"Is that the new king?!" A nearby soldier shouted with curiosity.
"They fucking did it!" Another one after him blurted.
"The summon is here!"
"Princess Audren finally has a husband!"
"Forced-to-be-husband, really. Audren's not gonna like that."
Dust and ash blew across the field. Watching from a high ridge were the Knight Captains:
Seran, captain of the Shadow Knights (knight assassins), stood silent, full black armor reflecting none of the light. The red-and-white insignia on his back was torn and ghostly. His dusty brown hair clung to his forehead, and his dark green eyes, face lined by black tattoos, said everything his mouth would not.
Beside him, Klem, captain of the Beast-Taming Knights, yawned behind her hand. Black horns curved from her black messy hair, and the black chains wrapped over her eyes swayed as she spoke lazily, "Hope he's not another crybaby." Her white and red armored dress shimmered faintly with the pulse of shadows leaking off like burning embers.
Omen, wrapped head to toe in white linen, only one pitch black eye showing, twirled four sheathed swords at his belt, each humming with a different element. "Welp," he said cheerfully, "guess the new guy brought his own stuff. Why's he naked though? Was he in the middle of doing it?"
Harpe, captain of the Warriors, stood pristine in gold-trimmed armor, holding his cape up to block the dust. His blond hair was tied neatly, and the red tattoo smeared over his eyes looked freshly painted. "If he bleeds on me, I'm leaving. I abhor summon blood."
And behind them, Atale, the Healer Captain, adjusted her white gauntlet, black and white long curly hair breezing in the wind, dark gray eyes calculating. "The magical reading is… grotesquely divine."
Finally, at their flank sat Fenris, the advisor — a massive red and white wolf with four tails coiling like flames, each eye glowing like an ember. His voice was low thunder. "It worked.…but that rune on his chest…!"
Cainan tore the blade free. A shockwave of light burst outward, followed by the searing mark of a rune burning itself into his chest, black lines in the shape of a jagged spiral crowned by three slashes, veins of red light weaving through it like molten cracks. He gasped, sweat and blood mixing down his torso, and muttered through ragged breath, "…Shit. This is hell…"
He raised his eyes toward the queen. "What is this place?"
In his head, his own disbelief hissed through him. 'I have to be dreaming. Probably still in that stinky cell. It's gotta be those pills they gave me. That's gotta be it… but man, it feels all too real. Even the pain!'
Audren squinted. "Your eyes look dead to me."
"So what? Don't look at them then. You want yours to be dead for real?" Cainan remarked.
"I can look wherever, summon. Gonna take a lot more than that to make me fiddle my bloody fingers in fear."
Before Cainan could retort, a roar split the noise. A monstrous figure tore through the enemy ranks, a enemy warrior named Steiner, a Primarch of Stroheim. His pale body was half-man, half-beast, veins crawling with bramble vines that glowed purple. He had messy white hair and 4 dark purple and black eyes on his forehead with rotten skin.
He cleaved through soldiers on both sides, eyes burning. "Kill the summon! We failed to stop it, we must finish it! Kalhalla will not win this day! He bears a rune as well!"
The words sent ripples through both armies.
"A full rune…!"
"I've never seen anyone merged with a whole rune before!"
"No one's ever merged with one, it's in his body!"
"What rune is that?"
"That's the Rune of Death!"
The battle erupted again in fire and chaos. Audren stayed still watching Cainan.
He stood half-dazed, sword dragging, the wind biting at his skin. "Why does everyone keep calling me a summon or some king?" he muttered. "I'm dreaming, right? Crap this good wouldn't even happen to me in a dream."
Audren tilted her head. "You're naked."
Cainan frowned. "Huh. Nice try. You're probably just tricking me so you can cut me up. I'm probably hallucinating, what type of pills are these, damn guards?"
"No, you fool, your whole piss rod is out."
A sudden breeze confirmed it. Cainan squealed, covering himself with the greatsword. "Stop looking!"
Audren sighed to her mage. "He just oozes insanity. I don't like him."
