The battlefield still crackled with lingering energy, the remnants of Kael's defiance against the Tribunal. He had broken their decree, shattered their executioners, and sent their warriors fleeing. But he knew this was only the beginning.
The gods were watching.
And soon, they would act.
Kael turned to the First Sovereign, his silver eyes gleaming with renewed power. "They will return stronger next time."
The First Sovereign nodded. "Yes. And they will not come alone."
A gust of wind tore through the ruins, kicking up the dust of ancient battles. The Titanborn, still kneeling in silent observation, finally stirred.
"The war has begun again." Its voice was deep, resonating through the very stone beneath them.
Kael tilted his head. "Then it's time to stop playing defense."
The First Sovereign let out a dry chuckle. "Bold. You remind me of myself before the fall."
Kael smirked. "Except I don't plan on falling."
Kael stretched out his hand, and the space around him trembled.
It was time to gather his own forces.
His mind reached beyond the present, past the veil of mortality, into the depths of the Eternal Rift the place where warriors lost to time still lingered.
Their names had been erased. Their battles forgotten. But Kael could feel them.
"Awaken."
The air shuddered.
Rifts began to open around the ruins, black and silver portals splitting reality apart. From within them, figures emerged.
A towering knight in armor made of obsidian, wielding a sword as large as a mountain.
A woman cloaked in shifting starlight, her hands crackling with the power of collapsing galaxies.
A warlord with molten chains wrapped around his arms, his body covered in the scars of battles fought before time had a name.
Each of them had once challenged the gods. Each of them had been erased from history.
But now, they were his to command.
The First Sovereign watched with an unreadable expression. "You truly mean to wage war against the divine?"
Kael met his gaze. "Not war." He clenched his fist, and time itself seemed to pulse in response.
"Retribution."
Far above, beyond the mortal plane, the heavens themselves rumbled.
In a realm untouched by time, the Tribunal sat upon their thrones of celestial fire. The gods of fate, law, and destruction watched as Kael did the impossible.
A golden-robed figure, its face veiled in swirling light, spoke.
"He has gathered the Forgotten."
Another, cloaked in shifting realities, clenched their fist. "The Forsaken One should not exist."
The central figure, Aetherion the one who had betrayed Kael in the past finally stood. His voice, like the echo of eternity itself, filled the chamber.
"Then it is time we remind him why gods do not kneel."
The heavens split open.