The air split apart.
Crimson light roared from Kael as if his very blood had ignited. His aura no longer shimmered at the edges—it burned, raw and jagged, like a sun dragged screaming into mortal flesh. Every soldier, every cultist, even his companions froze for the space of a breath as that presence spread across the battlefield.
The Veilspawn hesitated. Their bodies writhed, claws twitching, their whispers turning into a shrill chorus of fear.
Kael's eyes glowed brighter than any torch. The blackened steel of his sword pulsed with veins of red light, each thrum echoing like a heartbeat—his heartbeat—pounding through the mire.
"Kael…" Lyra's voice cracked. Her bowstring trembled in her hands.
Darric didn't speak. He just braced his halberd, sweat streaming down his face.
Isryn's lips parted. "So it awakens."
Kael moved.
The first swing was not a strike but an eruption. His blade cut a Veilspawn in half, and the air itself caught fire in the wake of the blow. A streak of crimson tore across the battlefield, carving a line of flame through cultists and beasts alike. Screams erupted—some human, some not.
The second strike shattered the ground. Stone cracked, mud boiled, and the summoning glyph itself rippled as though recoiling. The cultists faltered, their chant breaking into panicked cries.
"Impossible—" one spat before Lyra's arrow silenced him forever.
The Veilspawn roared, lunging in desperation. Three descended on Kael at once, claws raking across his chest. The crimson aura flared, burning their flesh before their talons could pierce skin. Kael answered with a single upward slash that ripped them apart in an arc of light, the pieces dissolving into ash before they hit the ground.
Darric roared beside him, swinging his halberd like a battering ram. "Don't stop, Kael! Break their damned circle!"
"I'm trying!" Kael's voice came out deeper, laced with a resonance that wasn't entirely human. His aura lashed outward like fire-wrought chains, scything through a half-dozen cultists at once.
Isryn seized the opening, slamming her staff into the ground. The earth trembled, runes burning a violet star into the mire. A pulse of energy surged toward the summoning glyph, cracking its design.
The circle screamed. Not the cultists—the circle itself. The glyph writhed, tendrils of shadow clawing upward, desperate to hold itself together. From within, something vast stirred, a silhouette pressing against the veil.
Kaelen raised his voice, words of an ancient tongue booming across the battlefield:
"KAEL! NOW!"
Kael leapt. His sword blazed crimson, fire trailing from its edge. He came down with all his weight, all his fury, all his burning power, and struck the circle dead center.
The glyph shattered.
A shockwave ripped through Cindermoor. Cultists were hurled screaming into the mist, their bodies breaking on stone and steel. Veilspawn convulsed, their forms unraveling, howling as they dissolved into smoke. The silhouette within the rift clawed forward one last time—before the Crimson Spark burned it back into nothingness.
Silence followed.
Kael stood in the ruined mire, chest heaving, blade sunk into the earth. His aura still raged, uncontrolled, snapping like fire in a storm. His companions dared not approach—yet neither did they retreat.
Lyra lowered her bow, her voice small. "Kael…"
Darric swallowed hard, forcing his grip to steady on the halberd. "By the gods. What are you?"
Kael lifted his head. His eyes glowed crimson, brighter than ever. For the first time, even his companions weren't sure they recognized him.
The Crimson Spark flared again—and then slowly, painfully, began to recede. His aura dimmed, the fire folding inward until only a faint crimson shimmer remained. Kael staggered, one knee buckling.
Lyra rushed forward, catching his arm. "Don't you dare fall now."
He managed a faint, exhausted smirk. "I… didn't plan to."
Behind them, the battlefield lay in ruins. Corpses of cultists and ash of spawn alike carpeted the ground. The rift was gone—but so was any illusion that Kael was just another warrior.
The companions knew it. And so did the world.