They thought they broke him.
They thought Silvarra was the limit.
But they forgot one thing.
Kael always thinks bigger.
---
Part I: The Weapon That Shouldn't Exist
In the shattered hull of an old rebel airship, Kael welded together forbidden tech stolen from the prison's core. Pieces of suppression fields, magic conduits, and raw pulse energy came together in something new—something unstable.
Zephyra watched him with arms crossed. "You sure this won't blow us all up?"
Kael grinned, eyes wild with invention. "Only a 12% chance."
"You said 8% yesterday."
"Yeah, well, I'm being more honest now."
He lifted the device—a sleek cannon no larger than his forearm, pulsing with silver-blue light.
"Meet the Nullfang. First of its kind. Eats magic. Spits chaos."
He fired at a nearby rock covered in rune shielding.
It vanished. Clean. Silent.
Zephyra blinked. "...Okay, that's hot."
---
Part II: The Ghost File
While calibrating Nullfang, Kael accessed a corrupted directory from Silvarra's core.
It wasn't prison data.
It was personal.
A video.
An old lab. A woman's voice humming. The camera panned to a boy—ten, maybe younger—assembling a drone with mechanical hands.
Kael froze.
The woman stepped into frame. Tall. Stern. Loving.
Dr. Vell.
"You always saw the world different, Kael," she said on the recording. "That's why they'll fear you."
The file ended.
Kael's fingers trembled.
She wasn't just a prisoner. She was his mother.
---
Part III: Ambush Above the Clouds
Word reached the rebellion that a high-security imperial convoy was en route—carrying arcane batteries for the Empire's next doomsday project.
Kael, Zephyra, and Riven boarded stealth wingsuits and launched into the sky.
The convoy was massive—six airships, protected by elite skyguards riding lightning wyverns.
Kael's plan? Simple.
"Crash the flagship. Steal the cores. Don't die."
Riven cackled. "Classic."
They tore through the sky, weaving through anti-air spells and blaster fire. Kael used the Nullfang to erase barriers mid-flight, blasting a hole straight into the lead ship.
Inside, chaos.
Zephyra danced through enemy soldiers like a shadow on fire. Kael locked onto the arcane cores, rerouting the power surge just as the ship began to spiral.
They jumped—wings out, cores secured—moments before the flagship exploded in a thunderclap that lit the clouds.
Back on the ground, Kael stared at the cores glowing on his worktable.
They were more than fuel.
They were keys.
"To what?" Zephyra asked.
Kael stared at the sky.
"To the end of the Empire."