Elara's fists blazed with a wild, untamed heat. Each strike, each sweep of her flame-carved arms, tore into the space around her, warping the air, turning rock and time to kindling. At first, her fury held them back. Her flames crackled like a phoenix's cry, and the Demi-Gods, for a heartbeat, faltered.
Crimson flames licked the edges of her hair, now billowing like a war banner in the storm. Her eyes, golden now with draconian blood, narrowed as her strikes landed. The first blow cracked the frost shield. The second carved a streak of soot down Wind's chest.
"You're backing away? I thought you were gods!" she sneered, breath heavy, smile unhinged. But her voice wavered beneath the grin.
Then the ground pulsed.
The Disciples of Earth arrived.
With a single, silent step, the obsidian around them hardened. The broken terrain stabilized, forming jagged towers of blackened stone. The tremor was not just physical. It was in her bones, her lungs, her flame.
"Shift," Earth commanded.
And the balance did.
Lightning lashed down toward the crater where Kael slumbered, but Earth stepped forward, raising a hand. A dome of onyx rose from the ground, swallowing the strikes with hungry silence.
Stone and Flame moved next. The Demi-God of Flame dove through the scattered lava and smoke, her body a silhouette of red heat. Stone followed, his fists like meteors wrapped in bark.
They weren't retreating anymore.
They were hunting.
Wind laughed above, circling Elara like a hawk teasing its prey. Each gust was a blade, each breeze a whisper meant to unnerve. "Come now, little ember," he cooed. "All bark. All burn. Where's the bite?"
Elara growled, launching a pillar of fire into the sky, but Wind twirled through it, untouched.
"Too slow. Try again."
Her breath was ragged. Her movements desperate. Her confidence, a cracked mask.
On the far edge of the battlefield, the Demi-God of Sight stood still, her brows furrowed, eyes glowing with kaleidoscopic visions.
But Kael was gone.
Not hidden.
Gone.
She peered deeper, searching through the threads of fate, echoes of his existence.
Nothing.
"I can't see him," she murmured.
That frightened her more than anything.
---
Underneath the volcano, in the very heart of fire and stone, Kael's body stirred.
He moved is torn body and sat in the lotus position formed as if nature compelled it. Flames licked at his skin but parted before touching him, as though the fire itself feared what now sat amongst them.
His breath, slow.
His eyes opened.
Crimson-gold.
He looked at his hands. Flexed his fingers.
"So... this is who I was."
A whisper.
Not of pain, or awe. But recognition. The memory returned not as a flood, but as a tide returning to its rightful shore. Although a few fragments where left out but with what was in him know he knew enough.
His aura pulsed.
Molten rivers parted. The volcanic storm above stilled. Clouds trembled.
Kael rose. Slowly. Effortlessly.
The sea of flame bent back like bowing subjects to their monarch.
Outside, Earth felt it first.
He turned. His whole body trembling in terror, since he was one with the earth he could feel it more than the Demi gods. He didn't knew when the words escaped his mouth but he said it ..."thankfully I didn't go against him".
Flame who was in mid descent along with the Demi god of stone immediately felt his flames cowering, his wild aura became so tame that he felt agitated and with on huge turn they sped out of the volcano to find a frozen 'Wind' in mid-air.
And Elara...
She fell to one knee, clutching her chest.
Her eyes widened. Pupils dilated.
She felt it in her blood. His blood. The draconian fire that had been gifted to her... now roared in terror within. She couldn't register what happened but she found her face unable to look at him and her eyes were fixed to the steamy charred floor.
It wasn't reverence. It was surrender.
Kael emerged.
Smoke curled around him like silk. His body, still torn, still bloodied—yet every wound glowed faintly, mending with light. His wings, though ragged, shimmered with both abyssal dark and pure white.
He floated, untouched by the earth.
Yet somehow... he felt like he wasn't there at all.
Like a shadow of something greater.
His voice was quiet, but it blanketed the field.
"Perfect welcome party, hand me the fragments." His calm voice echoed as he hovered slightly above the floor.
The Demi-Gods hesitated.
Sight stepped forward, gaze uncertain. "You... you've awoken"
Kael blinked slowly. "Yes"
Flame stepped up, he was still irritated by the fact that his flames were acting up, the element wasn't listening to him anymore and he was annoyed.
"So do you think that changes anything?? "
He immediately went in for an attack.
A blazing spear from his palm, aimed straight at his chest.
Kael stood still as the kept his eyes on the Demi god of sight,he could remember that she was one of the most valuable individuals among the Demi gods. And right now he wanted her.
Tink!!!
The spear tip connected to Kael's chest and all the flames and momentum was snuffed out , it sounded as thought on used a spoon to tap on a glass cup.
Flame's eyes trembled, he couldn't help but feel his very existence shaken. The very flames he believed in for all his life was .....
Before he could complete his train of thought he saw Kael lifting a finger, it looked so ordinary, he didn't feel any danger from it , no sign at all that something was moving, it almost felt like he was staring at a mortal moving a finger,he felt no threat whatsoever but at that moment a shrill came from behind him.
"GET OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW!!!!"
Flame came back to himself but the finger was just moving up so slowly and then he heard the sound of a flick right after he moved out of the way.
BOOMMMM!!!!
A gash was carved in straight and stretching into the distance tearing through the mountains in it's path.
In the same breath, Kael vanished and reappeared in front of the Demi god of sight. Not as a blur. Not as speed. Just as if he was always there.
His hand moved again and she closed her waiting to be slapped to death but she just felt a gentle brush on her forehead, where a vertical line hid behind her hair, he brushed his finger in the place for a while before taking his hands off.
She heard in her ears "you are coming with me".
She opened her eyes only to see her vision was blocked with a back that felt so giant in her view and she could only sigh in defeat because she knew there was nothing she could do about it.
As for the Demi god of flames, although he had gotten of the way in the time, the shockwave from that flick had slammed him into the edge of the mountain in the distance with such force that fault lines erupted miles away.
His scream was muffled by dirt and disbelief.
"You mistake mercy for weakness," Kael said from the distance but the voice sounded like it was right beside their ears.
One by one, they submitted. Earth placed the fragment in Kael's hand without a word. Sight bowed her head. Wind disappeared into mist. Flame, broken, wept. Stone handed his without lifting his eyes.
Kael absorbed them all, and the runes across his chest glowed. The light stitched into him, disappearing beneath skin and soul.
Then he turned to Elara.
She still knelt.
Tears clung to her lashes, though she didn't understand why.
Kael floated down, kneeling before her.
"I'm sorry," he said. " I didn't know the blood will have such an impact on you."
She opened her mouth, but no words came.
He placed two fingers over her heart.
The draconian flame flickered.
Then died.
She gasped, falling forward.
He caught her.
Held her close.
And then...
Light.
Not from the sky, but from him. From within. The same holy radiance he'd taken from the Disciple of Light. It glowed in his chest, humming softly. He placed his hand over hers. His wing of light slowly disintegrating and replaced by pure dark wings that shimmered with golden sparks.
It passed.
The warmth that filled her wasn't fire. It was clarity. Peace.
Her bruises healed. Her heart calmed.
Her eyes turned not gold, but a soft, radiant white.
She looked up at him, awe etched into every breath.
"What did you give me...?"
Kael smiled.
"A little gift... I hope you make the best out of it, our new friend over there will teach you" . He said pointing towards the Rika the Demi god of sight.
The environment became more calm, the lightning in the skies quietened and the winds howl was the only thing that whistled in their ears.