Part 1 - The King Of Light (Chapter 5)

— Castle

Caelus (Light King) whistles a tune.

???: "Sir! Sir!!"

Caelus: "Yes Sori?"

Sori: "The toxin general died just last night!"

Silence.

Caelus: "How?"

Sori: "The Prince of Noctros and this one water user, they killed—"

Caelus: "Water user?"

Sori: "Yes. I think—"

Caelus: "I don't remember any water users."

Sori: "I think—"

Caelus: "So he's born with it."

Sori: "We need to—"

Caelus: "Why do you act as if you're the one making plans?"

Sori: "Huh..?"

Caelus: "No, no, really—I'm curious. Because from where I'm standing, you're just a little messenger girl. But here you are..."

He makes a mocking gesture with his hand.

"Blah blah blah."

"Do you really think I need your insight on what to do?"

Sori: "I-I was just—"

Caelus: 'No, no, you weren't just anything. You were interrupting me. Wasting my time. Pretending you're important. And I really don't like that."

"See, I give you people food, shelter, a purpose. And in return, I expect one simple thing—obedience.. But instead, I get you, flapping your mouth like you're somebody."

"Are you somebody? Sori."

Sori stays silent.

Caelus: "I am a man of offer, choice, will, trade. So..."

"You have two options, sori."

"Run or Stay?"

Sori breathes heavy.

Caelus: "Answer me. Ten seconds before I pick for you."

..

"Ten."

"Nine."

"Eight."

"Seven."

"Six."

"Five."

Sori: "Stay.. I want to stay.."

Caelus: "Fine. But, you people fumble over your words, you stammer, you panic. And yet, you expect me to listen to you? To care what you think?"

His smile fades.

Caelus: "Let me be crystal clear, Sori—you're nothing. A speck of dust I tolerate because it's amusing. Because it's easy."

Caelus: "But the moment you stop being useful? You're gone. And no one, not a single soul, will even remember you."

Silence.

Caelus: "So... before I change my mind, go get the portal hippie."

He smiles again and his golden tooth sparks through.

"I'll make use of that water user."

Caelus: "And smile while you do it, huh? You're part of something important."

Sori: "Yes."

She forces a smile, and walks away.

— Infirmary in Verge

3:23 AM.

Vento: "Blaaahh... Hey this one's awake after two days now!'

Osk: "Where am I...?"

Vento: "Welcome to heaven!"

Osk: "Nice try.. I'd be down there."

Vento laughs: "You're friend's still asleep. Don't worry though, he's patched up."

Osk: "Fuck.. It's my fault. I dragged him in this."

"I shouldn't have let him follow me for my own needs."

Vento: "It's alright. If it makes you feel better, he looks like the stubborn type. Probably would've followed you even if you told him not to."

Osk: "Yeah... That's the problem."

Vento: "Well, at least you're self-aware. Guilt's a real nasty thing, though. Eats you up if you let it. And right now? You two don't have time for that."

Osk glances at Vael, still unconscious. "What happens now?"

Vento smiles. "Depends. You wanna sit around feeling bad, or do you wanna make sure this wasn't for nothing?"

Osk: "Yeah... Yeah, I know. Just—" He looks at Vael again. "If he wakes up, let me know."

Okin: "Alright.."

Vento: "Now get your strength back. Come with me."

—Outside.

Osk: "Whats all the blood? And where even are we??"

Vento: "Mid-level pirate attack, we're in verge."

Osk: "How many people died?"

Vento: "None in our side."

Osk: "Who killed the pirates?"

Vento: "I did."

Osk: "A medic did that? Sure."

Vento: "Yeah. Their heads went kaboom."

Osk: "Right. And I'm supposed to believe the guy patching us up is also some unstoppable killer?"

Vento laughs "Believe what you want. Pirates sure believed it—for about half a second."

...

Vento: "Not again.."

Osk: "What?"

Vento: "Some magic user."

The air rips!