Then there was a flash of dark speed; Steiner's enormous body appeared beside Cainan, bramble-coated javelins flaring with violet energy, his voice thunderous. "I'll kill this brat now! Kalhalla will hold no king!"
Cainan met his eyes, and something in him shifted. His pupils dulled, his breath slowed. Kill or be killed, the instinct whispered, the same rule that had kept him alive through every blood-soaked alley and contract. His stance lowered, the world narrowing to one target.
The mages stepped forward in panic. "We must assist him—"
But Audren held up a hand, her voice sharp and cold. "Don't. I wanna see."
Steiner thundered across the blood-churned earth, his twin javelins screeching as the brambles along their length unraveled, bursting into venomous vines that tore through armor, corpses, and stone alike.
'Dammit! We failed to ruin the ritual for the king! If we fail today, he'll have our heads! This summon of Kalhalla is flowing with chaotic energy, that killing intent and stare is dangerous. No matter, we're being counted on!' Steiner thought.
Cainan braced low, breath ragged, eyes dull with defiance rather than fear. The Primarch roared, driving both weapons downward, and Cainan twisted aside, the dirt exploding where he'd been standing, shrapnel and thorns grazing his flesh.
Cainan retaliated with a savage swing of his greatsword, the red-and-black flames igniting as metal carved through the tangled roots beneath their feet. The ground itself seemed to recoil, erupting upward as Steiner hurled one javelin into the earth, commanding the brambles to surge. They lashed out like serpents, snapping toward Cainan's legs. He vaulted over one, landed on another, and used it as a ramp to propel himself forward with his sword dragging behind him, sparks leaping from its tip until he cleaved straight through Steiner's shoulder, half-melting the vines clinging to his hide.
The Primarch bellowed, retaliating with a crushing elbow that shattered the air from Cainan's lungs and sent him tumbling backward into a mound of broken shields.
Cainan coughed blood, rose instantly, and rushed forward again, his footing erratic but purposeful.
Steiner thought, 'He's insanely tough!'
Steiner's javelin hurled like lightning, grazing Cainan's cheek before burying into a ruined carriage behind him. The impact sent a tide of poisonous thorns spearing outward, piercing everything in sight. Cainan ducked, rolled beneath them, then seized one torn-off vine and swung it like a chain, looping it around Steiner's wrist. He yanked down hard, dragging the monstrous hybrid to his knee before driving his knee straight into the Primarch's jaw.
Bone cracked audibly. Steiner retaliated in kind, his hand igniting with black-green poison as he smashed Cainan in the ribs, lifting him off his feet. Cainan twisted in the air, landing half on his feet, half on instinct, his sword slashing through a rain of falling bramble shards as he tore through the debris toward Steiner again.
Their weapons met with a loud but deafening tremor, the ground trembling beneath the sheer weight of their blows and impact. Sparks and blood mingled as Cainan forced his blade along Steiner's weapon, teeth bared, until the Primarch kicked him in the chest, sending him skidding backward in a trail of mud and flame.
Cainan's breathing grew harsh, his skin slick with sweat and blood, but his grin widened as he charged again, eyes still dull like he lost himself altogether.
He ran straight through a wall of rising vines, bursting from the other side, cuts decorating every inch of his arms. Steiner met him halfway, his second javelin striking downward, and Cainan intercepted it by driving his greatsword's hilt into the shaft, pushing it aside, and then carving upward in a brutal two-handed strike that nearly took Steiner's head.
The Primarch recoiled, brambles twisting protectively around his body, forming a living shield that Cainan tore through in a frenzy of heavy swings. He hacked through the vines with feral rhythm, sparks and embers bursting from the collisions. Steiner suddenly rammed his knee into Cainan's gut, forcing a cough of blood, then slammed him into the dirt, pinning him under a mass of writhing bramble thorns.
The assassin roared and punched upward with one free hand, cracking Steiner's jaw again, the sound echoing like a hammer blow through the battlefield. The vines retaliated, constricting around his limbs until his muscles screamed in protest.
