The sky above the Peak of the World did not thunder. It screamed, as if nature itself had been torn apart by the wrath and despair of two legendary souls.The ground quaked violently. Distant mountain peaks collapsed like brittle toys. The air burned with such intensity it seared the lungs.
Once known as the sacred convergence point of all elemental flows, the Peak of the World was a place revered by sages and feared by tyrants. Now, it was a battlefield, a sacred altar turned into a furnace of hatred.
At the eye of this storm of devastation stood Rakha, his eyes ablaze with vengeance that refused to die.Each strike unleashed a storm of wild elemental energy. Flames scorched the heavens, the earth beneath him melting into rivers of molten rock.
"Raga! Traitor! You'll pay for what you've done!"
He roared, his voice more beast than man. He no longer saw a friend. Only a vessel for his pain.
He remembered, if only faintly, the day they first met.Not on a battlefield, but in silence, in a desert too quiet to trust.They had once fought back to back. Laughed under the same sky. Sworn to protect the balance of the Nine.
But all of that meant nothing now.He had taken his wife from him. His unborn child. His future.And the man standing before him, once his brother, was the very blade that had shattered his world.
Facing him stood Raga, unmoving, like a mountain in the heart of a hurricane.His face did not show rage, only wounds far deeper than flesh.He met Rakha's fury with unwavering Earth shields and redirected strikes with flows of Air, but never retaliated with killing intent.
"Rakha, please! This is a misunderstanding! It wasn't me..."
His voice was hoarse, thick with sorrow and disbelief. He held back, hoping Rakha would remember the truth. Hoping their bond could still be saved.
Raga's fingers trembled for a heartbeat, only a heartbeat.
Rakha… you fool. You don't even realize who really betrayed us.
He wanted to scream it. To shake his friend out of this nightmare. But all he could do was block.The weight of the mountain behind him, the weight of their history, pressed against his spine like a final warning.
He clenched his fists. His Earth shields rippled. He could feel the mountain itself crying beneath their feet.
But that hope was crushed. Rakha's fury had passed the point of no return.
"Enough with your lies!"
he bellowed, gathering every shred of his strength into a single, blinding point.
Nine auras spiraled violently around him, each one representing a primordial Element, forced into chaotic unity by sheer will.Flames crackled with wrath. Stone groaned. Lightning split the sky. Water hissed into vapor.Even Light and Darkness flickered in unstable bursts, repelled by the madness yet bound by power.
This was his ultimate technique, full active mastery of the Nine Elements, forged into destruction incarnate.
Raga's heart shattered.He saw it in Rakha's eyes. There was no doubt left. Their friendship had died, slain by misunderstanding and manipulation.There was no way back. For survival, for pride, or perhaps to end this madness the only way left.
Raga answered.
He dropped his defense. With a breath soaked in sorrow, he summoned all his inner mastery.Nine Elements surged around him as well, forming a second maelstrom, equal in force, but born of pain and restraint.
Their bodies shook, not from fear, but from the pressure of channeling pure elemental will.Blood vessels glowed faintly beneath their skin. Stones cracked just by their presence. The wind howled not of its own accord, but in terror of the two wills demanding its obedience.
Rakha's flame clawed at the edges of reason, licking at dimensions unseen. His Darkness bled into the air like ink in water, twisting the light around him.
Raga's Earth surged with calm but unyielding defiance. Streams of energy coursed through his bones like rooted stone, his breath synced to the pulse of the mountain beneath them.
Both men had stepped beyond mastery. What surged between them was no longer technique. It was essence.
Somewhere, across the spiritual plane, the seals of old trembled. For the first time in a thousand years, the universe remembered Paripurna, the forbidden state when all Nine Elements unite in one soul.It was said no mortal could wield it without consequence.
The heavens cracked. Clouds split into nine directions.Birds, beasts, and spirits fled from the Peak of the World as if sensing the end.
Between these two titanic forces, between two friends turned foes, the very world seemed to hold its breath.
The sky shimmered. The air buzzed and cracked.The Nine Elements swirled in chaos, caught between Rakha's hatred and Raga's broken resolve.The colors of the Elements flashed erratically, spinning without anchor, as if the world itself could not decide whom to obey.
Raga took one last look at Rakha, not with hate, but with something far more painful: acceptance.If I must fall… let me at least fall trying to stop you.
Then the final attacks collided.
There was no explosion. Only light.
A blinding white radiance swallowed everything, followed by a silence so absolute, it felt like the world had ended. Reality at the Peak of the World tore itself apart.
And when the light faded… only a massive crater remained beneath a broken sky.
Rakha and Raga were gone.
No one remembers how long the light lingered. A second? An hour? A century?But when it vanished, so did two of the greatest cultivators the world had ever known.
Their names became taboo. Their story, a whisper too dangerous to speak aloud.But from the heart of that devastation, dozens of glowing shards shot outward, fragments of the Ninefold Tome, carrying with them not just power… but the legacy of tragedy.
From shattered stone to broken sky, the world would speak of this day in riddles and ruins.Cultivators in distant lands would feel a tremor in their cores. Sages would wake screaming.
And yet, no one would know why. Only that something ancient had been disturbed.
And far from the crater, in forests and temples, hidden vaults and cursed valleys, the Ninefold Pages began to stir, one by one.
From the ashes of their bond, an eternal hunt began.