Vajr pushed himself up from the dirt, trembling but defiant. He raised a single arm toward the sky, a cruel smirk breaking through his exhaustion. "Now... the elemental magic will kill you."
Kael stared back at him, his breathing heavy and uneven. When he spoke, his voice distorted, vibrating with a strange, otherworldly resonance.
"The thirty elemental rings."
Vajr's smirk vanished, his eyes widening in pure disbelief. Suddenly, Kael began to hover, rising slowly into the air as the atmosphere grew heavy. Behind him, thirty massive, intricate magic circles ignited one by one, illuminating the sky in a terrifying display of raw power.
Vrita gasped, shaking her head. "No way… Vajr is actually going to die."
Despite the overwhelming pressure, Vajr's smirk returned, sharp and desperate. "In your dreams."
Before anyone could move, a blinding, divine light pierced through the ceiling, flooding the entire Infinity Room.
Vajr looked upward, his face paling. "Impossible… How can an outsider breach my Infinity Room?!"
A booming voice echoed from the light, vibrating through the space. "Kael. Kill him, and you save your parents from his grasp. Show him mercy, and you lose them forever."
Fury flared in Kael's eyes. He glared up at the light, his voice tight. "Let's make a deal. I know how the Divine works—you elements never want to get your hands dirty unless someone becomes a direct threat to you."
A heavy, resonant sigh echoed from the light before the voice spoke again. "Hmph. Do it, and you will receive the Divine Soul—the Forgotten Soul." The voice took on a mocking, taunting edge. "Though, honestly… how can a mere human expect to kill him anyway?"
Down below, Sara watched Kael anxiously, silently praying he wouldn't accept such a dangerous gamble.
But Kael just stared back up into the blinding light, one eye pitch black and the other glowing a fierce purple.
"Deal accepted," Kael declared, a dark grin spreading across his face. "And once I kill him, his soul belongs to me. I can do whatever I want with it."
The Divine voice echoed back, cold and indifferent. "Do as you wish with it. We don't care. We just want him dead."
Kael's grin widened into a mad, chaotic smirk. He threw his arms wide and roared, "Sixty Elemental Rings!"
The thirty original circles suddenly doubled, expanding until they filled the entire sky. With a casual flick of his wrist, Kael sent a barrage of elemental energy raining down. The rings streaked toward Vajr, who scrambled frantically, barely managing to dodge the explosive impacts throwing up dust around him.
Kael chuckled darkly. "Time to end this. Infinity Sword! "
As a weapon of pure, reality-bending energy materialized in Kael's hand, Vajr panicked. He rapidly threw up an Infinity Barrier, backing away toward the edge of the arena. "No way… I need to get out of here!"
Vajr turned to flee, but Vrita suddenly blurred into motion, intercepting him and blocking his only escape route. Before he could pivot, Sara lunged forward, grabbing Vajr by the head and violently throwing him back toward the center of the room.
Kael smiled, looking at his allies. "Let's end this together. Hit him with everything you've got!"
With a unified roar, Kael, Sara, and Vrita unleashed their full strength at the exact same moment. Their combined strike slammed heavily into Vajr, sending him crashing violently into the ground as a spray of blood erupted from his mouth.
Vajr staggered back to his feet, wiping the fresh blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. Suddenly, his eyes flared a violent, glowing purple. He locked his gaze onto Kael, a murderous grin splitting his bloody face.
"Now, Kael... you die."
In a flash of pure speed, Vajr sprinted forward. He launched a brutal kick straight into Kael's chest, sending him crashing hard into the ground. Not giving him a second to breathe, Vajr relied entirely on raw, vicious physical combat, relentlessly hammering Kael into the dirt.
With a dark smirk, Vajr concentrated the reality-warping energy of the Infinity right into his fist. He drove it directly into Kael's face with a sickening crunch, leaving Kael's face completely covered in blood.
"Get off him!" Vrita screamed. She lunged forward, desperately grabbing Vajr from behind to pin his arms.
Without even bothering to look back, Vajr blindly threw a heavy, backward punch, cracking Vrita squarely across the jaw. She crumbled, but Vajr didn't care—he was completely devoid of mercy now.
From the crater in the ground, a low, distorted chuckle echoed. Kael slowly pushed himself up, his voice vibrating with a terrifying, otherworldly resonance. "You took me lightly, Vajr. That was your final mistake."
Kael's eyes burned with malice as he finally tapped into his forbidden reserves. "Cursed Creation!" he roared.
An oppressive, suffocating aura flooded the room. A cold sweat broke out down Vajr's spine as a sudden instinct warned him that he had messed with something far beyond his control. Kael didn't look at Vrita or the surrounding chaos; his gaze was locked entirely on Vajr like a predator.
Within the depths of Kael's mind, Sara's ethereal form manifested, anchoring his focus and fueling his intent.
Before Vajr could even register the movement, Kael vanished and reappeared right in front of him, burying a devastating punch deep into Vajr's torso. The sheer force sent Vajr skidding backward across the floor for several meters.
Wiping his chin, Vajr tried to laugh it off. "This... this is not eno—"
Before he could finish the sentence, his legs buckled. Vajr collapsed heavily onto his knees, a massive torrent of dark blood erupting from his mouth. Clutching his chest in sheer agony, he looked up at Kael, his voice trembling with genuine panic. "What... what did you do to me? What is happening?!"
Kael just stood over him, a cold, ruthless smirk playing on his bloody lips. "Relax. It's just a little damage."
"What do you mean, *'little damage'*?!" Vajr screamed madly, his voice cracking as he clutched his trembling chest. He spat out another mouthful of dark blood, glaring up at Kael with pure venom. "You just ripped through my internal energy circuits! You tried to shred my entire muscular structure from the inside out!"
Kael didn't flinch. He stood over Vajr, his posture rigid and his expression cast in deep shadow. When he spoke, his voice carried a heavy, crushing weight that seemed to vibrate the very air of the Infinity Room.
"I am simply collecting the debt," Kael said, his eyes burning with cold fury. "For my parents. For my friends. For every single person you stole from me."
Hearing this, Vajr let out a low, breathless chuckle that quickly escalated into a manic smirk. He forced his body to stand, his bones popping under the strain.
"Friends? Parents?" Vajr mocked, wiping the blood from his lips. "Whose friends, Kael? Those mortals will wither and die someday anyway. Your parents will turn to dust. But look at you." Vajr stepped forward, his eyes wide with a disturbing mixture of awe and malice. "You are capable of harboring three separate souls. You just forced me to my knees. You aren't normal, boy. Right now, even the Gods above have their eyes locked onto you."
Kael's expression remained deadpan, his voice dropping into a chilling, indifferent whisper.
"So?"
Vajr's smirk widened into a terrifying, unhinged smile. "So... it means the warm-up is over. The theory ends here, Kael. It's time for the practical."
BOOM!
Without another word, Vajr lunged forward, throwing a devastating, high-speed punch aimed directly at Kael's face. The sheer air pressure from the strike shattered the ground beneath them.
But as the dust swirled from the impact, Vajr suddenly reached deep into his own throat. With a sickening, metallic screech, he dragged a cursed, pitch-black blade directly out of his mouth. The sword pulsed with a horrific, suffocating aura, bleeding dark energy onto the floor.
Sensing the shift in the battle, Kael didn't try to dodge. Instead, he let out a guttural roar as he unlocked the final, forbidden seal on his own power.
The air shattered like glass. Kael's body erupted in a torrent of spectral, fractured energy as he completely cast aside his humanity, ascending into his ultimate, terrifying form:The Full Broken Soul.