Hands stick out, forcing a man out.

His hands are bound in thick, rusted chains, wrapped so tightly the metal digs into his skin. His mouth is sealed shut, covered by an iron mask, its surface etched with ancient symbols.

Vento: "And your name isss...?"

Foam comes out of the mans sealed mouth.

The air rips.

Vento gets grabbed by chains and gets flung into a building.

CRASH!

Vento: "What for?"

"MY LEG—SOMEBODY HELP! I CAN'T MOVE!"

The air rips.

A house comes falling down at Vento.

Vento sighs and pushes the house right back at him.

"NO! NO! MY WIFE IS IN THERE! SHE'S IN THERE!"

Osk: "What the hell is going on..."

The chained man appears behind osk.

As soon as the chained man is about to strike he gets flung by the air.

Vento: "Yeah he's gonna destroy this city."

Osk: "WHAT?!"

KRAK! A massive gash in space opens up beneath Osk's feet—a hole of pure nothingness.

Osk: "SHIT—!"

WHOOSH! A blast of wind hurls him sideways just in time.

Vento: "See? Two seconds, and you'd be turned into a soup."

The air rips again.

The man's chains whip out, striking at Vento from every direction.

Vento snaps—BOOM!—a shockwave rips through the battlefield, sending the chains recoiling like severed nerves.

Osk: "Hes fast?!"

Vento: "Easy, Just kill him."

The chained man tilts his head. His fingers twitch, and the space around them warps, bends, twists—

The air shatters like glass.

Vento: "Huh?"

The chained man grabs Vento and slams him into multiple houses.

FYOO—

The chained man teleports before being striked by the wind.

The air rips.

The chained man grabs Vento by chains and teleports him up high, trying to hang him."

Vento: "TCH—"

..

A crackle in the air.

A slow, steady inhale.

Vento's eyes sharpen.

Vento: "...You wanna hang me?"

FWOOOOO—

The sky BOOMS.

A burst of wind EXPLODES outward.

KRAK! The chains snap like brittle twigs.

Vento rockets downward.

Vento laughs

The air pushes all sides of the chained man.

His eyes widen.

He tries to teleport—but air is already bending against him.

Hes flung by air,

He gets into houses, the ground, again and again, then he gets thrown up.

"I CAN'T BREATHE! GODS—HELP! PLEASE!"

"This isn't happening. This isn't real. Wake up. Wake up. Please wake up."

WHOOM—BOOM!

He SLAMS into the dirt like a meteor, the force leaving a crater beneath him. The ground quakes. Dust erupts.

The chained man's head explodes.

CRACK!!

HIS BODY REPAIRS ITSELF BY THE PORTALS.

Vento: "Amazing.."

He sends a multitude of cars flying right at Osk and Vento.

FYIP—

They compress together tightly.

"SHIT—"

"OH MY GOD.. WE'RE GONNA DIE!"

Osk: "MY TURN!!"

He swings his sword, Morticivus, shredding the ground below and successfully striking him in the chest and splitting him in half.

The chained man spurts blood around.

He quickly seals up his wounds by creating a portal, welding his flesh back into place.

The air rips.

RIP. A portal opens in front of Osk—a fist flies out.

THWAM! His head snaps sideways.

RIP. Another portal—a chain whips out, wrapping around his wrist.

RIP. A second chain grabs his leg.

RIP. A third chain bursts from beneath him, yanking him downward.

Portals rip open everywhere, filling the air like shattered glass.

—A fist flies out of one.

—A boot swings from another.

—A chunk of stone is hurled from one above.

—A whipping chain coils around his torso.

The Chained One is everywhere. His attacks are relentless, unpredictable, coming from angles that shouldn't even exist.

Osk slashes Morticivus blindly, cutting him into several pieces, but again, portals form around him, returning him back to normal.

—A punch to the gut.

—A knee to the ribs.

—A chain snapping around his throat.

—A boot slamming into his back.

