The Astral Rift didn't open into a room or a tunnel; it tore open in the middle of a screaming obsidian storm. Kael stepped through the fold in space, his Sovereign Vanguard mantle snapping violently in a wind that tasted of sulfur and crushed gemstones. Beside him, Lyra stumbled, her Gemini staff flashing a frantic violet as she stabilized her own gravity.
They were in the Barrens of Malakai, a Dead Zone thousands of miles from the familiar ruins of Z Town. Here, the House of Obsidian hadn't just built a spire; they had excavated the earth itself, creating a crater ten miles wide to expose the Second Sovereign Array. The ground beneath Kael's boots was literal black glass, polished to a mirror finish by the constant bombardment of Runic sandstorms.
"He's here," Kael said. His voice was a heavy, low-frequency hum that cut through the gale. He didn't need the Protocol to tell him. The Aries resonance in his chest was thrumming, reacting to a predatory, toxic pressure that felt like a thousand needles pressing against his skin.
[WARNING: RIVAL PROTOCOL DETECTED] [SIGN: SCORPIO — THE STING OF DESTRUCTION] [HOSTILE POWER LEVEL: YEAR 3 (PEAK)] [SYNCHRONIZATION RATE: 72%]
From the center of the crater, a figure rose. He didn't walk; he ascended on a pillar of emerald-green fire. Malakai, the Obsidian Herald, was a terrifying reflection of Kael's own evolution. His armor was composed of overlapping obsidian scales that seemed to breathe, and from his back emerged the Scorpio Rig—six mechanical legs and a massive, segmented tail made of glowing green rings that hummed with the sound of a hornet's nest.
"The Aries has finally drifted into my web," Malakai spoke. His voice didn't come from his throat; it was broadcast directly into the air via a high-density Scorpio frequency. "I watched you break Vane. A parlor trick. You used the 'Decree' to freeze a fly. Let's see how you handle a god."
Malakai flicked his wrist. The mechanical tail behind him moved faster than the eye could track.
[WARNING: MULTI-VECTOR STRIKE] [TYPE: CORROSIVE KINETIC PULSE]
A dozen green bolts of energy, each shaped like a jagged stinger, hissed through the air. They didn't travel in straight lines; they curved, seeking Kael's blind spots with the intelligence of a guided missile.
Kael didn't flinch. He didn't even raise his arms. He simply expanded his Emperor's Mantle.
"Absolute... Inertia."
The platinum field erupted from Kael's cloak. The moment the green stingers entered the 10-meter radius, they didn't explode. They simply... stopped. Twelve jagged bolts of lethal acid-energy hung suspended in the air, frozen in time, their kinetic force completely deleted by Kael's Year 3 authority.
"Your stingers are slow," Kael said, his platinum eyes glowing with a cold, terrifying brilliance.
He made a flicking motion with his fingers. The frozen bolts didn't fall. They turned 180 degrees.
"Return."
Using his own inertia-control, Kael redirected Malakai's energy back at him, adding his own Aries force to the projectiles. The bolts shot back at twice their original speed, now trailing platinum fire.
Malakai let out a distorted laugh. He crossed his mechanical legs in front of him, creating a Scorpio Aegis. The returning bolts hit the obsidian scales and dissolved into harmless green mist.
"Impressive. You've mastered the art of 'Stop'," Malakai sneered. "But Scorpio is the sign of 'Change.' You cannot stop what is already inside you."
Malakai slammed his hands onto the glass floor. The ground for a hundred meters turned into liquid obsidian. Kael felt his boots sink. But it wasn't just heat; it was a Molecular Decay. The Scorpio energy was eating the friction-steel of his boots, attempting to dissolve the Sovereign Vanguard from the feet up.
[CRITICAL DAMAGE DETECTED: 2%] [INTEGRITY COMPROMISED BY CORROSIVE RESONANCE]
"Lyra, get back!" Kael commanded.
He didn't pull his feet out. He drove his fist into the liquid glass.
"Aries... OVERLOAD."
Kael funneled his entire 100% energy reserve into the ground. A massive shockwave of platinum and red light exploded from his fist. The liquid obsidian didn't just solidify; it shattered into a billion microscopic shards. The force of the blast was so great it cleared the sandstorm for five miles, leaving the two Sovereigns standing in a vacuum of perfect silence.
Malakai staggered, his obsidian scales cracked, his Scorpio tail sparking with erratic green light. For the first time, the arrogance on his face was replaced by a look of pure, murderous rage.
"You dare... use raw force against me?" Malakai hissed. The green rings on his tail began to spin so fast they became a blur of white-hot plasma. "I am the Herald of the Second Array! I have eaten the hearts of ten Calamities!"
"And yet," Kael said, walking toward him through the ruins of the crater, his footsteps sounding like thunderclaps on the broken glass, "you still talk like a man who is afraid to die."
Kael raised his hand. The Emperor's Decree began to form in his throat—not as a word, but as a total conceptual rewrite of the Barrens.
"You want to know why I'm the Aries?" Kael asked. "Because the First Sign doesn't follow the rules. It creates them."
[SYNC RATE: 78%] [DEAD MAN'S SWITCH: 04:20:12] [NEW MOVE READY: 'THE EMPEROR'S EXECUTION']
Kael's platinum aura expanded until it touched the sky, dwarfing Malakai's green fire. The true battle for the Sovereign Arrays had officially moved past the stage of survival. It was now a war of total erasure.