CHAPTER TEN: The Leviathan Wakes
[Kael — Seconds After Impact]
The world didn't shake.
It convulsed.
The Leviathan crashed into the earth like the memory of creation gone wrong.
Stone folded. Forests burned without flame.
The sun flickered not blocked, but afraid.
Kael stood at the forefront, cloak shredded, armor reforming around him in pulsing plates of living shadow.
[System Alert: Divine-Class Hostile Entity Confirmed]
[Designation: Radiant Leviathan]
[Estimated Power Level: Class Omega | Collapse Potential: 72.9%]
[Your Response: Manual Override Engaged]
He walked forward, every step leaving a footprint that devoured light.
Behind him thousands followed.
Before him a god.
[The Leviathan — Cognitive Stream]
"UNACCEPTABLE ENTITY DETECTED."
"ERROR: MORTAL CORE EXCEEDS PERMITTED ASCENSION."
"PURGE REQUIRED."
It spoke without sound.
The air obeyed it.
It had been built from holy bones, fired in heaven's engine, and bathed in royal blood. A divine creation meant to erase sins before they grew teeth.
But Kael wasn't sin.
He was revenge evolved.
[Selis — The High Ridge, Godkiller Drawn]
She watched the battle from above.
But not for long.
The moment the Leviathan unleashed its first breath a beam of consecrated starfire she was already moving.
Not toward it.
But toward Kael.
Not to kill him.
Not yet.
But to see.
To watch what he would do with power that could shatter kings.
Would he protect?
Would he destroy?
Or would he simply become something not human anymore?
[Arin — Midfield, Among the Army]
The fire hit but Kael caught it.
With his bare hands.
Or rather, hands wrapped in sovereign system-coding, infused with shadow deeper than divine.
The entire army dropped to their knees from the pressure.
Arin did not.
She stepped forward, hand outstretched
And felt the Soulthread ignite.
Kael's pain burned into her chest. Her love returned as shield.
They stood between armies and godfire
Together.
[Kael — Unleashed]
His voice was low.
Not angry.
Certain.
"You're not a god," Kael said, as he took another step toward the Leviathan, whose body now spanned half a valley.
"You're a leash they built for monsters they were afraid to kill."
The system flared.
His blade, Judgment, formed no longer dark metal, but liquid shadow, curved and humming with divine resonance.
He raised it.
[Final Combat Form Activated: Shadow Sovereign – Phase I]
[New Trait: Domain Eater — All enemy abilities degrade inside your presence]
He blinked
And appeared above the Leviathan's eye.
One slash.
He cut a god.
[The Leviathan — System Distortion]
"ERROR."
"MORTAL ENTITY BREACHED CORE FLESH."
"SHADOW-CODE UNACCOUNTED FOR."
"REWRITING STRATEGY ENGAGING ASCENSION MODE."
The god's spine exploded upward ten thousand scripture-covered limbs forming a crown of death.
The war had only just begun.
[Kael — Inside the Leviathan's Shadow]
His blade still sang as it retracted, soaked in ichor that smoked mid-air divine blood that hissed and screamed as it touched the mortal realm.
The Leviathan screamed again, not in pain.
In recognition.
It had never bled.
It had never been touched.
It was not supposed to be hurt.
Kael blurred again, teleporting from horn to spine to flank with impossible speed, his system burning raw as he carved black scars across a holy creature's flesh.
But then the Leviathan adapted.
Flame turned liquid.
Scripture became limbs.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Whips of radiant energy lashed out in every direction, leveling trees, tearing rebels from the field, cracking the ground itself.
Kael caught three of them mid-air with a single clenched fist.
[New Trait Unlocked: Monarch Gravity]
Command localized reality within a 20-meter radius. All motion obeys you.
He crushed them reversing the direction of time around the limbs.
They curled back into the Leviathan's body.
The beast howled.
[Selis — Midfall]
She leapt from the ridge.
Not for Kael.
Not for the Leviathan.
For herself.
The Godkiller Blade burned in her hand, a weapon older than gods, its edge trembling with anticipation. It wanted Kael. The Sovereign. The one who had reached too far.
But Selis didn't land beside him.
She landed between them.
The blade went into the ground.
Kael turned, his system flaring with warning.
[ALERT: Godkiller Class Artifact Detected – Threat Level: Total System Collapse]
"Selis," he growled.
She didn't lift her eyes.
"You're losing yourself," she said. "One cut too deep, Kael… and we won't be at war. You'll just be the next god I have to kill."
[Kael — Frozen]
For one moment
He stopped.
Not because of threat.
Because of her.
Because in her eyes, he saw not fear.
But finality.
And that made him hesitate.
And the Leviathan took it.
A beam of starfire ripped the sky apart and struck the battlefield.
Kael vanished beneath flame.
[Arin — Watching it Burn]
"No," she whispered.
And ran.
The system screamed in her head.
[Soulthread Breach Imminent – Link Will Sever If Core Vitality Fails]
She pushed through soldiers, past corpses, through fire.
