The abyssal executioner rose from the ruin, molten blood spilling down its chest like rivers of fire. Its chains whipped through the air, gouging trenches in stone and snapping marble pillars like reeds. Each link sang with curses older than kingdoms, the sound alone crushing weaker courtiers into silence—or death.
Kaelen and Arcturus were caught in its orbit, their duel drowned in the executioner's wrath.
The monster swung its scythe downward in a brutal arc. Kaelen twisted aside, vaulting up the weapon's haft and sprinting along its length like a shadow with wings. His black-fire blade crackled, severing three chains in mid-air. The executioner howled, molten sparks exploding outward like rain.
"Still chasing echoes of godhood, Kaelen?" Arcturus's voice roared from below. He leapt after him, both swords crossing in a radiant spiral. Golden arcs cleaved through the falling molten blood, igniting it into showers of burning ash.
Kaelen parried him mid-air, sparks raining between them, their clash balanced on the executioner's weapon.
But the abyssal giant would not be ignored.
It wrenched its scythe sideways, flinging both Sovereigns across the chamber. Kaelen slammed into a broken wall and landed with a predator's grace, blood smearing across his lip. Arcturus crashed into the floor, cracks spider-webbing beneath him as his flaming aura reignited.
The executioner advanced on them both, its roar shaking the Court. Chains surged like serpents, one snaring Kaelen's leg, another striking toward Arcturus.
Kaelen's smirk widened. He let the chain tighten, aura flaring crimson-black, then dragged the entire executioner forward with a single pull. His blade plunged upward, carving a vertical wound in the monster's chest, void-fire spilling into its molten body.
Arcturus seized the opening. With a guttural cry, he launched forward, his swords a twin storm of sunlight. He cleaved through the beast's exposed flesh, ripping molten gore across the dais.
The executioner reeled, but its fury only grew. It slammed both fists down, the shockwave toppling what remained of the Sovereign Court's ceiling. Shadows and fire intermingled as rubble fell, the abyss itself pressing closer with every heartbeat.
Kaelen and Arcturus landed side by side, both panting, both refusing to look at each other with anything but venom.
"This beast will swallow you first," Arcturus growled, spinning his swords into a guard.
Kaelen chuckled, licking the blood from his lip. "Or perhaps it will be the anvil on which I break you."
The executioner's chains coiled, the scythe lifted once more.
And for the first time in centuries, two Sovereigns stood shoulder to shoulder—not as allies, but as rivals too stubborn to let the other die first.