The fight raged with ferocity that left the field trembling. Cainan, though battered and pierced in a dozen places, refused to stop moving. He kicked upward, broke the vine around his leg, and in a single motion, heaved his sword up with both hands and impaled Steiner through the thigh.
The Primarch howled, the impact forcing his body to one side, but his reaction came instantly as he tore the sword free and slammed it against Cainan's shoulder, the force of it tearing skin and muscle as if the blade were trying to rip him apart. Cainan's own flames flared, scorching the vines that bound him, but Steiner raised both javelins again and brought them down, driving them through the ground on either side of Cainan's body. Poison surged up from the earth in massive, thorned waves that wrapped the assassin completely, crushing him from all sides. The ground split, swallowing them both in smoke and dirt.
When the dust cleared, Cainan was no longer moving, his body bound tightly in a cocoon of poisonous bramble, the greatsword lying just beyond his reach, its fire dimming.
From afar, the Knight Captains watched in silence. Seran simply exhaled through his nose. "He lacked restraint."
Klem yawned, scratching her horn. "So much noise for nothing."
Omen chuckled lightly. "Well, he made one hell of a debut before dying. Right guys…?"
Harpe sighed and adjusted his pristine gauntlet. "Waste of my afternoon."
Atale folded her arms. "Pitiful display. Summon or not, he fights like a starving hound."
Fenris's four tails swayed slowly, his deep voice rumbling, "His life still flickers. He's not done."
Audren rolled her eyes. "Screw it, then. I'll kill the Primarch bastard myself. It's my turn anyway."
The Captains nodded, each with their own brand of amusement or indifference.
Steiner raised his head, chest heaving, eyes burning with venomous pride. "Once this summon is dead," he snarled, "the Brain will have no choice but to deem us worthy!" He ripped one javelin free, brambles trembling in anticipation, and rushed forward to deliver the killing blow.
But from behind him, starfire gathered, white, purple, green, yellow, and red light coalescing around Audren's scepter as she dashed forward, robes snapping, her gaze sharp and vengeful. "Try it, vine-face," she said coldly, magic flaring like a second sun around her. "Let's see who dies next."
The air still trembled with the aftershock of the bramble cocoon's collapse, fragments of vine and bone whirling through the haze like shrapnel caught in a storm. Audren threw her arm up to block the debris, boots skidding backward through the dust.
Omen and Harpe's voices tore through the chaos: "Your highness!" She shot them both a sharp glare. "I hate being called that in public. I'm not even a queen yet. This new guy has to live first for the coronation." Her tone was sharp and biting, but her eyes flicked through the smoke, tracing movement like a predator humoring the hunt.
Then, motion. The dust came alive, Cainan's silhouette darted through it, hands tearing through the ground, hurling up waves of grit that veiled his advance. The wind howled with him. Flaming fragments of bramble, still burning from Steiner's corrupted magic, whipped through the fog, hurled with explosive ferocity.
Steiner yelled, "How did he get out?! The hell is he?!"
'That princess, she distracted me!'
Each fragment ignited the battlefield in erratic bursts of red and black fire, turning the air into a maze of smoke and embers. Steiner moved fast, feet grinding through charred earth, his armor screaming under strain as he twisted and ducked between incoming shards.
He tried to regain control, but Cainan's movement was everywhere and nowhere, feral and unpredictable.
"Kalhalla shall see no king!" Steiner's voice cracked as he spun, barely evading a flaming mass that carved a smoking scar through the ground. "The brain will see us as worthy of a kingdom it creates!"
Audren exhaled, unimpressed. "Oh. He's free. Seems like you guys got this under control. I'm leaving now."
She turned, one hand in her pockets, but Omen's grip caught her shoulder, dragging her back. "You're gonna see this through." His tone was half-serious, half-scolding, but her glare could've stripped paint off steel. Before another word left her mouth, the air ruptured with a sound like thunder breaking in half. Steiner dodged one more flaming bramble, and then froze.
