Ash choked the sky as Ignatius loomed over the broken trio, his silhouette framed by flame. His molten eyes burned with cruel amusement, flickering behind a bone-white mask.
"Pathetic," he sneered, driving his heel into Kael's ribs. "A relic of a dead age. A failure frozen in stone while your empire burned."
Kael winced, blood trailing from his mouth, his hand inching toward the staff—so close, yet out of reach.
SLAP.
Ignatius' backhand cracked across his face, turning his head with the force. Blood spilled from split lips.
"You're nothing," the demon lord growled. His grip clamped around Kael's armor, lifting him like a doll. "A shadow. A ghost in a world that no longer needs you."
He tossed Kael aside like refuse and turned on Lucian, who lay panting, his anti-magic aura flickering like a dying candle.
"And you," Ignatius snarled. "A thief pretending to be a warrior." He ground Lucian's scythe beneath his boot until it snapped with a screech of metal.
Then, Dante.
"A talking horse," Ignatius mocked with a cruel laugh. "Did your master tire of you, beast, or did he leave you because even he couldn't stand your whining?"
The demon's laughter hissed like burning coals. Dante strained, blue flames sputtering in fury, but the molten chains held.
Finally, Ignatius knelt before Kael again, yanking his head up by the hair. "You can't save anyone, Emperor."
His gaze slid past him—to Elara and Jasen.
"But let's test your strength where it matters most."
He strode toward them.
Elara shielded Jasen, backing away, desperation in her eyes.
"Please—"
Her plea was silenced by a brutal backhand. She crumpled, and Jasen screamed as Ignatius tore him from her grasp.
"No!" Kael roared, muscles straining, bones creaking, but the demons held fast.
Ignatius lifted the boy by the collar, his legs kicking helplessly. "This is your future? This is mankind's hope?"
He turned to his minions. "Kill the woman. Let the boy watch."
A demon raised its claw—
—and the world cracked open.
A shockwave exploded from Kael, a scream of raw, ancient force. Demons were hurled through the air as the ground split and quaked. Kael rose, eyes glowing—one crimson, one gold—burning like judgment.
The staff flew into his hand, its dragon carvings igniting with divine light.
Ignatius staggered back, still gripping the boy. "What—?"
Kael's voice was thunder.
"You wanted to know who I am?"
He moved—
—too fast to follow.
Demons lunged, and he shattered them. One strike crushed a skull, another snapped a spine. Kael was fury incarnate, sweeping through the battlefield like a divine tempest.
Ignatius dropped Jasen and retreated, panic flaring.
"Impossible—!"
Kael slammed his staff to the ground. "I am Kael Dromen, son of Syslius Dromen—last emperor of a broken world."
The earth answered, trembling beneath his wrath.
"And you will remember me."
Ignatius lunged, twin blades of liquid fire blazing arcs through the air.
Kael didn't dodge. He planted the staff and punched the ground.
CRACK—THOOM!
A jagged fissure screamed forward, the snow devoured in an instant. Stone and ice exploded beneath Ignatius. The demon twisted aside, barely escaping, but Kael was already moving.
He spun the staff in a wide arc—ground erupting with each pass—and slammed its butt into the earth.
A second tremor surged.
Ignatius went airborne.
Kael clapped his hands, channeling force through the staff—its dragons glowing brighter.
BOOOOM!
The air folded in on itself. A concussive blast slammed Ignatius downward, shattering the ground on impact.
Ignatius rose slowly, his mask cracked, revealing scorched flesh beneath. Rage twisted his expression.
"Enough games."
He struck the ground with both fists. It melted.
Lava erupted—boiling rivers surging toward Kael like a tidal wave of fury.
Kael stabbed his staff into the earth. The carvings lit up fully now, energy roaring along the dragons' spines.
He roared and tore open the land.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
Stone heaved. The molten tide split apart like a parted sea. Kael charged through the center, the staff whirling in tight, violent arcs.
He drew back his fist, energy coiling around his arm.
"Shock Impact!"
His punch didn't strike Ignatius.
It struck the very air.
SPLINTERING REALITY—
The shockwave distorted space itself, hurtling like a cannon blast. Ignatius raised his arms too late—
BOOOOOOM!
He exploded backward, crashing through trees wreathed in fire, dragging a trail of molten blood behind him. His armor was shattered.
Ignatius rose slowly, steam rising from his wounds. His body stitched itself back together—but slower now.
"You... you're not just a warrior."
Kael gripped the staff tighter. Its twin dragon heads hissed with light, jaws glowing.
"No," he said. "I'm the end."
Ignatius bellowed, flames erupting around him in a pillar of volcanic rage.
Kael surged forward, leaping high into the air—staff overhead, power building.
"Tectonic Judgment!"
He brought the staff down.
The earth screamed.
A shockwave, mountainous in scale, detonated outward. Ground lifted, split, collapsed—swallowing Ignatius in a cataclysm of stone and silence. Fire extinguished. Smoke faded.
All that remained was the echo of ruin.
Then—
CRACK.
A molten hand clawed from the rubble.
Kael exhaled. "Persistent bastard."
He raised his fist again, the staff glowing behind him like a second sun.
"Final Quake."
His punch broke the sky.
Light shattered. Sound disappeared.
Ignatius' body unraveled—molecule by molten molecule—until there was nothing left but ash.
Kael raised the staff for the final blow—
—but with all the power left inside Ignatius body he dashed to Elara and Jasen.
A scream.
Kael spun—
—and saw the blade pierce Elara's chest.
"NO!" Lucian lunged, too slow.
Jasen shrieked, scrambling to her—
Ignatius caught him by the throat.
"You lose, Emperor."
And snapped the boy's neck.
Jasen fell like a broken doll.
And then a portal opens behind Ignatus and a dominant voice order him to come back and igantus entered the portal without an question.
Silence crashed over the battlefield.
Kael stood frozen.
Ignatius smiled.
"This is the world you failed to save."
Then he was gone, flames swallowing his shadow.
The camp lay in ruin.
Lucian collapsed beside Elara, hands trembling. Dante's flames faded, his skeletal body hunched with grief.
Suddenly Elara coughed "Lucian...I....I want you to *coughs* put our ashes in my hometown Willowbrook plss" and then she closes her eyes forever in lucain's arms
Kael did not speak.
He did not move.
But his grip tightened on the staff.
The ground trembled.
"Ignatius," he whispered.
And kale fall to the ground unconscious
The wrath had only just begun.