Each blow sends him staggering into another portal, launching him back into another hit, another attack, another punishment.

It's a flurry of fists, chains, and steel.

The air rips apart again.

Portals open above, dropping entire chunks of buildings onto him.

Osk dives aside, barely dodging.

RIP! A portal opens at his feet—his own sword swings up at him.

Osk barely twists in time, avoiding his own attack.

Then—RIP.

A dozen portals open in a tight circle around him.

Chains explode outward.

They wrap his limbs. His waist. His neck.

They tighten.

The Chained One steps forward.

Another RIP.

A giant portal opens directly above Osk—a massive tower, freshly torn from the ground itself, comes CRASHING DOWN.

Vento (from afar): "Oh, come the hell on."

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH—

A shockwave of wind erupts, sending the building flying back and destroying the chained man's torso.

The explosion of debris is instant, deadly.

A child is ripped from his mother's grasp in the stampede.

"MY BABY! PLEASE—SOMEBODY—HELP ME FIND HIM!"

"MOVE! MOVE!"

"WHERE'S MY ARM?! I CAN'T FEEL MY ARM—OH GODS—"

The Chained One's mask tilts slightly.

He fixes himself, creating portals inside his body.

RIP! A portal flashes open behind Vento— something unseen strikes his back, sending him crashing forward.

Then—RIP.

A portal opens inside of Osk's own shadow.

A fist bursts out of his own reflection—

—SMASHING him in the face.

Vento flies back, crashing into another portal, which flings him forward again—

—directly into the waiting knee of the Chained One.

CRACK!

Vento gasps, blood spraying from his mouth.

The Chained One doesn't stop.

Portals burst into existence faster than the eye can track.

—Chains rip at his flesh.

—Fists pummel his ribs.

—Buildings hurl toward him from thin air.

"Help me... please... I don't... I don't wanna die..."

"Buildings. Buildings. THEY'RE THROWING BUILDINGS. THEY'RE THROWING BUILDINGS AT US!"

—Even the ground beneath him collapses into a portal, swallowing him whole—

—before spitting him back out mid-air, helpless, surrounded.

A circle of portals forms around him.

From each one—a chained fist emerges.

They all punch forward.

WHAM. WHAM. WHAM. WHAM. WHAM.

Osk and Vento is hit from every possible direction at once.

The world goes white.

Silence.

Osk falls.

The Chained One watches, expression unreadable behind the iron mask.

Osk's body plummets toward a final, massive portal below.

A void.

A place where nothing exists.

Where he will never return.

But—

A hand grabs him and forces him out.

Wind EXPLODES outward.

Vento: "I think that's enough, don't you?"

FWOOOM! The sky rips open with a hundred jagged portals, their swirling edges crackling with violet energy. Entire buildings—ripped straight from Verge—are hurled through the void, flung at Vento with impossible speed.

Vento's eyes flick up. "Alright. That's new."

The first impact is catastrophic. A cathedral slams into the street, shattering upon impact. The explosion of stone, glass, and fire swallows everything in its path. The shockwave alone sends dozens flying, bodies twisting midair before hitting the ground with sickening CRACKS.

"GOD! GOD! I've always prayed.. PLEASE."

A merchant's cart—once filled with fresh bread and spices—is crushed beneath a falling mansion.

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!"

More buildings rain down—a towering inn, a row of homes, an entire marketplace. The sky is a storm of death, raining down ruin.

"RUN! JUST RUN!"

A father grabs his daughter, dragging her away as a library crashes down behind them, sending waves of dust and debris roaring through the streets.

"MY HOME—MY FAMILY—OH GODS!"

A small house hurtles straight toward a crowded plaza. The people trapped there scream, pushing against one another, trying to escape, but there's nowhere to go.

A man on his knees, paralyzed by shock, can only whisper:

"What did I do to deserve this?"

Then, the house hits.

The explosion of splintered wood and crumbling stone is drowned out by the sheer volume of screaming.