Cainan was there. In front of him. The greatsword drove through Steiner's face with a wet, meaty crack that silenced everything. The ground seemed to recoil as his body seized, blood misting the air in a cruel halo as the force lifted him from the ground. His soldiers gasped, their faith disemboweled before them. When the dust settled, Cainan stood in the ruin, wind tugging at his blood-streaked hair, holding Steiner's head by the hair like a war trophy. His eyes were hollow, unbothered. "Who the heck was that guy anyway?"
Audren's voice echoed over the stunned field. "What's your name, summon?"
"Rude." Cainan said.
"What kind of name is Rude?" she asked, incredulous.
"Who the hell are you anyway?" Cainan shot back, shifting his greatsword to cover himself from the breeze. The captains whispered among themselves, their eyes darting between the corpse and the stranger who had killed the Primarch like it was nothing.
"How does he fight like that?" one muttered.
"Wonder where he's from to where they fight so primal…"
Cainan's gaze swept the battlefield; bodies, blood, and banners—his mind running wild.
'This is real… it's all real.'
His thoughts sharpened, the noise of war folding into the hum of disbelief.
'This is insane… this is insane! This is where everyone goes after dying?! I can feel something tugging at me… not like the energy I felt at home. Magic? Curses? Whatever this Rune of Death crap is, it's crawling under my skin. And I'm supposed to kill a brain? A literal brain? What kind of job is that…? What does that even mean? Is this even the afterlife?'
He finally shouted aloud, voice cracking the quiet, "What am I getting out of this?!"
A Stroheim soldier lunged from behind, blade raised, but before Cainan could even turn, Audren's scepter was already buried through the soldier's skull. A violent flare of starlight detonated inside his head, bursting him into a cloud of blood and light.
Harpe groaned, covering his mouth with a silk cloth. "Disgusting."
Klem snorted, Omen laughed, both jeering at Harpe. Harpe's left eye twitched red, his voice rising to a theatrical growl: "You looking to die in the presence of our enemies?"
The two knights mimed mock fear, stepping back dramatically. Atale crossed her arms, her tone refined but cutting: "You three are a mockery to nobility. Show some dignity before the summon."
Fenris emerged from the dust then, towering and grim, his lupine eyes fixed on Cainan. "Dangerous," he said flatly. "Exactly what we need. The Summoning Rite did not fail us."
Cainan blinked at him. "What is this place called? Guessing there's no cars here? Phones? Guns?"
Audren shook her head slowly. And she thought, 'What's he spouting? What is a phone? Some weapon of mass destruction? If it is, we could use it. But he's so odd and weird. And I can feel malice in him.'
"Robots? Phones? Guns?" Audren asked, her brow leaning. "Where the hell did you come from butt ass naked?"
"Some place where they didn't have talking wolves and people impaling each other with magic shit," Cainan replied, deadpan. "Got some weird contract, something about killing a brain. So, whose brain am I stabbing? I hope it's yours. Maybe I'll get something out of it."
Then, at least 8 soldiers surrounded Cainan, squealing, "HOW DARE YOU THREATEN THE QUEEN?!"
Audren rolled her eyes, "I'M NOT QUEEN YET!"
And then came the silence. A soldier of Kalhalla whispered, trembling, "The brain…"
The ground dimmed. Every shadow deepened. Then came the roar of the sky itself splitting apart. A massive shape unfurled above them, an impossible mass of flesh and intellect, glistening and pulsating, its form half-organic and half-divine. A literal brain, colossal and breathing, loomed over the horizon like a living moon. Around it floated red humanoids with four wings and bodies covered in blinking eyes, each crowned with a jagged, red halo that hummed like a furnace.
Blood began dripping from Cainan's nose as he stared upward, silent, transfixed. Fenris barked out a warning, "Don't look up at the—"
But Cainan was already looking.
