The Academy grounds had never known silence like this.
Ash floated in the air, smoke rising from the fractured walls of the Grand Courtyard. Statues of former champions lay split and crumbled across the tiles. The skies overhead darkened as if the world itself recoiled in fear. And at the center of it all stood Kairos — no longer the man they had once fought beside, but the twisted echo of a fallen Warborn.
His body was wreathed in unstable lightning that burned black at the edges, every spark sizzling with abyssal energy. His once familiar aura now pressed down on the Academy like a crushing ocean, suffocating even the strongest. The Abyssal Warborn had awakened.
Celestial Tempest stood together, all nine of them, weapons drawn, hearts pounding.
Bolt clenched his fists. Sparks of pure elemental energy danced across his arms, but compared to Kairos' abyssal storm, it was a flickering candle before a raging sun.
"Stay sharp," Bolt muttered. "This isn't the Kairos we knew."
Akane, her crimson blade ignited with fire, narrowed her eyes. "No. This thing is something else. A shadow wearing his skin."
Aether, floating slightly above the ground with streams of cosmic energy swirling around him, spoke grimly: "It's worse. He isn't just corrupted—he's been reforged. The Abyssal Monarch made him into a weapon."
Kairos' lips twisted into a grin, jagged with madness. His voice rumbled like thunder."Celestial Tempest… my dear, foolish family. Did you truly think you could resist the abyss? Did you think the story would end with Zelthar's fall? No… this is only the prologue."
The team spread out instinctively, surrounding him. But the air grew heavier with each passing second. Bolt could feel it—Kairos wasn't just more powerful. He was untouchable.
"Go!" Bolt shouted.
Akane was the first to move. She lunged forward, flames roaring from her sword, carving an arc of fire across the courtyard. Sylva, the druidic spirit-weaver, followed immediately, vines of crystalline energy bursting from the ground to bind Kairos' legs. Ren, silent and deadly, darted from the shadows, daggers tipped with pure voidsteel aimed for the weak points in Kairos' armor.
The others struck in unison—Valea's holy light spearing through the storm, Darian's war hammer smashing down with seismic force, and Damian weaving sigils of blood-forged magic into the battlefield. Above them, Aether unleashed an astral barrage, raining down cosmic bolts.
For a heartbeat, the world glowed with the combined fury of Celestial Tempest.Their strongest coordination. Their deadliest unity.
And Kairos… laughed.
The Abyssal Warborn burst through the flames and vines like they were nothing. With a flick of his hand, Ren was hurled across the courtyard, crashing through three stone walls. Sylva's crystalline constructs shattered under a wave of black lightning. Valea's light was swallowed, inverted into darkness. Darian's hammer met Kairos' blade and splintered instantly, the shockwave flinging him unconscious into the rubble.
Damian's sigils detonated against Kairos' chest, but the abyss absorbed them whole. "Cute trick," Kairos sneered before sending Damian sprawling in a pool of blood.
Bolt's heart dropped. In mere seconds, half the squad was broken.
Bolt shot forward, lightning streaking from his fists. "Kairos!" he roared, punching with every ounce of elemental force he had mastered.
Kairos caught the blow one-handed. Their energies collided, sending violent arcs across the courtyard, burning deep scars into the Academy's walls. For a brief moment, Bolt thought he felt resistance—but then Kairos crushed his strike, forcing him to his knees.
"You've only mastered eight percent of what you are, Bolt," Kairos hissed, voice dripping with venom. "Eight percent of the elemental Warborn. Do you know what that makes you?" He leaned closer, his abyssal aura devouring Bolt's lightning. "It makes you an insect pretending to be a god."
Bolt struggled, his body screaming under the weight of Kairos' power."I'll… never let you win!"
Kairos' grin widened. "Oh, you'll let me. Because you can't stop me."
He hurled Bolt across the courtyard, slamming him into the remains of the Academy's central tower. The stone cracked and collapsed in an avalanche of dust. Bolt didn't move.
Celestial Tempest regrouped, battered and bloodied. Akane pulled Valea to her feet, both of them trembling with exhaustion. Aether hovered, blood trickling from his mouth, his cosmic form flickering.
"He's… unstoppable," Valea whispered. "We can't win this fight."
Kairos strolled toward them, each step echoing like a drumbeat of doom. The storm above raged, black lightning tearing the skies. His laughter rolled over them like thunder.
"This Academy, this little sanctuary you've built—it's a joke," he spat. "And I will leave you with a reminder of what's coming."
He raised his hand. The storm collapsed into his palm, forming a sphere of abyssal lightning the size of a mountain. The air howled, walls splitting, the ground fracturing beneath them.
"Goodbye… Celestial Tempest."
With one motion, Kairos unleashed it.
The explosion ripped through the Academy, obliterating entire wings in a single instant. Towers fell, courtyards split, dormitories collapsed into craters. Students and staff scrambled for their lives as half the Academy was reduced to ruin. The shockwave hurled Celestial Tempest to the ground, their bodies barely holding together.
And through it all, Kairos stood unscathed, his laughter echoing in the wreckage.
"Muhahahahahaha!"
Rubble shifted. Sparks lit the air.
From the ruins of the central tower, Bolt rose. His body trembled, burns and wounds tearing across his skin. But his eyes burned brighter than ever.
"You'll… never break us," he growled.
Kairos tilted his head, intrigued. "Oh? Still alive?"
Bolt's aura flared—wild, uncontrollable. His elemental power surged, no longer bound by the fragile limit of 8%. He tapped into something raw, something primal. His veins glowed with molten energy, the earth itself trembling beneath his feet.
For the first time, Kairos' grin faltered."Impossible…"
Lightning, flame, wind, water, earth, and ice erupted around Bolt, a storm of pure elemental chaos. His mastery surged, not complete—but enough. Enough to stand. Enough to resist.
"Celestial Tempest… isn't done yet," Bolt declared, his voice carrying through the devastation.
The two forces clashed once more, thunder shaking the heavens. Bolt's elemental storm pushed against Kairos' abyssal lightning, the courtyard reduced to a battlefield of gods.
And then—Kairos stepped back, smirking. He allowed the storm to push him away, his form beginning to disintegrate into shadow.
"This isn't over, Bolt," Kairos whispered. "Anywhere. Anytime. Or where it all began—you'll never know when I'll strike. Sleep with your eyes open."
He threw his head back and laughed, the sound sharp and cruel, echoing into the abyss."Muhahahahahahahaha!"
His body collapsed into black lightning, vanishing into the shadows, leaving only ruin in his wake.
Silence fell. The storm cleared. What remained of the Academy smoldered under the ruin.
Celestial Tempest stood among the rubble, their faces grim, their bodies broken. For the first time, they had struck with everything they had—and it hadn't been enough.
Bolt clenched his fists, staring into the void where Kairos had vanished. His storm flickered, unstable, dangerous. He had pushed beyond 8%—but the taste of that power terrified him as much as it inspired him.
Kairos was gone.
But his words lingered.
The war had only just begun.