---
Kael's body twitched as he gasped awake.
Cold air filled his lungs. Sweat soaked the sheets. His heartbeat echoed like war drums.
Orren, sitting on the other side of the room, didn't flinch. "Back from the dead again?"
Kael didn't answer. He was still staring at his hands—hands that no longer felt entirely human.
Inside, his soul no longer felt crowded. Alaric and Veyrion were gone. In their place was... silence.
And underneath that silence?
Calculation.
A voice—his own—ran a thousand scenarios, a thousand simulations. Possibilities, probabilities, and paths. Cold, precise. Inhumanly sharp.
He hadn't just devoured the gods.
He'd absorbed their minds.
---
He stood, ignoring the aches.
> [Skill Unlocked: Fragment Clone (Soul-Forged Projection)]
[Condition Met: Dual Polarity Memory Bank Established]
[Clone Construction Available: Choose Persona]
— Heroic Archetype: Alaric
— Demonic Archetype: Veyrion
Kael's lips curled into a cold smirk.
"I'll give them what they want," he murmured. "Hope… and fear."
He raised his hand. Mana rippled—light on one side, shadow on the other.
Two spheres pulsed into existence.
---
Clone One formed—tall, golden-haired, draped in white, eyes full of false compassion. Radiating power and purity.
Kael infused him with calculated restraint, charm, and Alaric's grace.
"You will be their salvation," Kael whispered. "Their symbol. Their distraction."
> [Name Set: Serian Dawnblade – Savior of the People]
---
Clone Two rose—horned helm, dark robes, swirling void around his hands. Terrifying, regal, monstrous.
Kael loaded him with fear, theatricality, and just enough Veyrion madness.
"You will be their nightmare. Their excuse to unite. Their rallying threat."
> [Name Set: Lord Malveth – The Demon Who Returned]
---
The real Kael stepped back, his presence hidden under an illusion spell.
No one would know him.
Not yet.
---
Orren raised a brow. "You just made a fake hero and a demon king?"
Kael looked out the window, where a city trembled in ignorance.
"No," he said softly.
"I just started a war with myself."
---