"He's really looking at the brain… this was all for nothing." Audren's voice trembled despite her effort to sound cold. The wind from the hovering mass raked against her coat, tugging it sideways as she kept her gaze buried toward the ground. Her hand tightened around her scepter; the trembling of her thumb betrayed her calm. "I really failed again..didn't I?"
"Right when Stroheim's forces didn't overwhelm us. Sucks," Omen muttered, his voice low, bitter, and heavy with disbelief. His usual smirk had died somewhere between the blood-soaked field and the shadow above them.
Klem said nothing. The lazy indifference that usually colored her posture was gone. Her eyes stayed sealed, and her arms, once folded with arrogant ease, now hung stiff at her sides, fingers twitching faintly. Even she knew that raising her head meant instant death.
Atale was already kneeling, her green healing crests glowing like delicate embers in the carnage. She whispered incantations beneath her breath, sealing open wounds of Kalhalla's wounded knights without daring to glance upward. The sound of their groans mixed with the low vibration of the monstrous voice that suddenly filled the air. The ones wounded on the ground whose bodies were facing upwards had to cover their eyes to avoid looking at the brain.
"The Rune of Life and Fertility… the Rune of False Heaven… the Rune of Fire… the Rune of Mysteries… the Rune of Prophet… the Rune of Angels… the Rune of Discovery… the Rune of Sovereignty… the Rune of Blasphemy… and finally… the Rune of Death."
The brain's voice was ancient and vast, impossibly deep like each word was a wave breaking through the marrow of the world.
"All runic shards of the divine beings…all runes which are the foundation of life itself, fell and are hidden amongst the land of humans and magic. Thus one who is not of this realm proceeds the Rune of Death. A dark power that kills anything without magical limits. Those who hold a full rune experience outer beings' wrath, but thus who holds the full Rune of Death experiences a cursed sequence. You are thus a strange human, bonding with a cursed rune."
The brain's surface contorted violently as it spoke, folding and reshaping itself in slow, grotesque succession. It became Cainan's parents, faces twisted with love and guilt—then melted into his old cat's fragile body, then into the wide-eyed, mangled visages of every target he had ever killed. Flesh melded with light, twisting, mutating, the transformations sickeningly fluid.
Blood streamed from Cainan's nose. His breathing hitched, then steadied. He grinned, eyes trembling but unbroken and kept his grin. "How… how am I supposed to kill something like this?"
The faces kept changing, cycling through his life like a cruel slideshow of everything he had ever loved or destroyed. His gaze faltered only for a heartbeat before rage eclipsed it. "I'll cut that fucking brain in half!" His voice cracked through the storm like thunder. He pushed forward, one dragging step at a time, though the air itself fought to hold him still.
Gasps broke through the army ranks. Soldiers couldn't look, but they could feel the energy thrashing between them.
Audren's knuckles went white around her weapon. Fenris's hackles rose as low growls rumbled from his chest. Klem's breath came uneven, Omen and Harpe frozen mid-motion. Atale's healing faltered, the crest sputtering with unstable light. None dared move. None dared lift their heads.
Cainan's voice came again, a low rasp hidden behind that grim smile. "I got a contract… to cut you in half. I don't know what I'm getting out of it, but you transforming into my dumb past isn't gonna stop me."
His thoughts raged in silence. 'Taking. Always taking from others. People needed me to take lives, to take money, to take blame. Even my own parents. They needed money, and they made me what I never wanted to be. But with how expensive everything was… it was convenient for us. Since we never had crap, I hated it. I ran away thinking I'd find something better, like some fantasy where I could be happy. Then I stole that cat. It didn't even belong to me, but I was happy. Taking made me feel alive. It made me feel like I existed. So if taking life through contracts, or taking something impossible, can make me feel that again, then maybe I can still be happy in this shitty life. I don't care about other people honestly, or how I treat them. As long as I try to take care of myself.'
