Chapter 22: The Clash of Kings
The battlefield was silent—too silent. The air was thick with something beyond tension, beyond fear. It was anticipation.
The world itself seemed to hold its breath.
Rheon stood tall, his golden eyes locked onto Khaelos, the Forgotten King. Across from him, Khaelos straightened, his black armor pulsing with an eerie, unnatural glow.
Two sovereigns. Two rulers.
One would be erased from existence.
The ground beneath them cracked as their power surged, reality itself warping beneath their opposing wills.
Then—
They moved.
---
The First Strike
Khaelos struck first.
A wave of void energy erupted from his palm, expanding like a black sun, threatening to consume all light in its path.
Rheon barely moved.
With a flick of his wrist, he unraveled the attack midair, breaking it into nothingness.
Khaelos narrowed his gaze.
No hesitation. No fear.
Good.
Because neither of them could afford to hold back.
Rheon lunged forward, his body blurring with speed beyond mortal comprehension. His fist connected with Khaelos' chest—
—only for it to pass through empty space.
Khaelos had vanished.
A whisper of laughter echoed behind him.
"You'll have to do better than that."
Without warning, black spears of anti-reality materialized around Rheon, each one twisting in chaotic patterns, striking from all angles.
But before they could land—
Time itself shattered.
---
The Sovereign's Authority
Rheon was no mere king.
He was the Sovereign of Eternity.
The moment Khaelos' attack neared him, time unraveled, slowing to a crawl as Rheon moved freely between the frozen spears.
With a wave of his hand, he erased them from existence.
Then, he turned.
And in the next instant, his fist connected.
This time, Khaelos had no chance to evade.
The Forgotten King was sent hurtling through the battlefield, his body tunneling through mountains, ripping through entire landscapes before he crashed into the remains of an ancient city.
The silence returned.
Dust settled.
Then, from the rubble—
Laughter.
Deep, guttural, victorious.
Khaelos rose.
Blood dripped from his lips, but his body had already begun to regenerate.
"You think your power is absolute?" he grinned, eyes burning with something ancient. "You forget one thing, Sovereign."
Rheon said nothing, waiting.
Khaelos spread his arms, and the shadows around them came alive.
"I do not exist within reality's rules. And that means—"
The entire concept of distance shattered.
Before Rheon could react, Khaelos appeared in front of him, already mid-strike.
And for the first time—
Rheon felt the force of a true Forgotten One.
---
The Unraveling War
The sky turned black. The world itself warped around their battle, as if existence itself couldn't contain them.
The land was no longer land.
The air was no longer air.
The very laws of the universe crumbled under the weight of two titanic forces colliding beyond mortal comprehension.
And yet—
Neither would back down.
Neither could afford to lose.
For this battle was no longer just about dominance.
It was about who would define the new reality.
And neither Rheon nor Khaelos would accept a world where they were anything less than absolute.
---
The War for Dominion Continues…
The Fracture of Eternity
The world shook.
Not metaphorically, not as an exaggeration—it physically fractured.
Where Rheon and Khaelos clashed, reality itself split apart. The sky rippled like shattered glass, exposing an infinite abyss beneath its cracks. The ground below them no longer followed the laws of nature—mountains floated, rivers flowed in reverse, and time itself twisted unpredictably.
This was no longer a battle.
This was a cataclysm.
And neither would yield.
---
The Forgotten King's Wrath
Khaelos loomed above Rheon, his presence distorting everything around him. His body had begun to shift—no longer bound by a single form. His shadow stretched across the battlefield, expanding into something monstrous.
A crown of void burned above his head. His skeletal armor pulsed with black veins of anti-light, and his right arm had become something… inhuman.
It was no longer a limb—it was a wound in reality itself, a hole where existence shouldn't be.
"You thought yourself a god," Khaelos said, his voice layered, a thousand echoes speaking at once. "But you are nothing more than a king of a broken throne."
He raised his right arm, and the world screamed.
The concept of destruction itself was turned into a weapon.
It wasn't fire.
It wasn't lightning.
It wasn't even darkness.
It was uncreation.
If it touched Rheon, he wouldn't just die—he would be forgotten from all of existence.
Erased. As if he had never been.
Khaelos swung down.
And Rheon met him head-on.
---
The Sovereign's Defiance
Most would flee. Most would shrink before the abyss.
Rheon stepped forward.
If Khaelos wielded the power to erase existence, then Rheon would wield the power to overwrite it.
Golden radiance exploded from his body.
The Throne of Eternity was no longer just a seat of power—it was an extension of his very being.
And with it, he rewrote the rules of reality.
"Begone."
His voice was law.
Khaelos' attack—the very concept of destruction—was rewritten midair.
It failed to exist.
The Forgotten King staggered, his expression twisting in shock.
"You—!"
Before he could finish, Rheon moved.
Faster than thought.
Faster than time.
His fist collided with Khaelos' chest—not with physical force, but with absolute authority.
The impact shattered the heavens.
The Forgotten King was sent hurtling through realms, his form unstable, cracks forming in his very essence.
But Rheon wasn't finished.
He raised his hand—and the sky itself bent to his will.
The Sovereign of Eternity would allow no challengers.
And Khaelos would soon understand why.
---
The Final Seal Begins to Tremble…
Far beyond their battle, in a realm untouched by gods or mortals, something stirred.
A force older than both Rheon and Khaelos.
A presence that had been sealed before time itself had been recorded.
The Third Seal trembled.
And in the void, something laughed.