Smoke still lingered in Kael's breath as he stood atop a solitary cliff face in southern Kīlauea watching as the last streaks of daylight melted into crimson dusk. Below, lava simmered and hissed quietly, like a beast sleeping with one eye open. Beside him, Elara sat cross-legged on the scorched rock, meditating, her breath deep and steady.
Her transformation hadn't stopped. After drinking Kael's celestial blood, her body had become a vessel for something beyond mortal bounds. Each day, her aura grew ,more radiant, more precise but also more unpredictable. One moment, her gaze held the clarity of a prophetess; the next, she would lose her sense of time, forgetting where she was or what she'd said just moments before.
Kael noticed all of it. And it terrified him more than the volcano ever could.
"How long do you think before it destabilizes again?" Elara asked suddenly, eyes still shut.
Kael turned. "It won't destabilize. Not if we keep training."
Elara chuckled. "That's not what you really think."
He sighed, kneeling next to her. "I think it's borrowed time. You need something permanent to anchor the blood. The fire inside you isn't yours yet. It's mine."
She opened her eyes and looked at him. "Then teach me how to steal it."
---
Three Days Later
Sweat poured off Kael's back as he dodged a pillar of searing flame Elara unleashed toward him. It roared through the air, splashing against the cliff wall and instantly carving a crater into solid stone.
He dropped low, skidded under her stance, and swept her legs out from under her.
She landed hard. "Ow!"
Kael extended a hand. "You're hesitating. You can't do that. Not against someone who wants to take your soul."
Elara grabbed his wrist. "I just don't want to kill you."
"You won't," Kael said with a smirk. "You're not that strong yet."
She rolled her eyes and shoved herself up. Despite the sharp words, a grin played at the corner of her lips.
But behind the banter, Kael felt the imbalance surging. The core had awakened more than memories, it had broken a seal inside him. He could feel new abilities trying to claw their way out of him like living fire. His dreams were haunted by the white-haired man, the Emperor Dragon, who fought endless battles, burned entire legions, and smiled through it all.
He was becoming a mirror of that past.
And that scared him too.
---
Elsewhere: The Demigods Stir
In a usual grand Hall at the topmost floor of the skyscraper, the Demigods gathered once again. There were fewer now. Some had vanished into seclusion; others had gone silent after taking fragments for themselves.
The Demigod of Sight stood at the center.
"Kael is changing. Not just awakening. He is becoming something else."
The Demigod of Stone snorted. "Then let him. If he explodes, we'll clean up the aftermath."
"You say that," murmured the Demigod of Wind, her voice like a breeze across reeds. "You haven't faced him yet."
"And we weren't there when the heavens branded him cursed," Sight countered.
Water, calm and ever-watching, placed a finger on a map of the world. "It doesn't matter. Our goal remains the same, cursed or blessed he must be eliminated ."
Silence.
Then Stone said, "What about the movement you felt Rika? What exactly is that?"
"I am not sure myself, I suggest we report this back to the realm," said Rika the demigod of Sight. " And we must do something about Kael quickly too"
Stone hummed seemingly in deep thoughts
---
Nightfall , beneath the Stars
Kael sat alone while Elara slept in the shadow of a cooled basalt arch. He stared into the fire, not to watch the flames, but to listen to them. And they whispered.
Fragments of names. Languages not spoken in this reality. Sounds that had no letters.
He closed his eyes, and again he was back in that storm.
White hair. Crimson flame. Laughter in the face of death.
A voice echoed.
"You are not me. But you will walk where I walked. Burn as I burned. And in that burning... become."
Kael opened his eyes. Sweat coated his brow. His body wasn't just changing—his soul was.
He glanced at Elara, her body wrapped in light flickers even in her sleep. If he failed, she'd die. And if he succeeded... he didn't know what he'd become.
---
Deep in the Void
Where no star shined.
Where light had never reached.
A single ripple moved.
Not water. Not time. Not space ....
But something opened its eye.
Not because it was meant to.
But because it has to.
Another emperor dragon had emerged.
And now there are two of such abominations walking the face of the primordial chaos.
And now the entity know as the keeper of order has awakened after billions of Milleniums.
------
The air was unusually still.
Kael stood at the edge of the Kīlauea once more, his gaze distant. Behind him, Elara slept soundly beneath the basalt arch they'd claimed as temporary refuge. The stars above blinked dimly through a shifting veil of smoke, as though watching from afar, hesitant.
He turned away from the sleeping figure of Elara and stepped forward.
Without hesitation, he walked into the molten lake.
The lava hissed but parted around him, as though recognizing the one who now carried the will of its ancient core. The heat would've vaporized even divine flesh, but Kael, forged anew from flame and memory, dove deep, letting the molten world embrace him.
When he felt he had descended enough, he floated in the lava for sometime. "Here goes nothing" he thought and immediately sat down with folded legs but still floated in the lava.
His garments was immediately reduced to ash the moment he took off the small energy barrier he had surrounded himself with. An unimaginable type of pain flooded his brain immediately, he wanted to scream but with the thought of lava flowing through his mouth, he kept quiet and gritted his teeth, bearing the pain silently.
The core flame essence he had absorbed days earlier had been dormant until now. But within this sanctuary of fire, it stirred almost eagerly.
Kael drew it into himself.
It's time.
With focus, he guided the flame into his marrow, bone by bone. It wasn't simple merging—it was reforging. Each tendon sizzled as it adjusted to hold not just heat, but will. His blood vessels pulsed like molten streams, stretched past breaking, healing, stretching again.
Each second was a year of pain.
The skies responded instantly.
Above the volcano, clouds began to spiral, forming a blackened vortex. Light abandoned the mountaintop. Thunder grumbled. A solitary lightning bolt bloomed, snaking downward in slow defiance, crackling with divine judgment.
Elara stirred beneath the arch. Her eyes snapped open as an unknown pressure rolled through her. She clutched her chest, feeling Kael's essence move violently in the distance.
"No… what are you doing?" she whispered.
---
Kael's mind splintered under the weight of power.
The flame had begun refining his blood , his heart and every single organ that made up his innards ,but now he pushed it towards his brain.
He felt it coil, resisting. That part of was sacred, fragile. It knew the risk.
"One wrong move, and you'll be a roasted vegetable" he thought dryly..
He almost chuckled.
Then he let it happen.
The flame surged.
It shot into his head like a cannonball of heat and chaos, and all thought ceased. His body arched violently as lava bubbled around him. His arms spasmed. His bones cracked,then reknit with something brighter, stronger.
And Kael blacked out.
---
From Above
The lightning bolt descended.
The heavens cried out—not in sound, but in force. The air collapsed inward, and the world stood still for just a second.
Booom!!!
the purple bolt struck the volcano.
It tore through the lava and made it hotter connecting to Kael unconscious but sturdy body but still one could see bits of his flesh been torn apart as he plummeted deeper into the volcano and in no time his body smashed hard against the open space where the core once laid but still he laid there unmoving .