He raised his greatsword. The muscle in his shoulder tensed, blood dripping from his temple. The brain pulsed once, an immense, silent convulsion, and in the next instant, Cainan's head detonated in a shower of red. His body staggered but did not collapse immediately. It still moved, swinging the blade in a final, desperate sweep. The strike carried a ghost of willpower before the body finally faltered and fell forward, the sword clattering beside it.
The battlefield went still. No one spoke. The only sound was the slow hiss of blood dripping into the dirt.
….
'It actually got me…huh. What's next then?'
Cainan gasped as his eyes flew open. his lungs dragging in light instead of air. He sat upright on a surface that wasn't solid, a vast mirror of clear, motionless water stretching endlessly in every direction.
The sky was like a cathedral of galaxies, vast rivers of cosmic dust curling like smoke around drifting islands of debris: shattered marble pillars, floating spears, fractured bells turning slowly in the void. His reflection stared back at him through the water, distorted by starlight and ripples from his hands.
"I'm not dead?!" he barked, his own voice echoing as if the galaxy laughed with him. He stood, still panting, running both hands over his head in disbelief. "I'm not dead!"
He turned in a slow circle, the full weight of the unreal horizon swallowing him whole. "Whoa…" he muttered, almost childlike, as if some part of him, the part that didn't know how to kill for credits, was genuinely amazed.
"Excuse me?" a voice said behind him. "Excuse me, good sir."
Cainan whipped around. A tall figure stood a few yards away, towering yet calm, as if the realm itself bowed to him. His skin was pure dark stardust, but within it shimmered white flickers, constellations alive and restless beneath the surface. His eyes glowed a dim silver, and his short curly hair swayed like a nebula made of slow lightning.
Cainan blinked. "Who are you?"
The being raised both hands apologetically, his tone perfectly polite. "Excuse me, sorry, I didn't mean to bother you," he said — before his voice broke into a roar that shook the stars. "BUT CAN YOU PLEASE STOP FUCKING DYING!"
Cainan, without missing a beat, drew his blade and pointed it at the cosmic stranger. "Hey! Don't give me that! You're the one who threw me into a magic fantasy hellscape with a talking brain god that kills people by looking at them!" He glanced down, the rune of death still burned across his chest like a black crown. "And I still have this thing on my chest? That freak of a brain seemed like it really didn't want me keeping it. But what's happening?! Explain!"
The being tilted his head, pointing at himself. "Um. Do you not remember me or…?"
Cainan had a finger halfway up his nose. "Huh? Who are you again? Am I supposed to know you?"
"I'm the one who picked you up," the being said flatly. "In the truck. The white one. It's… been used a few times to kill people—"
"YOU! What did you do to me?" Cainan cut in. "What are these runes the brain mentioned? How the hell did you bring me here?"
The being sighed, visibly restraining himself from throttling him. "My name is Camelot," he said finally. "I hold the Rune of Mystery. The full rune."
Cainan's eyes widened. "It brought me back?"
"Ehhh," Camelot hesitated, "yeah. But I can't do it again. The wrath of the Outer Beings comes for anyone who uses a full runes power. The more it's used, the stronger the next one becomes. And I'd really like to avoid getting ripped in half again, if that's okay with you."
Cainan stared. "Outer beings? What are those supposed to be?"
"Just what we call them," Camelot said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Their purpose, their origin… all mystery. But they're old, and they're strong. The Rune of Mystery is the least grounded of all runes. It bends logic itself in certain areas. That's what makes it… dangerous."
"Dangerous my ass," Cainan muttered, stabbing his sword lightly into Camelot's leg once, twice, again. "What—are—you? Stop dodging—my—questions."
Camelot didn't even flinch. "I am nothing," he said simply.
A sound tore the air open—
crrrk — like the universe itself splitting at the seams. Both men turned as a fissure carved across the heavens, spilling out light that rippled like water.
Camelot straightened, summoning a luminous sword and shield that shimmered with galaxies caught inside. "An Outer Being," he said grimly. "I'll fight it."
Cainan stared up at the rift. "How many of these bastards have you fought already?"
"Four," Camelot said. "Twice long ago, once when I brought you here, and now. You are the last summon."
