The temple cracked with divine pressure. The walls of the living tower groaned like ancient beasts stirred from slumber. Glyphs burned into the air, forming golden chains that whipped toward Kael.
> "Stand down!" the executioner roared, wings of silver flame erupting from his back. "By order of the Pantheon, you are to be erased!"
Kael's body reacted instinctively. His runes pulsed with crimson heat, his shadow lengthening like it had a will of its own.
> "You're not erasing anything," Kael growled.
The air exploded.
Kael surged forward, and in the blink of an eye, his fist met the executioner's blade. Divine steel clashed against godborn strength, the impact leveling half the chamber. Neriah was thrown back, shielding herself with a barrier of wind.
> "Kael!" she cried, but he couldn't hear her—not over the blood pounding in his ears.
Not over the voice rising inside him.
> "Break the chain. Shatter the order."
> "Let the gods fall."
---
The executioner—Seraph Malzareth—was no ordinary foe. His body shimmered with condensed divinity, each strike faster than light, each word uttered summoning celestial fire. But Kael wasn't the same powerless man he'd been days ago.
He ducked beneath a strike and drove his palm into Malzareth's chest. A shockwave burst out, launching the warrior backward into a rune-etched pillar, shattering it in a cascade of fire and black dust.
> System Alert: Forbidden Combat Protocol breached.
> Divine Signature Analyzed: Seraph Malzareth – Executor Tier.
Engaging Riftborn Override...
Kael's vision flickered, and the world turned monochrome for a moment. Time slowed, and runes—not from this world—spiraled around him.
A new message appeared.
> RIFTBORN SKILL UNLOCKED – [God-Eater Domain: Level 1]
---
The world snapped back into motion.
Kael raised his hand, and the space around him warped. A dome of shimmering void surrounded them both. Inside, Malzareth staggered, clearly affected.
> "What is this sorcery?" he snarled.
Kael stepped forward, his footsteps leaving molten cracks on the floor.
> "This is your mistake."
He unleashed a barrage of strikes—too fast, too brutal. Malzareth parried and countered, but the God-Eater Domain was weakening his connection to the divine realm. His flames sputtered, his movements dulled.
Then Kael did something no mortal should ever do.
He reached into Malzareth's chest—not physically, but spiritually—and tore a fragment of his divine core free.
> "You don't deserve this power."
Malzareth screamed, light bleeding from his mouth and eyes. He vanished in a flash of golden fire, leaving only silence behind.
---
Kael fell to one knee, gasping. His body trembled from the backlash. Neriah rushed to his side.
> "You... you absorbed part of a divine core."
> "Not by choice," he said, panting.
The system flickered again.
> System Update: Deific Fragment assimilated. Soul capacity increased.
> New Skill: [Celestial Suppression – Lv.1]
You can weaken divine beings within a 10-meter radius.
Kael's heart beat hard.
> "I'm becoming something I don't understand."
---
Suddenly, the tower shuddered.
From above, a dark rift opened—black lightning tearing through the ceiling. A tendril of something massive and unseen stretched into the chamber. The Warden of Sleep reappeared beside it, cloaked in twisting starlight.
> "You've done it now," it said without emotion. "The gods have sent one executioner. Next comes judgment itself."
Kael looked up.
> "Let them come."
> "You misunderstand," the Warden said.
> "Judgment is not a person."
> "It is a weapon."
---
[Scene Change – Celestial Plane: Tribunal Spire]
High Deity Lysara stood before a pool of silver water. Around her, the Tribunal council gathered—nine figures cloaked in sunfire, moonlight, void, and time.
> "Malzareth has failed," said one voice.
> "The Riftborn has reawakened," murmured another.
Lysara clenched her fists. Her expression was not anger—but fear.
> "Prepare the Celestial Hammer," she said coldly.
> "If he truly is Vaelor reborn... we strike before the world remembers what he was."
---
[Back in the Tower]
Kael stood at the edge of the broken chamber, breathing slowly.
Neriah stepped closer.
> "Kael... what are you becoming?"
He turned to her. His eyes shimmered—not black, not red—but silver now. Alien. Divine. Unknowable.
> "I don't know," he whispered.
> "But I think I was never supposed to be human in the first place."
---
And then the tower crumbled.
A massive beam of celestial light descended from the heavens.
The Celestial Hammer was falling.
A weapon used only once before in all of time.
Kael looked up.
And smiled.
> "Let's see what happens when gods try to kill a godkiller."
---
[TO BE CONTINUED]