A young boy stands in the middle of it all, staring up at the sky of nightmares, his tiny hands shaking.

"Mommy...? Mommy, where are you...?"

The city dies in pieces, one building, one scream, one life at a time.

BOOM! A crumbling tower spirals toward him, its shadow swallowing the street below.

Vento exhales. FWOOOO—! A fierce gust erupts from his palm, sending the entire structure flipping backward mid-air—but before it can even hit the ground—

RIP!

A portal tears reality apart, catching the falling tower and spitting it out behind him—twice as fast.

CRASH! The building SLAMS into Vento's back, splintering into an avalanche of steel and stone. The dust barely has time to settle before—

RIP. RIP. RIP.

More portals. More buildings.

A cathedral bell tower rockets toward him. A merchant's plaza flips upside down mid-flight. A fortress wall breaks apart into pieces mid-air, each one aiming for him like homing missiles.

A young woman bangs her fists against a glass window, eyes wide with silent sobs as she watches the debris rush toward her reflection.

A father grabs his son by the shoulders, shoving him toward the nearest alleyway, his own legs refusing to move.

Another is crushed by falling debris.

Vento grins, blood running down his forehead. "You wanna play catch?"

FOOOOM!

He claps his hands—HARD. A wind erupts from his fingertips, a sheer force so strong that—

WHOOSH—!

Every falling structure is caught mid-air, frozen in place like a cosmic pause button. The debris vibrates, caught between the portal's pull and Vento's pressure.

A man shoots himself.

Others pray.

And others, stay still and silent.

Then he flicks his wrist.

The buildings REVERSE DIRECTION.

BANG—!

One crashes back through a portal, emerging somewhere else—before another portal catches it, sending it spinning sideways into another. A deadly loop of destruction.

WHOOM—!

A whole watchtower pierces through the battlefield like a harpoon, nearly catching the chained man off guard. He barely dodges—but his own portal betrays him, spitting another structure at his back.

"OH MY GOD MY SON! MY SON IS DEAD!"

RIIIIIP—!

Suddenly, the chained man tears open a portal beneath himself.

He drops straight through—vanishing.

Osk tenses. "Where the hell did he—?"

RIP! A portal tears open mid-air— a jagged slash appears across Osk's shoulder, blood spraying. He stumbles.

PUNCH! He grabs Osk and flings him towards Vento.

Vento slows down Osk.

The chained man rushes over the floating buildings, swapping one from another portal by portal.

WHOOSH! A portal rips open right in front of Osk. A fist flies out.

CRACK!!

Osk takes the punch straight to the jaw, sent skidding across the side of a floating skyscraper.

"THEY'RE ON THE FUCKING BUILIDING!"

"PLEASE NOT US! PLEASE."

Before he can recover—FWOOOOSH!

RIP! Another portal. A heavy bruise blooms on Vento's ribs as if he was struck by an invisible force.

Another portal snaps open below him—a foot slams into his gut.

He rockets upward, smashing through a glass window, tumbling into the building.

"GOD PLEASE—" Debris fall on them.

Vento barely dodges as chains burst out from thin air, wrapping around a concrete pillar. The chained man swings himself like a wrecking ball, smashing through the walls of a nearby structure.

"MY ARM!! MY ARM!!"

He reappears everywhere.

Behind them. In front. Above. Below. A flurry of attacks from every angle.

Osk grits his teeth, digging his sword into the floor to stop himself from falling. "This guy—HE'S FIGHTING FROM EVERY DIRECTION!"

Vento spins midair, riding a gust of wind, narrowly dodging a steel beam hurled from a portal. "Yeah, no shit! He's turning the city into a playtoy!"

Osk launches forward, gripping Morticivus.

SLASH!

The blade rips through a building—but the chained man is already gone, stepping through a portal just before the attack lands.

RIP! A portal flickers above them—Osk barely ducks in time as his own blood drips from it, wounds appearing from nowhere.

