, blue light dancing along its edge. His eyes locked on Selene, unblinking.

She smirked, twisting her fingers into a snarl of chaotic tendrils. "You'll fall before you ever reach him."

She lunged.

Her speed shattered the ground beneath her. The chaos aura exploded in a storm, tendrils whipping through the air with the force to tear mountains asunder. The others barely had time to brace—

But Kaelen had already moved.

One step forward. One swing of eternity's edge.

The strike wasn't flamboyant, nor heavy. It was clean. Precise. Absolute.

The blue arc cut across Selene before her tendrils could reach him.

For an instant, her eyes widened in disbelief—the same disbelief Aron once wore. Her body convulsed as the cut ran through her core, severing not just flesh but the chaos energy itself.

"Thi.... This is I.... Impossible"

She gasped, blood spilling past her lips, before her form collapsed, dissolving into shadowy fragments that hissed as they scattered into the floor.

Silence.

The vast throne room was hushed once more.

Kaelen lowered his blade slowly, his gaze never leaving Endless. His voice was calm, but it carried across the hall like a storm brewing.

"I've stepped over her. Do I need to step over the rest of you too… before you let me reach him?"

Kael Dragonyx smirked faintly, leaning forward. Alen's eyes narrowed, lips twitching in the shadows of his hood.

"Hahahaha, interesting...."

And Endless—Endless simply laughed, low and resonant, the sound echoing through the hall like the tolling of a funeral bell.