Chapter 43: Four Against a God

The air was cracked open by force.

Jalen stood at the center of the chamber, his silhouette outlined in radiant gold and violent violet, his new form humming with raw, godlike power. His coat fluttered in a wind that didn't exist. Threads of energy laced his arms like living tattoos, and his eyes glowed with a storm that none of them had ever seen before.

For a moment—just a moment—time felt still.

Lucio stared from the Jury Stand, blood trailing down the side of his face, eyes wide with awe. "What the hell…?"

Nathan's voice was low. Distant. "That's not just raw power. That's not glyphs, that's not Dream Mold. That's something else…"

"It's divinity," Kullen whispered, his voice hoarse. "That's godhood… or the start of it."

Lucio turned sharply. "What do you mean 'godhood'?"

"I mean Jalen's not just pulling power from himself anymore." Kullen's eyes never left the chamber floor. "That's divine energy. But his body—it's not ready to handle it."

Even as he said it, Jalen's form wavered for a split second. Cracks of light ran along his shoulder, too symmetrical to be injury, more like… fractures in a vessel too full. Steam hissed off his arms as golden light pulsed beneath the surface of his skin.

"Shit," Nathan breathed. "It's eating him alive."

From the center of the room, Veyruun sneered.

"You steal the power of the divine… and yet your body shatters beneath its weight.""This is not ascension. This is delusion."

Jalen stood still, smoke rising from his arms. His jaw clenched. And then he moved.

Fast.

The chamber trembled as Jalen vanished from sight and reappeared above Veyruun with a roar, his fist crashing down. Veyruun raised his staff in defense—barely in time. The shockwave from the impact blew chunks of obsidian from the floor and knocked entire columns loose from the ceiling.

They clashed again. Then again. Blows like thunder. Movements like lightning.

But each strike from Jalen cost him. His golden glow flickered. His left arm sparked, the divine etchings faltering like static.

"This isn't over," Jalen growled, surging forward with another barrage of strikes."You're not walking away from this."

"Your power is borrowed. Your body is borrowed. You are a vessel held together by arrogance." Veyruun caught his fist mid-swing. "Let me shatter it."

The god hurled Jalen across the room, but Jalen caught himself midair with a pulse of energy, skidding across the ground and dropping to one knee. He coughed violently, blood splattering the floor.

His body pulsed again—veins glowing too bright. His muscles spasmed, barely holding together. Hair matted to his forehead, his breathing was jagged and forced.

He didn't have much time left.

And he knew it.

"One more push…" he muttered, voice trembling as he stood. "One more…"

Veyruun raised his staff again.

But this time, Jalen didn't charge forward. He reached into the space between worlds. A spark ignited in his palm.

"Hang on."

With a cry, he hurled his hand toward the Jury Stand—and golden chains shattered.

Nathan, Lucio, and Kullen fell free, hitting the ground hard. The golden bindings cracked like glass, disintegrating as Jalen's divine pulse exploded outward.

Steam hissed off his back. His body staggered. One knee hit the ground.

"Jalen!" Lucio shouted.

Under his breath, Jalen mumbled an incantation. Three glyphs sparked to life and shot from his fingertips, branding themselves into the arms of each of his friends—glowing gold and violet, divine and volatile.

"I can't beat him alone… and this power won't last. So I'm splitting it. This is our shot—" Jalen's voice cracked with effort."Our last one. Now take it!"

The god roared. Veyruun's voice boomed with fury, his molten eyes narrowing.

"You defile the sacred order with borrowed flame. Judgment shall burn you all."

Jalen's body shuddered. Golden cracks raced up his arms and across his chest like fissures in porcelain. His form wasn't stable—his body rejecting the divine current flooding through it. He winced but forced the pain down, teeth clenched.

"Then let's burn together."

He launched forward.

The room erupted into chaos.

Lucio moved first.

He vanished in a blink—Silent Night active once more, supercharged by Jalen's glyph. He blurred through the battlefield like a wraith, appearing behind Veyruun mid-swing.

One clean shot. One moment.

BANG!

The bullet collided with the back of Veyruun's neck and actually cracked the stone flesh. Not deep. But it was the first time any of them had truly wounded him.

Veyruun snarled, lashing out with his staff, but Lucio had already vanished.

Nathan surged in from the left, time swirling like a vortex around him.

"Time's Requiem!"

His new glyph blazed, enhancing his manipulation tenfold. He weaved between moments, attacking in bursts from multiple angles. Veyruun's staff swept through space, but Nathan bent it—twisting seconds, forcing gaps, finding openings.

For a split second, Nathan froze Veyruun's arm.

Lucio reappeared in that same moment, firing point-blank.

A second crack.

Kullen followed last.

His eyes glowed emerald, his hand raised. "Sovereign's Dominion."

But this time, the glyph amplified more than thought—it gave voice to command.

His voice echoed like a god's: "Fall."

Veyruun staggered.

The mental command hit like a wrecking ball, enough to force the god's knees to buckle. His grip on the staff wavered.

