The sky was burning again.
Kael could taste the ash before he even saw it — metallic, faintly sweet, like blood that had forgotten its source. Every dawn since the battle with Erethal had carried that scent, a reminder that the Dominion's retribution was not far behind.
The rebellion was moving north, following the shattered veins of the old world — the roads carved by the first settlers before the gods descended. Now they were nothing but cracks in the earth, and above them, the sky pulsed faintly with veins of gold.
Lira walked beside Kael in silence, hood drawn, eyes scanning the horizon. Around them, the soldiers whispered: the man who killed a god, the girl who bled starlight. Legends before they'd even reached the next war.
Kael hated it.
He didn't kill a god.He'd merely survived one.
"Ardentia," he murmured as the wind picked up, "how far to the Spire?"
The voice that answered him was faint but steady now — no longer fractured, though it carried the weary echo of something once divine.
"Three days north, if the Dominion hasn't moved it."
He frowned. "Moved it?"
"The Spire is not anchored to earth. It drifts above the scars of the old world — feeding on the energy of fallen fragments like me. It hides itself in the blind spots of the universe."
Kael's jaw tightened. "And that's where your final shard lies?"
"Yes. At its summit. The Heartforge."
Lira's voice cut through their private link, soft but firm. "Then we reach it before they do."
Kael turned to her. "You've been quiet."
She met his eyes, and for a moment, her silver irises flickered again — faint light rippling through the dark. "I can feel it. The Spire is calling me, too. Whatever they made me from… it was bound to that place."
He studied her expression — the calm mask she wore like armor. "If we go there, you might not come back."
She smiled faintly. "Neither will you."
By nightfall, the army had made camp in the ruins of a once-great city — half-buried under sand and black glass. They called it Sol Rest, a name left over from when it was a city of scholars, not soldiers. Now only statues remained, melted and warped into inhuman shapes by divine fire.
Kael wandered alone among the ruins.He didn't need sleep anymore — not since the fusion with Ardentia's fragments. When his eyes closed, he saw too much: her memories, her war, the birth of gods.
He stopped before a broken mural on a wall half-buried in sand.It depicted a tower — not the Celestial Spire, but something older. A forge surrounded by stars.
Ardentia's voice trembled in his mind.
"That was the first forge. The place where we built ourselves from the breath of dying suns."
Kael brushed the dust from the mural. "You were created?"
"We created each other," she said softly. "We were smiths, dreamers — mortals who learned to forge light. But then came the Dominion. They took what we made and used it to shape gods of obedience."
He stared at the mural's central figure — a woman in radiant armor, her sword raised to the heavens. Ardentia.
"I remember this," he whispered. "You burned their first heaven."
"And they never forgave me."
He didn't realize Lira had followed him until she spoke."You're talking to her again."
He turned, startled. "You can hear it?"
She nodded. "Not her words — but the rhythm of her voice. It's strange. Like… a heartbeat under yours."
He said nothing, but she stepped closer, lowering her hood."You're changing, Kael."
He looked away. "So are you."
Lira smiled faintly, a sad, knowing curve of her lips. "Maybe that's what happens when mortals walk with gods."
They stood there a moment, the silence between them heavy with things neither dared say. Then Lira turned, gesturing toward the horizon.
"Come on. You'll want to see this."
The Celestial Spire revealed itself at dawn.
It wasn't a tower. Not really.It was an impossible structure — a column of black glass and golden metal, rising from a floating island that hung thousands of meters above the wasteland. Lightning circled its edges like a halo. Its surface shifted and pulsed as if alive, the tower breathing in rhythm with the clouds.
Kael could feel its pull instantly — the resonance of Ardentia's final shard calling to him like gravity.
"That's it," Ardentia whispered. "The Heartforge."
Lira exhaled shakily. "It's… beautiful."
"Beautiful," Kael said, "and deadly."
They began their ascent.
Serin and a squad of elite rebels secured the base, setting up arc rifles to hold off the Dominion patrols circling the skies. The Spire's surface was slick and cold, but the moment Kael touched it, the metal responded — glowing faintly beneath his palm, forming a spiraling stairway of light.
Lira stared. "It recognizes you."
Ardentia's tone darkened.
"It recognizes us. The Spire was forged with my essence. The Dominion bound me to it when they built their heaven."
As they climbed, the world below shrank — until the land was just a sea of red dust and shadow.The air grew thinner, the light harsher. They passed through clouds of shimmering gold where echoes of past battles whispered around them: swords clashing, screams, prayers turned curses.
At the first landing, they found statues.Hundreds of them.Each carved in exquisite detail — warriors, kings, scholars — frozen mid-motion.
Lira knelt beside one, touching its face. "These aren't stone."
Kael frowned. "What do you mean?"
She looked up at him. "They're people. Living ones — turned to crystal."
Ardentia's voice was grim.
"The Spire feeds on souls. Those who climb it without a divine bond are devoured, their essence turned to fuel."
