Lightning fractured the heavens.
The figure that descended from the tear in the sky brought not just pressure—but presence. Every strand of aura in the region reacted violently, like prey trembling before a predator's approach. Wind currents reversed. Glyphs across Skyburn Citadel dimmed. Even the sun seemed to falter behind shifting clouds.
The Herald landed with elegance and malice, floating just above the cracked platform before the now-ruined Vault of the Sky Wyrm.
Kael's jaw tensed. His instincts screamed. Not fear—focus.
This wasn't a trial anymore. This was a message.
"I thought the Vault was sealed," Lyra whispered behind him, shielding her eyes from the intensity. "No one's supposed to be able to reach it…"
"They're not," Zera answered quietly, lips barely moving. "Unless they're not from our realm."
The Herald finally spoke.
"I am no mere Echo. No beast. No relic-bound memory." Its voice fractured like shattered glass and stitched itself back together between syllables. "I am the Skyfire Herald. One of the Thirteen. And you—Ashen One—have drawn too close to what should remain sealed."
Kael didn't blink. "So you've come to stop me?"
"No." The Herald tilted its head. "I've come to test you. If you survive, you may proceed. If you die… the balance remains."
"Then let's skip the ceremony."
Kael's aura exploded into life.
Ashen light burst from beneath his feet, coiling and shifting like a dragon made of smoke and embers. His shadow grew longer, more jagged. The burn scars across his body glowed faintly—residual energy from his clash with the Eye of Eternity still lingering in his veins.
[Ashen Domain – Flicker Stage]
Effect: All Aura reactions heightened. Adaptive Counter active. Time-dilation in 5-meter radius.
The Herald responded in kind. Its cloak dissolved into wings of crackling lightning and searing wind.
Then came the first strike.
Kael moved forward—not to dodge, but to meet it head-on.
Blades clashed. Aura screamed.
His blade—now half-fused with the Revenant core—deflected the Herald's lightning claw by a hair. Sparks danced along his shoulder, burning through the fabric of his tunic, but his grip didn't falter.
Behind him, Drayke flared his own aura, prepared to jump in.
"Not yet," Zera said firmly, holding Drayke back. "This is Kael's echo."
Drayke snarled. "What if he dies?"
"Then we're all dead anyway."
Kael's Mindscape – The Ashen Heart
In the space between strikes, Kael's vision split.
He found himself back inside his own aura space—The Ashen Heart. A realm of molten-black skies and floating memory fragments. The adaptive nature of his aura meant it didn't just evolve—it remembered.
A new fragment floated into view: a sliver of a storm dragon's wing, devoured long ago.
And beside it, a voice—his own, but older, more fractured.
"This one fights like a concept made flesh. Don't match its speed. Disrupt its pattern. Overwhelm its memory."
Kael's eyes snapped open. The strategy was clear.
Back in the real world, the Herald moved like thunder incarnate. Every strike carried arcs of unstable power meant to vaporize.
But Kael was learning.
Each clash was a download.
Each dodge, a calibration.
He shifted mid-fight, letting his Ashen Aura echo the Herald's energy signature, syncing for only fractions of a second—long enough to strike back with increasingly effective counterattacks.
He ducked under a spinning laceration of pure wind, twisted behind the Herald, and delivered a burst of soul-fire into its back.
The Herald staggered.
"A mimic…" it whispered. "Cursed evolution. No wonder the Eye feared you."
Kael didn't pause. "You're damn right it did."
He activated Soul Scorch – Stage 2, a pulse of withering fire meant to disrupt aura circuitry. The Herald recoiled, its form warping from its stable shape into flickering instability.
But then—
BAM.
Kael was punched through a stone pillar, ribs cracking.
The Herald blurred, eyes ignited in golden-blue flame.
"You adapt," it growled, "but your will is still human. Mortal."
Kael stood, blood dripping from his mouth, blade dragging.
"That's your mistake," he spat, grinning through the pain. "I'm not here to be human."
Elsewhere – Sunspire Council Hall
Back at the capital, an emergency glyph ignited in the Council's central mirror array. Veyl Solane, Lyra's former superior, turned sharply as the mirror shifted to reveal flickering visions of the Herald.
"Impossible," she muttered. "They're accelerating… The Heralds were never meant to descend this early."
A voice from the shadows echoed.
"Then perhaps… the boy is the variable."
Back at Skyburn
Kael locked eyes with the Herald. No more feints. No more analysis.
He activated Ashen Veil: Phase Drift.
Time warped within a ten-meter radius. The world bent.
Kael vanished, appearing behind the Herald, slicing into its side with a soul-charged strike that tore through its storm-woven hide.
The Herald screamed—not in pain, but fury.
"I see now… You are not merely Echo-born."
It thrust its claw into its own chest.
"Then witness a fraction of what waits beyond."
It ripped open a core of radiant lightning—and the world turned white.
A blast echoed for miles. Skyburn Citadel shook.
Lyra was forced to shield the entire team with her relic, struggling to hold the solar veil as the shockwave passed.
When it cleared—Kael was on one knee, his aura flickering.
The Herald hovered above him, form now fracturing, unstable.
"You've earned the right," it said, voice cracking with residual power. "The Vault opens… and the Sky Wyrm awakens."
Then, with a final pulse of energy, the Herald vanished into scattered light.
Kael collapsed.
Later – Inside the Vault
Kael awoke in a healing chamber, Lyra at his side. Drayke leaned against the wall, arms crossed, clearly annoyed—but also impressed.
"You fought an interdimensional lightning god," Drayke muttered. "And lived."
Kael sat up slowly, wincing. "Barely."
Zera stepped into the room, holding a scroll sealed with lightning script.
"You passed the Vault trial. The Sky Wyrm awaits."
Kael looked down at his hands. Burned, cracked… but stronger.
He wasn't the same.
And deep in his core, something new stirred.
Not just power.
Memory. From the Herald itself.
[Aura Sync Acquired: Skyfire Residue]
Temporary Fusion Access: Stormwalker Form – Limited Use
Fusion Compatibility: 13%
Kael stood.
The next step wasn't just survival. It was conquest.