Chapter 82: The Apex Override
Kael could feel the storm in his chest before the skies cracked open above him.
The battlefield was littered with shattered armor, severed limbs, and the cries of dying mages. The royal gardens had been reduced to charred stone and crimson mud. Once a place of peace and power, now it was the stage for annihilation. A dozen of the elite Royal Sentinels lay motionless, their souls sucked dry by the Wraith King’s cursed lance.
Valerian stood before him—half of his robes gone, blood dripping from his lips, the infernal sigils of the system glowing across his chest like a brand of doom.
"You still don’t get it, do you?" Valerian’s voice was low, mocking. "You were always just a side quest, Kael."
Kael’s grip tightened on his spear, lightning wrapping around the haft like a viper ready to strike. Behind him, Selene struggled to stand, her once-pristine battle gown torn and soaked. Lira was collapsed against a ruined pillar, blood seeping from a wound above her eyebrow. Seraphina floated above them all, wings of shadow extended, her eyes dimming from overuse of her celestial magic.
But Kael wasn’t alone anymore.
Not really.
The system chimed again in his head. A line of text burned across his vision.
> [Emergency Protocol: Apex Override Initiated.]
[All Limiters Removed. Caution: Fatality Likely.]
"Do it," Kael whispered. "Burn it all."
Power exploded from within his body. His veins turned molten gold, his hair lifted with violent arcs of energy, and his eyes blazed with unfiltered divine wrath. The spear in his hands shattered, only to reforge itself in mid-air—longer, sharper, dripping with voidlight.