Kael's knuckles tightened. "Monsters."
"No," Ardentia said quietly. "Just gods pretending they aren't."
Halfway up the Spire, they encountered the first guardian.
It emerged from the wall — a massive construct of black metal and gold fire, shaped like a man but faceless, its chest glowing with a burning sigil. The same sigil that had been branded into Kael's back when the Dominion captured him years ago.
Lira drew her blades. "It's the Mark."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "So this is what they made of my sin."
The guardian's voice was mechanical, layered, divine.
"Kael Ardent. Forbidden bearer. By decree of the Celestial Spire, your existence is revoked."
Kael smirked. "Then revoke this."
He drew the Iron-Star Blade — and the Spire trembled.
The fight was chaos given form. The guardian moved like lightning, its fists shattering air itself, each strike carving molten lines across the metal walls. Kael dodged and countered, his blade cutting arcs of silver through the golden haze. Sparks rained like meteor showers.
Lira joined in, her movements blurring — each step leaving trails of afterimages. She danced between the strikes, slashing through the guardian's joints while Kael aimed for its core.
"Now!" Ardentia's voice thundered.
Kael roared, leaping high, sword blazing like a fragment of a dying star.He plunged it into the guardian's chest.
The explosion shook the Spire. The construct shattered into shards of burning glass, its light fading into nothing.
Kael landed hard, gasping for air. Lira caught his arm, steadying him. "You okay?"
He nodded weakly. "Still breathing."
"Good," Ardentia said. "Then hurry. The higher we climb, the closer we get to the gods who rule this place."
Hours later, they reached the next gate — a vast doorway of molten gold that pulsed with the rhythm of a heartbeat. Beyond it, Kael could sense something vast waiting, watching.
Lira stepped forward, but Kael grabbed her wrist. "Wait."
He looked down — faint sigils glowing across the floor, forming a circle around them.
"Trap," he hissed.
Too late.
The doorway exploded open in a storm of golden light.
A woman stepped through.Her armor shimmered like water, her eyes like twin suns. Long silver hair framed a face both cruel and breathtaking.
"I wondered which mortal would climb this far," she said, voice smooth as silk. "But I should have known. The traitor of the Dominion."
Kael's breath caught. "You—"
"It's been a long time, Kael." Her smile curved dangerously. "Or should I say… my little experiment."
Ardentia's voice broke into a growl.
"Seraph Althira. The Weaver of Souls."
Lira stiffened. "You know her?"
"She created him."
Kael's world tilted.
He took a step forward, sword trembling in his grip. "You… made me?"
Althira's expression softened mockingly. "Made, refined, perfected. You were the vessel for the Dominion's greatest experiment — a mortal who could hold divine resonance without breaking." She laughed softly. "And now look at you. My masterpiece, dressed in rebellion."
Kael's voice was a whisper. "You used me."
"Used?" She tilted her head. "No. I freed you from mortality. You should thank me."
His vision blurred with rage.He lunged.
Althira met his strike with a single hand. The clash sent waves of light rippling outward.He struck again. And again.Each time, she parried effortlessly, her movements graceful, almost pitying.
"You can't kill your own maker, Kael," she murmured, leaning close. "You were designed not to."
He froze.
She smiled. "See? Still bound by my design."
Lira screamed, charging in — her daggers cutting a silver arc aimed for Althira's throat.But Althira's hand shot out, catching her mid-strike.
Their eyes met — and for the briefest moment, Althira's expression changed.Shock. Recognition.
"You— I know that resonance. You're—"
Lira's eyes burned silver. "Her heart."
And then, the Spire roared.
A pulse of energy tore through the chamber, shattering stone, bending light. Althira stumbled back, her armor cracking.
Kael moved instantly — blade flashing forward, carving through the gap in her guard.Blood, golden and bright, spilled from her lips as she fell to one knee.
"You—" she hissed. "You've merged…"
Kael raised his sword, voice cold. "I'm not your experiment anymore."
He swung.The blade split her armor — and the world exploded in gold.
When the light faded, Althira was gone.Only ashes remained, drifting upward like glowing snow.
Kael stood trembling, the Iron-Star Blade dim in his hand. Lira touched his shoulder, but he didn't move.
"She wasn't lying," Ardentia said quietly. "You were made in their image, Kael. The perfect vessel. That's why you can bear me without dying."
Kael whispered, "So I'm one of them."
"No," she said. "You were meant to be one of them. But you chose not to."
Lira stepped in front of him, eyes fierce. "And that's what makes you human."
For a long time, Kael said nothing. Then he sheathed his sword, turning toward the next stairway that spiraled higher into the Spire's heart.
"Then let's finish what they started."
He began to climb again.
And high above them, unseen beyond the clouds of gold, nine divine lights stirred — the Seraphs' Council awakening.
The Dominion had noticed.And heaven itself was preparing for war.