Then—BOOM!!

A portal opens inside the building itself—the chained man punches through the entire structure from the inside! The force breaks the walls outward, sending glass and steel exploding in all directions.

"MY LEGS.. MY FUCKING LEGS ARE GONE!"

"DAD?? DAD PLEASE!!"

Osk is thrown back, slamming into a collapsing rooftop. He flips midair, bouncing off debris, kicking off a window frame, then sprinting up the side of a vertical skyscraper.

RIP! Vento clenches his fist as his knuckles split open, blood dripping down his fingers. He never even threw a punch.

PUNCH! Vento gets sent into a building.

The chained man hops portal to portal, striking him.

He teleports an explosive.

KABOOOM!

Vento and The chained man are flung outside.

The building is falling onto pedestrians

Vento coughs and freezes the building mid-fall.

PUNCH! Vento gets hit by the hard fists of The chained man.

The building falls over on the pedestrians.

Vento: "Shiit."

He exhales.

The chained man is flung into the hull of multiple buildings.

CRASH! His limbs tear and tear, his portals trying to regrow each one.

The Chained Man is grabbed mid air

Chained man: "AGH!"

Vento slams The Chained Man onto the pavement, and drags his body, scratching his skin off the pavement, then is thrown across multiple buildings at unimaginable force.

The buildings are ripped from the ground.

Then—

DOZENS OF PORTALS OPEN AT ONCE.

Every building. Every angle.

A merchant claws at his throat, his eyes bulging, veins rising from his skin as his lips tremble. He staggers forward, reaching—toward nothing—before his legs give out and he collapses, twitching.

A mother grabs her son, pulling him into her chest, her nails digging into his back as she shields him with her body. Her lips part in what should be a scream, but her face twists in agony. Her son's small hands push weakly against her arms, eyes wide, begging her to fix what she cannot.

A woman falls to her knees, her fingers pressed together in prayer as she looks to the heavens, lips forming words that will never be heard. then falling into a splatter.

A man in golden robes stumbles back, hands shaking, his mouth stammering a question that even he will never hear. He turns in frantic, grabbing the shoulders of another falling, shaking them desperately, but the other man is already limp in his grasp.

Some people don't even realize what's happening before they drop, their bodies hitting the ground with a loud splat, eyes frozen open in shock.

But the buildings keep coming.

The chained man steps through one—and immediately emerges from another, fist flying.

Osk parries.

SPARKS FLY. The clash of steel and fist sends a shockwave through the air.

The chained man vanishes again—reappearing in a different portal mid-strike.

BAM! A knee to Osk's ribs.

BAM! A punch to his face.

BAM! He grabs Osk's neck, spinning him through three different portals before launching him into a crumbling clock tower.

Vento hurls a massive gust of wind, but—it vanishes into a portal and comes back at him!

WHOOSH—

Vento's own attack slams him into a billboard, bending it in half.

RIP! A fresh bruise swells over Vento's jaw, his head snapping sideways as if an invisible fist landed clean.

CRUSH!

The Chained Man is crushed into pieces.

The portal reanimates him.

FLICK! FYIP—

The Chained Man gets his upper half ripped off.

The portal reanimates him.

BAM!

The Chained Man's lungs inflate.. Then POP!

The portal fixes it.

The Chained Man flings Vento high up

Vento laughs..

He crushes The Chained Mans jaw and flings him to the ground.

SPLAT!

The portal reanimates him.

"So, that's what it is, huh? Each time you've attacked us, there were always a few attacks that randomly popped up on my body and Osk's... Whether it be chain marks, heavy bruises, cuts—it always happened when you summoned small portals on us. I get it now. You don't just control portals; you control the time inside them as well.

The Chained Man flicks his chains.

CRUSH!

A building is thrown at him.

The portal reanimates him.

