Silence gripped the cathedral like a clenched fist.
Kael stared at Ryne, his breath uneven—not from fear, but from recognition. The last time he'd seen Ryne was years ago, during their training in the Lower Rings. They'd both been misfits back then. Brothers in everything but blood.
But now… Ryne's aura pulsed like a storm that had forgotten how to sleep.
"What happened to you?" Kael asked, stepping forward.
Ryne smiled, eyes half-lidded with something between pity and disdain.
"I saw the truth. While you were fumbling in the dark, chasing dreams of justice, I touched the song beneath it all—the pure melody of power. The Choir showed me what we could be. What we were always meant to become."
Sera stepped forward, electricity crackling at her fingertips. "Yeah? And what's that? Puppet overlords who brainwash people and burn cities?"
"Necessary sacrifices," Ryne said simply. "You of all people should understand, Kael. You've felt it too. The power behind the veil. It's what you used when you turned that warlord's body into a crater."
Kael flinched.
That wasn't a memory he had shared.
"You've been watching me."
"Watching?" Ryne chuckled. "Kael, I've been with you. Every time your power grew. Every time it slipped out of control. I was there, guiding it along the strings."
Kael's hand curled into a fist. Lightning danced up his arm. Gravity rippled outward from his feet, cracking the mirrored floor.
"So what?" he said, voice low. "This is your endgame? Control everyone from a throne of glass and call it harmony?"
"It's not control. It's release. I'll bring this world peace—by breaking everything that resists."
The spire trembled. Shadows peeled off Ryne's shoulders and wrapped around him like a second skin.
"If you still believe in freedom, Kael… then fight me. Show me what that belief is worth."