"Huh? What does that mean?! And you didn't tell me what the runes are!"
From the crack descended something terrible and beautiful at the same time, a creature of galaxies and bones, half void-born insect, half celestial monarch.
A thousand glimmering eyes burned across its obsidian hide, and above its crowned heads bloomed a halo of white flowers. The air trembled with its cooing, melodic and divine. Its name rolled through existence itself: Yorukhel.
"Try not to die again," Camelot said, glancing back. "You won't come back this time. Head to Kalhalla. Become its king. It's your only chance to get close to the Brain. Its last ruler, King Bastion, held the Rune of Death before you. Destined to kill the Brain, until he was sealed away. His rune escaped his soul. It's been with you since birth."
Cainan scoffed. "Huh?! Just drop me off at Kalhalla! I'm getting passed around like I'm some damn whore. I ought to rip your head off for dropping me off naked!"
"Without a summoning circle, I can't choose where you'll land," Camelot said quickly. "But you'll return to that world. That's all I can promise. I don't have time to explain all your questions, like the runes for example. You'll figure it out."
The void trembled as Camelot stepped forward, his armor igniting with cosmic light. His sword, a radiant storm of stars and dust, expanded until it looked capable of cutting across dimensions. Yorukhel's wings opened like dying suns, the coo rising into an echoing hymn of war.
Cainan stared, quiet for a moment. 'Become a king… kill the brain…'
He thought of the child he once was, the boy who dreamed about ruling something, anything, before being forced into a life of blood and contracts. A king. Someone with control. Something that was his. His fists tightened.
Camelot leapt, galaxies bursting beneath his feet as he struck Yorukhel head-on, sword clashing against divine flesh in a thunderstorm of power. For a moment, the whole realm became pure color.
And then somehow, Cainan was perched on Camelot's shoulder mid-fight. "So what's the pay?" he shouted over the noise. "What am I getting out of killing an invincible brain?"
Camelot's eye twitched. "AGH! What are you doing up here?! Go through the portal! Brat!"
Cainan refused to move. "What's my reward?! Tell me and I'll leave!"
The galaxy split open with silent wrath, stars bending in distorted halos as Camelot raised his sword, a beautiful radiant blade of condensed white starlight that carved streaks of gravity through the void.
Across from him, Yorukhel unfurled its grotesque form, its insectoid limbs shimmering with galaxies folded beneath translucent flesh, wings quivering like shattered constellations. The dove-like heads cooed in a haunting harmony, the halo of white petals behind it pulsing with a divine rhythm. The air itself convulsed as both beings faced each other, celestial discipline against madness.
Cainan sat awkwardly on Camelot's shoulder, gripping a lock of cosmic hair, muttering, "So, how am I getting paid for this?!"
Camelot didn't answer. His body surged forward, horizontally cutting through the air with brutal intent, his sword dragging trails of burning white orbits that collapsed on contact with Yorukhel's claws. The impact scattered debris like luminous rain.
Yorukhel retaliated, swinging one arm that splintered into a thousand comet-like shards, each hurling forward with deafening speed. Camelot twisted sideways, bracing his shield to intercept, the stars within it collapsing inward before detonating outward, bursting with celestial static that blinded the horizon. Cainan yelled, ducking, barely dodging the radiant bursts.
Camelot vaulted upward, knee meeting Yorukhel's jaw in a concussive burst, then spun his sword downward in a seamless circular carve that ripped open the beast's chest. A dark torrent spilled, black holes in liquid form.
Yorukhel bent backward, wings thrashing violently, swatting Camelot with sheer force. Camelot caught the blow with his shield, cracked through two galaxies, and kicked off the void itself, reappearing above Yorukhel's heads.
Cainan screamed, trying to keep balance, jumping side to side on Camelot's shoulder to dodge flaring fragments of dying stars.
"You better not be trying to kill yourself before you pay me!" Cainan yelled.
"Why the HELL would I do that?!"
"I don't know!"
