The battlefield was a shattered expanse of broken earth and boiling air, the sky above split by raw energy and thunderous pulses that rippled with each clash. The Origin-tier Varnok stood across from Kael, its humanoid form now fully stabilized. It wore a twisted reflection of Kael's armor—etched in obsidian and laced with streaks of bleeding red Essence. Its eyes burned not with rage, but with a terrifying clarity.
Kael, an Origin-ranked being for only a day—held nothing back. His breathing was calm, but his aura crackled, folded, and then expanded outward in waves of unstable power, distorting the battlefield around him.
The two stood in utter silence, until the Varnok finally spoke.
"I was made to kill you."
Then it moved.
The Varnok surged forward with shocking precision, its fist arcing with a red-black Essence that cleaved through the air. Kael met it head-on, his own strike wrapped in converging Storm and Kinetic pressure. The clash didn't make a sound—it ripped all noise from the air. The space around them bent. Shockwaves rolled outward in spirals, flattening distant ridges.
Kael pivoted midair, dropping into a low kick that ignited the ground in a spiral of molten cracks. The Varnok blurred upward and came down with a downward spinning axe kick. Kael raised his forearms and blocked it, skidding backward on impact—his heels carving trenches through the rocky earth.
They exchanged no words, only raw, perfect movement. This was no longer a matter of spells or power output. It was martial skill, honed instinct, and Essence weaponization. Every technique Kael had ever mastered, the Varnok matched. Every stance he shifted into, it mirrored with eerie precision.
Kael narrowed his eyes.
"You're using my path."
The Varnok tilted its head. "I am what you would've been, if you were born to destroy."
Kael roared, flaring his aura in a blinding pulse.
Godbreaker Arsenal: Volt Requiem Execution.
Kael vanished, erupting into pure voltage. In less than a heartbeat, he struck from nine directions, his afterimages converging into a devastating lightning implosion. The Varnok was slammed back, cracking a mountain wall. But before the dust cleared, it erupted from the rubble with a mirrored burst of Essence.
It had copied Volt Requiem Execution.