There was no sky.
No up. No down.
Only Kael and Yaros—two divine forces clashing at the edge of uncreation.
Every blow Kael struck lit up the void like a newborn sun. Comets of power rippled through the nothingness, warping time and gravity. His blade—now forged from starlight and entity essence—sang with the will of a thousand constellations.
And still, Yaros did not fall.
"You fight well for something so young," Yaros said, deflecting Kael's radiant arc with a shield of frozen shadow. "But you have not yet suffered enough to kill a god."
Kael's eyes burned gold. "Then bleed for me and I'll show you how."
He drove forward, faster than light, channeling the memory of every battle he'd survived—every soul he'd saved. The light around him fractured space. He struck—
And his blade sank into Yaros's chest.
For a heartbeat, time froze.
Yaros looked down. Smoke hissed from the wound. A single droplet of ichor—dark as the Abyss, laced with stars—dripped into the void.
And the cosmos shuddered.
Gods could bleed.
Yaros stared at the wound in disbelief. "You… are not what I expected."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "I'm more."
The entity within him pulsed in agreement, and Kael felt it—the shift. For the first time, the Abyss wasn't infinite. It had limits. And limits could be broken.
But Yaros smiled.
"A god who bleeds is still a god," he whispered.
He grabbed Kael's blade, pulled it deeper into himself—and with a roar that split galaxies, he unleashed the raw core of the Abyss.
Kael was thrown across space like a meteor, crashing into a drifting moon. Stone and stardust exploded around him. He coughed, blood tracing the edge of his lips.
Above him, Yaros drifted forward, smoke still rising from his wound.
"You've made me remember pain. Now, I'll make you forget everything else."
But as he approached, Kael rose again, eyes glowing brighter than ever.
"You forgot one thing, Yaros."
The void rippled.
"I'm not alone."
Behind Kael, stars blinked into being—dozens, then hundreds, then an entire celestial legion. Lyra stood at the front, riding a phoenix of flame. Valen, cloaked in stormlight. The Child of Silence, transformed and awake, flanked by the spirits of the forgotten gods.
And Kael…
Kael became the center of a new cosmos.