Chapter 8

Caelen flew through the Realm with an inhuman velocity. The shift in gravity and resistance told him everything he needed to know: Earth was sealed. Here, in the Realm, the seals were gone.

His body remembered what it was to be free.

A minute passed. He'd already flown across what would've been two galaxies' worth of distance in the Mortal Vein, if that measurement even meant anything in a place like this. 

The air was paradoxical here, if it could be called air. 

"Kusho," he muttered to himself. "You really sealed off the Mortal Vein hard. No wonder I felt like I'd been stuffed into a punching bag."

Caelen's speed surged again. A sonic bloom unfolded behind him.

Then, sudden presences erupted ahead. It didn't seem to be a calming one. 

It was brute muscle and primal hate.

Five massive Orc-like creatures were standing on Caelen's path. Each one was at least four meters tall, thick-skinned, and with tribal war tattoos. Their eyes were molten orange. They carried spiky, metal-forged weapons, and one of them roared, lifting a rock the size of a small apartment with a certain ease. 

"Oh come on," Caelen groaned, slowing slightly. "I'm in the middle of something."

Rocks were tossed through the sky. Caelen pivoted sideways midair, the motion instantaneous.

He floated now, just above a fragmented slab of terrain orbiting. The orcs growled from the edge of a nearby ruin-spire, feet grounded, their weapons ready.

"...Okay," Caelen said, cracking his neck as he lowered himself to their level. "I guess we're doing this."

The first orc attacked. Caelen dashed in, low and fast, slammed a knee into its gut hard enough to send the thing crashing into a floating spire.

Two more swung their weapon. He caught the first one's wrist mid-swing, pivoted, and used its own body to strike the second like a club.

Fourth charged. Caelen leapt into the air, twisted, and slammed both fists down into its spine with a kinetic echo that cracked the nearby ground.

The fifth one hesitated. Then screamed.

It began pulling energy from the others. Pulsing, stealing strength. Its mouth unhinged, and from it came a beam of compressed light and entropy.

"Really?" Caelen smirked. "You guys are persistent."

He moved instantly; 

Caelen blitzed forward, his form vanishing into a smear of golden blur. He stood in front of the beam before it even finished charging. Raised one hand.

The beam collided with him.

Everything vanished in white.

Then, silence.

The light faded. The orc stared, confused.

Caelen stood, hand still extended. A faint scorch across his shirt. That was all.

"All that rage, and that's the best you've got?" he said, sighing. "Cute."

The orc turned to run. Caelen didn't give it a chance.

"Back in the Mortal Vein, that would have destroyed the moon," he said quietly. 

He vanished again, appeared behind it, placed one hand on its back, and whispered, "Neurospasm Echo."

The orc froze. Then screamed as every nerve in its body fired at once, all the pain it had just inflicted, now redirected into itself.

It dropped.

Caelen exhaled. Cracked his knuckles.

"Alright," he muttered. "No more distractions."

He flew again.

Faster this time. He passed floating cathedrals, rivers, forests, and remains of beasts, creatures, and monsters...

Finally, after what would've been hours in mortal time, he stopped.

The Empyrean Empire loomed in the distance. Still far, yet already overwhelming.

Caelen silently watched. 

From here, he could see its outer regions: colossal rings of sanctuary-worlds and radiant cities spiraling like halos around the central stronghold. Each "village" was vast, some the size of continents, others larger than planets. 

Many different species coexisted there under the banner of the Saints. Peaceful civilizations thrived beneath cathedrals that soared to the clouds, their spires aglow with hymns, with roads paved in light, and skies veined with scripture.

Yet all of it, those sprawling utopias, those layered cities humming with life, were only the outskirts.

The castle at the center... was something else entirely.

A structure so vast it warped perspective, its towers twisting through dimensions. Its shape could be seen curving across what should have been empty infinity. 

A fortress greater than a universe. Built not just to protect, but to proclaim.

"There it is," he whispered.