And found him
Broken. Bleeding. Not moving.
Her hands shook as she reached for him.
"Don't you die," she whispered. "Don't you dare die now."
The Leviathan turned.
It began to charge a second beam.
Selis raised her blade again.
Arin looked up, one hand on Kael's chest
And connected.
[System Override: Arin Elourin – Soulthread Sync Forced]
[Trait Activated: Sovereign Anchor]
Kael's body arched.
The Sovereign core reignited.
And from his mouth, the shadow roared.
[Kael — Rebirth]
He stood.
His armor was gone.
Replaced by a living shadow, pulsing like a second heart, draped around him like a storm given form.
His hair blew backward in unseen wind.
His eyes glowed with something deeper than rage.
Not vengeance.
Not wrath.
Choice.
He reached forward
Not to kill the Leviathan.
But to bind it.
[System Update]
[New Ability: Crown of Chains — Divine Beings within reach may be tethered instead of slain]
Kael's hand met the god's forehead.
And the Leviathan fell silent.
Trembling.
Held.
Breathing.
Bound.
Not by fear.
By respect.
[Selis — Watching Him From the Ash]
She lowered her blade.
Not because he spared the god.
Because he could have killed it
And didn't.
Tears welled in her eyes.
And that's when she knew.
He had surpassed them all.
Even her.
Especially her.
[Kael — After the Storm]
He stood in the crater.
Not victorious.
Not triumphant.
Still.
Shadow coiled gently around his limbs not consuming, not flaring. Obedient. The god within him was quiet now. Not slain. Not sealed.
Integrated.
The Leviathan lay coiled around the outer cliffs, eyes dimmed to a sunless glow. Bound not by chains… but by Kael's choice.
He hadn't destroyed it.
He'd understood it.
Its hunger for annihilation had not been madness it had been commanded.
It had been a weapon.
Just like him.
And Kael had said no.
[Arin — By His Side]
She didn't speak as she approached him. She didn't have to.
Her hand found his.
And he let it.
Her voice, soft:
"Do you feel it now? The cost of restraint?"
Kael's answer came after a long silence.
"I feel everything."
He turned toward the road ahead.
"And I still have something to finish."
[Selis — Alone With the Blade]
She sat beneath the shattered ridge.
The Godkiller Blade rested in the dirt beside her. Dull now. Quiet.
She could still kill him.
Could still carve her name into legend.
But something deeper whispered louder now.
Not shadow.
Not rage.
Purpose.
She'd watched Kael ascend and choose not to become the monster. That made him more terrifying than anything else.
Selis stood.
The blade sheathed.
Her heart steady.
Her path, still her own.
But this time?
She would walk it with eyes open.
[The Leviathan — Final Cognition Log]
"Designated Threat: Shadow Sovereign."
"Final Result: Integration Achieved."
"Directive Overwritten."
"New Protocol Accepted: Serve the Will of the Chosen."
"God status... transferred."
[Kael — One Final Step Forward]
He looked to the capital.
The gates of Solmere shimmered in the distance.
Behind them his brother.
His throne.
His blood.
The king would be waiting.
Kael exhaled.
Not rage.
Not anticipation.
Something simpler.
Resolution.
[Kael — Watching the Dead Rest Quietly]
The ground still smoked.
Charred bones and twisted metal marked where men, rebels, priests, and holy soldiers had died.
Kael walked among them, alone.
The shadow followed at his heels like a loyal beast, no longer snarling just watching. Obedient. Waiting.
He crouched beside a corpse.
A boy. Couldn't have been more than sixteen.
Wore Kael's mark. Carved it into his own armor.
His face frozen in awe. Even in death.
Kael didn't speak.
But the system whispered.
[Casualties: 402 confirmed. Emotional Sync registering guilt – high spike.]
[You saved the god. But lost the believers.]
Kael stood. His voice cold:
"Then they weren't followers. Just casualties waiting for permission."
He turned to the horizon.
Toward the spire of Solmere, now visible in the early haze of sunrise.
"Let them worship ashes. I'll bring what comes next."
[Arin — Behind Him, Blade in Hand]
She hadn't put her weapon down since the Leviathan fell.
She didn't trust the world.
Didn't trust fate.
Didn't trust what Kael might have to become.
But she trusted this version of him. The one that stood with a crown of silence and power, but chose to walk among the dead.
Not above them.
She moved beside him.
He didn't flinch.
Didn't smile.
He just said:
"Tomorrow, we walk into the palace."
"And today?" she asked.
His answer was quiet.
"Today… we remember who we were before they made us monsters."
[Selis]
She sat on a hill of ash and scripture, Leviathan blood dried into her gloves, the Godkiller blade across her knees.
Kael didn't look back once during the fight.
He didn't need to.
He knew she was watching.
And now?
She'd seen enough.
But she stayed.
Not for him.
Not yet.
But because the end hadn't come.
And if Kael ever fell?
She would be the last one standing.
To finish the story.