Chapter 11
Scene: The Shattered Skies Above the Ruined Realms
The battle wasn't just being watched.
It was being witnessed by the very cosmos.
From across realms, gods, elders, and hidden lords stared into the void of that sky tear where Zereth Kaine now faced two beings of the Spiral.
The crowd gathered in the far-off skies, atop flying citadels and divine palaces spoke in hushed panic.
> "He stood after Vael'Tharon."
> "He stood when the Spiral's Enchantress descended."
> "That isn't a mortal… What is he?"
---
Scene: Battlefield
Vael'Tharon, face bloodied, stood beside the newly arrived Spiral being: Xevira, the Chain-Enchantress.
The sky boiled with pressure as her chains writhed each one holding a cursed truth from a forgotten god.
> Xevira (smiling): "You still haven't knelt, Zereth Kaine. Most do when I arrive."
> Zereth: "You talk like you've already won."
> Xevira: "I talk like I've tasted your fate."
She moved without form. She became mist, then reformed behind him, already swinging a dimensional blade that sliced through time. Vael'Tharon struck from the front, his palms glowing with spiral script.
Zereth didn't move.
He only whispered
> Zereth: "...Repent."
And their world collapsed.
---
Scene: In the eyes of the watchers
From the crowd of gods:
> "D-Did you see that? What was that?!"
> "The battlefield just vanished for a second... and came back!"
> "Who IS this man?!"
---
Back on the battlefield
The land was scorched. Mountains leveled. Oceans had turned to air.
Xevira lay half-buried in shards of her own chains, coughing. Vael'Tharon, barely holding consciousness, hovered using broken wings of Spiral energy.
Zereth Kaine stood still. Untouched.
He raised a single hand and the sky dimmed, no longer dark but colorless, like the concept of light itself had bowed.
> Zereth: "You call yourselves fangs... But you're biting at a beast asleep."
> Vael'Tharon (furious): "YOU'RE NO BEAST! YOU'RE A FLUKE! A BROKEN RULE!"
Zereth looked at him... and Vael'Tharon froze.
Literal silence fell like the sound had forgotten to exist.
Then, with slow steps, Zereth walked toward him.
> "If I use a finger," he said softly, "this land may vanish. So… I'll use breath."
He exhaled.
A gentle, casual breath.
The sky shattered.
Vael'Tharon screamed his body spiraling out through dimensional rips.
Xevira cried out reaching toward him.
But a chain coiled around her neck.
Not hers.
Zereth's.
> Zereth: "Return to the Spiral. Crawl. Warn your masters. Tell them this…"
He leaned close.
> "I'm not done sleeping."
And then—he let go.
---
Scene: Far Beyond Unknown Spiral Throne
A dark throne room. Ancient beings twitching. Watching.
> "He used breath."
> "Only breath."
> "...It's time we awaken the Sleeper beneath the Spiral."
Zereth looks up at the fading sky. Behind him, the battlefield is quiet ruined, cratered, silent.
He turns away back to his endless aura farming. As if nothing happened.
> "Next time…" he whispers to himself.
"Try sending three."