Far from one another, yet close enough to feel the disturbance in the heavens, the God of Souls paused within the depths of his domain. At the same time, near the roaring tides and shattered cliffs beneath the fallen sky, the God of the Sea lifted his head. Both had sensed the violent clash that tore through the clouds. The heavens had trembled. Space itself had bent beneath the weight of two overwhelming forces colliding.
Yet Suiryu's Roh still lingered faintly in the air.
The God of Souls narrowed his eyes. The energy was weakened… distorted… but present.
"So neither has fallen…"
Elsewhere, the God of the Sea felt the same lingering presence but chose silence. Something was wrong. Not clear enough to move. Not yet.
Both remained where they were.
Meanwhile, deep within a mountain cave carved by the collapse of the Sky Fortress, Kyle slowly opened his eyes.
The air was heavy with ash and exhaustion. Metsuju members stood nearby. Sky Knights lined the stone walls. Survivors tended quietly to the wounded.
After a few moments, Opium and Osric stepped forward.
"We have nowhere left," Osric said. "You freed our god from corruption. And now you carry his core… we will follow you."
Opium said nothing.
A Sky Knight stepped forward.
"We will not allow the innocent to suffer under corrupted gods any longer."
Nearly three hundred Sky Knights lowered their weapons. Some stood outside the cave entrance, but all bowed.
In that cave, without ceremony, Metsuju gained an army.
Kyle slowly sat up.
His Second Form.
The white expanse.
His father.
His chest felt heavier than the wounds on his body.
Grandpa Caesar stepped closer. "Kyle… what truly happened?"
Kyle exhaled slowly.
"Suiryu awakened his true form. I was losing." His eyes hardened slightly. "Then time stopped. A divine entity appeared. He called himself Doderach. He granted me Divine Roh."
Silence filled the cave.
"Through Ryo… I purified Suiryu's core. Then I shattered his system."
The Tao brothers frowned.
"But we defeated him before. How did he return?"
Lucy crossed her arms. "Doderach never fully manifests unless necessary. You never truly defeated Doderach. Not completely."
Noah nodded. "If we had somehow destroyed him earlier… Doderach would have returned stronger."
Silence followed.
Victory against gods was never simple.
Kyle stood.
"The Sky people have no home. We take them to the Dragon Kingdom."
No one objected.
They moved through dense forests beneath fractured skies. Smoke still lingered in the wind.
Before reaching the Dragon Kingdom gates, the ground trembled violently.
Giant beasts towered over the treeline. Undead monstrosities advanced in grotesque formations. Spirit-infused warriors marched with hollow eyes and distorted energy.
Lucy's voice sharpened. "Psyche's army. The God of Souls."
Kyle closed his eyes for a brief second.
Flames ignited around him. Now carrying Suiryu's core, lightning, wind, and water mana coursed through his veins.
He breathed once.
Lightning fused into hellflame.
A massive incinerating wave tore forward, swallowing the advancing giants. Their spiritual bodies destabilized, burning from the inside out.
They roared.
Kyle vanished.
In a flash, he appeared before a giant and drove a hellflame-wrapped kick into its torso. The impact shattered it, launching the remains into the forest. Two more followed, crushed beneath precise, overwhelming strikes.
Sky Knights charged. Dragons descended in human form, blades and claws tearing through undead constructs and spirit warriors alike.
A messenger fled toward the underworld.
"Suiryu has betrayed us! His Sky Knights fight alongside them!"
The God of Souls frowned.
Impossible.
He could still sense Suiryu's Roh.
Suspicion rising, he ascended toward the ruins of the Sky Fortress.
What he saw froze him.
Divine structures reduced to debris. Ruins embedded into mountains.
Understanding settled in.
Suiryu was dead.
And his core… bound.
For a single heartbeat, fear flickered across his face.
"So Kyle has reached that height…"
Then he laughed, the sound echoing through empty skies.
"I am stronger. Let him come."
He returned to the underworld beneath the mountains near the Dragon Kingdom. Half his army remained locked in battle against the God of the Sea. The rest defended the Underworld Castle and reinforced positions near the Dragon Kingdom.
At the gates of the Dragon Kingdom, the battlefield slowly cleared. The last soul beasts fell beneath draconic flames.
Marshal stood at the entrance in human form. Orwlevdis and other dragons stood behind him, their presence alone commanding silence.
Marshal's gaze scanned the group. It stopped on Opium and Osric.
"Explain."
Oni spoke. "The gods are corrupted. Not their warriors. These two are pure-hearted."
Marshal studied them for a long moment… then stepped aside.
They entered.
Dragon King Orwlevdis approached Kyle slowly. The air bent around his aura.
"I sense Suiryu within you," he said. "Did you kill him?"
Kyle met his eyes.
"In my Second Form, he awakened fully. I was losing. A divine entity granted me Divine Roh. Through Ryo, I purified his core… and ended him."
The Dragon King remained silent for several seconds.
Then
"You rescued civilians."
His gaze shifted to the gathered Sky people.
"We will expand the Dragon Lands."
Kyle gave a faint smile and extended his hand.
Orwlevdis took it.
Elsewhere, the God of Souls moved toward the underwater kingdom.
When he arrived before the sea soldiers, he spoke calmly.
"I seek parley."
"What do you want, Psyche?" asked Vergil, God of the Sea.
Psyche explained the fall of the Sky Fortress. Suiryu's death. Kyle's involvement. The alliance with the Dragon King.
Vergil's calm expression darkened.
"With Kyle alive and seeking vengeance, and now allied with dragons… the balance has shifted. We form a temporary alliance. Or the gods fall."
Meanwhile, dark entities from the Void began emerging from nothingness itself. As the gods grew increasingly corrupted, holiness faded from the realm, weakening the barriers that once suppressed evil spirits and void-born creatures. With divine order deteriorating, existence itself began to fracture.
The King of the Void, Null, saw opportunity.
The gods, blinded by their corruption, were digging their own graves.
The Curse of Ebony was no longer just twisting divinity.
It was unraveling the realm.