"Jalen, now!" Kullen roared.

Jalen rocketed forward, his semi-awakened form burning with unstable power. The golden cracks had deepened, light spilling from them like divine blood.

He conjured a hammer made of starlight and memory, raising it high.

"For every soul you chained—" he swung.

"For every trial you twisted—" another blow.

"For every one of us you tried to break—"

Jalen slammed the hammer into Veyruun's chest. A deep impact. The god bent under the force, coughing molten ichor.

"Judgment goes both ways!"

Veyruun roared, releasing a blinding surge of energy. The chamber shook violently, chunks of stone plummeting from the ceiling. His form crackled, his staff spinning in a blazing arc.

"You DARE turn my own power against me?!"

He swung the staff like a god made of fire and wrath.

Nathan caught the brunt of the blow, his body flying across the chamber.

Lucio dove to shield Kullen from debris.

Jalen was thrown back, slammed against the far wall. The cracks on his body deepened.

His breathing slowed.

The semi-awakened glow dimmed.

But Jalen stood. Bleeding. Burning. Still standing.

"I said… this is OUR fight."

The three others regrouped, stumbling but alive. They circled Veyruun again, the glyphs on their arms burning bright.

Even Veyruun, chest rising and falling, showed signs of fatigue. His godly form—flawless no longer. His armor cracked. His grip on the staff faltered.

The chamber was falling apart around them—pillars collapsing, judgment cracking.

"You persist… like vermin scurrying beneath thunder.""But thunder has no power without the storm behind it," Jalen snarled. "And I brought mine."

Behind him, Nathan, Lucio, and Kullen stood battered but defiant. The divine glyphs on their arms pulsed in sync with Jalen's chest, dimming but still burning.

"You want judgment?" Jalen's fists clenched. "Then you're gonna choke on it."

Veyruun struck first.

His staff blazed with searing light, carving a line of golden destruction straight toward the team. But they scattered—Nathan bent time, dragging Lucio and Kullen with him in a blur of motion, while Jalen slammed his foot down, conjuring a radiant wall of pure will to divert the blast.

Lucio dove out from the streak of slowed time, rifle locked and loaded."Let's clip your wings, bitch."

He fired—one shot. Two. Three. Time-bent bullets spiraled mid-air like orbiting comets. Veyruun swatted two away—but the third struck the base of his staff, splintering a piece of it.

Veyruun faltered.

"Enough of your tricks!"

He hurled a sphere of judgment, a condensed core of divine fury, directly at Lucio—too fast to dodge.

But Kullen stepped in.

"I SAID NO.""Sovereign's Dominion: Override."

His voice struck reality like a gong. The sphere cracked in midair, imploded, and vanished.Veyruun's eyes widened.

Kullen collapsed to one knee, blood streaming from his nose. "Won't… let you… touch my people…"

Nathan seized the opening.

"Time's Requiem!"But it wasn't just the skill—it was the glyph amplifying his will.He didn't just pause time—he rewound it, briefly resetting the last five seconds. Veyruun, unaware, stepped into the same space again—this time, right into Jalen's punch.

Jalen's fist connected.A crater formed beneath Veyruun's feet.

Obsidian armor shattered from his ribs.

But Veyruun roared back with a fury that shook the gods themselves.

"YOU ARE NOT A GOD! YOU ARE A BROKEN MORTAL PRETENDING TO RULE!"

His staff burst into shards, twisting into a massive judgment blade, cleaving down with relentless fury. Nathan dove aside, Kullen shielded Lucio, and—

Jalen caught the blade with his bare hands.

Golden cracks exploded up his arms, the glyphs flickering. His voice came out ragged.

"I never said I wanted to be…"

He lifted the blade, eyes burning with fire. "…but I will do whatever it takes to get back home."

Jalen hurled the judgment blade aside and roared.

His friends surged with him.

Lucio vanished into shadow, reappeared above, emptying his final clip into Veyruun's skull. Nathan reversed Veyruun's swing, buying a second's worth of stagger. Kullen threw out a final mind spike—one that made the god hesitate, if only briefly.

And Jalen drove his fist into Veyruun's chest, expanding his arua right into his core. Veyruun howled as the remainder of his power detonated in unison.

A final pulse of gold and violet light engulfed the chamber.

When the dust cleared, silence followed.

Veyruun was on his knees. Shattered. Breathless.

The divine fire within him… sputtered.

He looked up at Jalen, smoke trailing from the cracks across his face.

"…so be it.""I have been judged."

He collapsed, his body turning to dust. The chamber slowly disappearing from existence, and the heavy weight they felt from the moment they began their climb up the mountain was gone.

Jalen stood at the center, breathing raggedly. His semi-awakened form flickered, then finally dimmed, the glow fading from his veins.

Lucio collapsed beside him, coughing blood. Nathan slumped to his knees, hand over his chest. Kullen lowered himself against a wall, eyes glazed with exhaustion. All of their glyphs burning off their arms.

None of them spoke.

But they all looked at each other.

They were alive.

And the god of judgment…

Wasn't.