The sky tore.
Not like clouds. Not like wind. Like the fabric of existence itself unraveling.
Where the Bloom spread, the horizon had no edge. Black veins surged across continents, swallowing cities, plains, and oceans alike. Mountains groaned, splitting to feed the pulsing root network beneath. The world no longer resisted. It obeyed.
Kael stood at the heart of the Bloom, chest rising and falling in impossible rhythm. Tendrils of black root lashed outward, ripping forests from the earth, dragging seas into their marrowed flow. Every heartbeat sent waves of black fire racing across continents, incinerating life and raising the dead in the same pulse.
Kane followed, spine-blade a conductor of destruction. Each swing carved rivers of marrow-fire into the earth, splitting continents, severing mountains, shredding history into ash and ichor. His laughter thundered across the world: "Brother! Look at it! The world bends beneath our hands! We bloom! We cut!"
Above, the Dark Tome spun violently, pages tearing themselves into writhing strips. Words seared into the sky, burning both cold and hot:
"Bow. Consume. Ascend beyond the void."
Thirn hovered, naked and glowing, inked body radiating words older than creation. Her hands traced impossible runes in the air. Each letter struck the Bloom, feeding it, expanding it, weaving the living city of Spinedral into the very bones of the world.
"The God hungers!" she cried. "And through the Bloom… it will consume all that resists!"
The world quaked. Oceans boiled, spilling black ichor into the Bloom's veins. Deserts cracked open, skeletal forms clawing upward. Entire civilizations twisted into titanic husks, their bones and memories rewritten by Kael's pulse.
The god above stirred. Its shadow stretched across continents, a river of darkness clawing at the Bloom. It lashed with titanic hands, trying to smother Kael's roots, to reclaim what had grown beyond its reach. But Kael's roots struck faster, thicker, swallowing the shadow like a ravenous mouth.
Kael's black eyes blazed, brighter than the broken sunless sky. His voice carried across the world, deep, eternal:
"Rise. Rise beyond your gods. Rise beyond life. Rise beyond the world itself."
Every husk, every titan of bone and marrow, every black-flamed corpse obeyed. Mountains groaned, forests writhed, rivers of ichor carried the dead like seeds across shattered lands. The Bloom had become not just a force—it was the world, and Kael its unyielding heart.
Kane leapt into the chaos, cutting arcs of marrow-fire through titanic husks, screaming as he rewrote history with each strike. "And I cut! I cut! I cut!"
The god recoiled, realizing the Bloom was no longer just a city, no longer just Spinedral. It had become a dominion, unstoppable and eternal. Its shadow writhed, clawing at Kael, but the roots struck back, pulling darkness into Spinedral's veins, consuming it whole.
A silence fell. Not peace. Not calm. A silence heavier than worlds, pressing into the marrow of every continent, every root, every husk.
Kael lifted his hand. Black eyes piercing the void:
"Feed."
The world obeyed. The Bloom obeyed. Even the god above could not resist.
Kane's laughter split the silence, sharp and wild. "We bloom. We cut. And now… nothing will escape!"
Spinedral pulsed like a dark heart beneath the planet. Every continent throbbed in rhythm with Kael's chest. The Bloom had become the world.
And Kael… was its pulse.