"But it's more than that, isn't it? You're not just a portal manipulator. You are a fusion of two magical elements—portal and time. That's why your chains move unnaturally, striking from angles that shouldn't be possible. Your body itself is a paradox, existing in multiple moments at once, allowing you to bend both reality and fate to your will.

The Chained Man Leaps.

FYIP—

His head comes off.

The portal reanimates him.

Each time I land a critical attack—attacks that should kill almost anyone—you survive. You summon a portal on yourself, swapping into your past self, essentially negating the damage. That's your trick. A loophole in existence itself.

The Chained Man roars.

He implodes.

The portal reanimates him.

But now, I see it. The time-based portal attacks you've been using against us are slowing down. Your precision is slipping. You've resorted to external attacks, like throwing buildings instead of warping the very fabric of this fight. That means one thing. Your future ends soon.

He slams down The Chained Man.

Locking him in place.

How old are you? How many years have you suffered? How many times have you undone death, forcing yourself to relive this endless torment?

Vento Laughs.

Caelus Aurelis. You have tried over and over to make yourself the perfect being, you force others to deal with the consequences of your own actions. This man should have never had a magical element in the first place.

Doctors that lie, Hopes that never come true. I understand you, Chained Man. I too would want an escape from your situation."

"I'm sorry, everyone. I couldn't save you all. No matter how hard I fought... it wasn't enough. I promised I'd protect you, that I'd keep you safe—but I failed. And now, all I can do is stand here, surrounded by the ruins of what I swore to protect. If I had been stronger... if I had been faster... maybe things would have been different. But it's too late now, isn't it?"

"I'll give you a mercy."

A green crown appears above Vento's head.

| Vento has gained maximum amount of energy |

FWOOOOSH—!

The air behind them shatters.

The chained man EMERGES FROM A PORTAL UPSIDE DOWN ABOVE VENTO, his chains twisting like a whip, aiming to smash Vento's skull into the ground.

Everything contains oxygen...

And Vento controls the air.

He takes a deep breath.

The pressure in the atmosphere shifts. The floating debris—twisted steel, shattered bricks, wooden beams—all tremble, as if reality itself is about to crack.

The chained man pauses mid-strike, sensing something is deeply wrong.

Vento exhales. And then—

RIIIIIP—!!

Every single molecule of oxygen is RIPPED from the buildings, the ground, the very air itself—STRIPPED DOWN TO NOTHING.

The battlefield goes silent.

People fall

They scream in silence.

Soundwaves do not travel without any oxygen.

The portals flicker. The swirling energy in their cores dims. The chained man gasps, feeling an unfamiliar sensation—his own breath faltering.

There's no air left to breathe.

The floating buildings? They collapse instantly. The removal of oxygen—of stability—destroys their very structure.

CRACK.

CRACK. CRACK!

BOOOOOOM!

They implode like paper sucked into a vacuum, disintegrating into a fine, white dust—not falling, not crashing—just GONE.

Osk stumbles back, clutching his throat.

The oxygen gathers.

All of it. Compressed into one singular point.

A single invisible sphere—a mass of pure, unstable O2—floating above his hand.

The chained man's instincts scream. He rips open a portal—

FWOOOOSH!

Too late.

He flings Osk and ALL INHABITANTS OF VERGE back into Noctros, far away.

Vento SNAPS HIS FINGERS.

THE CHAINED MAN GRABS VAEL AND OKIN FALLING DOWN FROM DESTROYED BUILDINGS AND TELEPORTS THEM.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!

The oxygen IGNITES.

A WHITE LIGHT—brighter than the sun—ERUPTS ACROSS THE SKY, A THERMOBARIC EXPLOSION THAT SHAKES THE VERY CORE OF VERGE.

EVERY SINGLE PORTAL COLLAPSES.

THE CHAINED MAN IS ERASED.

Silence.

The battlefield is leveled.

Nothing remains but smoke, dust, and the lingering crackle of burning air.

Vento exhales, dropping to one knee.

4:03 AM.

| CHAPTER 5 END |