"Fine!" Camelot shouted mid-combat. "You wanna get disintegrated up here?! Be my guest! I'm gonna laugh!"
"I'll disintegrate you if I don't get paid somehow!" Cainan shouted back, gripping his sword, ducking as another limb whistled past his head.
Camelot seized Yorukhel's arm, twisting it until cosmic fractures spidered through its length, then drove his foot into its torso, shattering it into a mist of astral dust. Yorukhel reformed instantly, screeching, its dove heads roaring in unison as a dark gravitational pulse hurled Camelot backward through constellations.
He braced, cutting through the pull with one clean slice, cutting through a planet-sized chunk of debris, and crashed back into Yorukhel's core with relentless momentum.
They exchanged movements faster than reason could track, Yorukhel stabbing with blade-like feathers while Camelot countered each thrust with swift sweeps and inverted cuts. He parried one blow with his forearm, let the limb snap, then reformed it mid-motion, driving his sword through another head.
Cainan barely clung on, hopping like a deranged spectator as flashes of destructive light erupted beneath him. "So what's my reward then?! What do I get outta killing an invincible brain?!"
"I'm surprised you didn't ask why you need to kill it!" Camelot snarled, pivoting as Yorukhel's talons crushed through his guard.
"I don't care why. I never ask why. Just wanna know what I get out of it, and how I'm supposed to kill something like that," Cainan barked back, shielding his face as sparks and debris exploded around him.
Camelot tore his sword free, slicing through the creature's midsection and roaring, "With the full Rune of Death, the user can kill anything! Spirits, gods, ghosts, nothing survives it. There is no limit as to what it can kill. One can be sealed away or anything similar, they can die. They can be deemed immortal and die to the rune. With you as king of Kalhalla, you might find a way! More access to knowledge and pathways to victory. Everyone who even attacks or looks at the brain immediately explodes! You being king opens doors for you to maybe one day not suffer that fate again!"
"Good to hear, shithead. I'll find a way then!" Cainan shouted, half ducking another wing that nearly took his head off. "But what's my reward?"
Yorukhel screeched, hurling itself forward, impaling Camelot through the chest. Camelot grabbed the limb, tore it out, and rammed his sword straight through Yorukhel's heart. The blade erupted in blinding white light, starlit veins surging through the creature until it screamed with a deafening, celestial pitch that shattered the horizon. The void trembled as the creature exploded outward in a burst of luminous dust and fading coos.
When silence returned, Cainan stood on the mirrored water below, the reflection of dying galaxies rippling beneath his feet. Camelot turned, his wounds healing in streams of light, and said, "An Outer Being able to cut into a realm itself means they're getting stronger. Each use of a full rune sends an apocalyptic force closer to its user."
"The first one you fought couldn't get in?" Cainan asked, his voice steady.
"No. Nor the second. I went to them to fight," Camelot said quietly.
Cainan looked toward the glowing portal. "What's my reward? For killing an unlikable brain?"
"You get to go back," Camelot replied.
Cainan scoffed. "What kinda shitty reward is that? Why would I want to go back to that dump?"
"You said you liked feeling wanted there," Camelot reminded. "Makes you feel worth something?"
"Doesn't mean I like it," Cainan muttered. "Maybe just the feeling. My parents were crap. Maybe I just craved the attention. My parents turned me into a fucking monster. I wanted to be a super hero dammit. A king even. Why would I go back? Even though that place makes me feel wanted? Confusing right? Maybe I'm just a confused person."
He stood there, staring into the shifting light, then turned toward the portal. "Nevermind. Nevermind what I said. I'll kill the brain."
"I think you can do it. You're a dangerous human, Cainan. You said you always wanted to be a king since you were a child, yes? Isn't this a reward enough?"
"I don't know why I feel like this about it. Doesn't feel like it belongs to me, but someone else. It happened fast, out of nowhere. Of course I'm gonna be thrown back by it. I just need to be here longer, maybe then I can be excited about finally being a king."
And he walked through it.