The explosion of energy that was born in the moment when Kaelthar's rune was torn from his chest did not simply rip apart the air above the clearing — it pushed reality itself outward, and for one terrible second the world no longer looked like a world at all, but like a shattered mirror reflecting the sky, the broken trees, the massive roots of the World Tree, and two mortals standing at the center of the chaos, yet all of those reflections overlapped each other as if multiple realities were trying to occupy the same space at once.
Drakar stood at the center of that storm, gripping the rune of the Void general in his hand, feeling the power that flowed from the symbol trying to seep into his body, but unlike the runes of the gods he had torn from their corpses before, this one was different — cold, almost lifeless, yet dangerously alive at the same time, as if it were a fragment of darkness that someone had somehow taught to beat like a heart.
Around him the ground crumbled into dust.
The roots of the World Tree trembled like a living body that could feel pain.
And the crack in the air, which had once been only a wound, now widened slowly but relentlessly, stretching space itself as though invisible hands were trying to tear apart the fabric of the world.
Selene was kneeling nearby, her staff lying beside her as her fingers trembled from the strain of the magic she had just used to restrain the rift, and the silver runes that only moments ago had held the fracture together were now scattering through the air like ashes.
"Drakar…" she whispered, trying to rise but feeling the force of the rift draining the magic from the air itself.
He did not answer immediately.
His eyes were locked on the rune in his hand.
It was beating.
Not like a heart.
Like a door.
Something on the other side of that power was trying to open.
And in that same moment, the voice returned.
Not loud.
Not sharp.
But quiet — almost gentle — as though someone were speaking directly beside his ear.
"You are touching something now… that even the gods feared to hold."
Drakar slowly lifted his head.
He knew that voice.
Nyxaroth.
The darkness inside the rift began to move, and for a moment it seemed as if something enormous existed behind it, something so vast that reality itself could not fully reveal its shape, so the world merely twisted around it, forming a silhouette without clear boundaries.
"You killed my general," the voice continued, and now there was a trace of curiosity in it, like someone observing an interesting game. "But this is not defeat."
Drakar smiled.
"Send him my thanks."
The darkness inside the rift stirred.
"You think you are fighting against me."
"I know I am."
"No."
The voice grew softer.
"You are fighting for me."
For a moment the clearing fell into complete silence.
Even the wind stopped moving through the broken trees.
Selene snapped her head up.
"Don't listen to him!"
Drakar did not look away from the rift.
"He wants me to kill the gods."
Nyxaroth laughed quietly.
The sound did not echo through the air.
It was born from inside the rift itself.
"Every god you kill weakens the World Tree."
Drakar clenched his fist.
The rune in his hand pulsed harder.
"And every rune you devour makes you stronger."
Selene slowly forced herself to stand.
"He's manipulating you."
"No," Drakar said quietly.
He stared straight into the darkness.
"He just thinks he understands me."
And in that moment he did something even Selene did not expect.
He did not absorb the rune.
He threw it.
Straight into the rift.
The world froze.
For one second.
And then reality exploded.
The dark rune, once it entered the rift itself, began to disintegrate, and its energy mixed with the power of the fracture, creating a brief but blinding flash that illuminated the entire clearing so intensely that even the roots of the World Tree appeared transparent for a moment.
Nyxaroth fell silent.
Selene stared at Drakar as if she were seeing him for the first time.
"What… did you do…?"
Drakar lowered his hands.
"The one thing he didn't expect."
The rift began to contract.
Slowly.
But steadily.
The energy of the Void general — which Drakar had not absorbed but instead returned into the fracture — began destabilizing the structure of the portal itself.
The darkness inside it trembled.
Nyxaroth's voice returned.
And now, for the first time, there was a different emotion within it.
Not anger.
Annoyance.
"Interesting."
Drakar tilted his head slightly.
"I'm not your weapon."
The rift shuddered again.
"Perhaps."
The voice became quieter.
"But you are still leading the world toward the same end."
Drakar did not answer.
He simply watched as the rift slowly closed.
Selene stepped closer.
"Do you realize what this means?"
"Yes."
"That was only one portal."
He nodded.
"And there will be more."
Selene looked toward the trembling roots of the World Tree.
"They're holding the world together with fragments."
Drakar turned toward the forest.
"Then I'll just gather them."
She studied him for several seconds.
"You can't save this world alone."
He stopped walking.
"I'm not planning to."
Selene raised an eyebrow slightly.
Drakar turned back toward her.
"But I will break anyone who tries to destroy it."
Behind them, the rift finally sealed.
The darkness vanished.
The clearing remained shattered.
But the silence that followed was different now.
Not empty.
Expectant.
Somewhere far beyond the pantheons, Nyxaroth opened his eyes a little wider.
"Very good," he whispered into the Void. "The game is becoming interesting."
Drakar was already walking deeper into the forest.
Selene walked beside him.
And both of them felt the same thing.
The world had just taken a step closer to a war that even the gods had never seen.
But now that war had a new warrior.
And his name was already beginning to be whispered by the shadows.
Drakar.
The Rune Devourer.
The one who changes the fate of pantheons.
And perhaps…
the one who might one day make even Nyxaroth feel fear.