Volume 4: The Broken Star
Reunion Arc
After Zen's solo journey, the world saw him as something more than a hero — a symbol. He stood alone against the Voidborn Legion and won. Yet deep down, Zen still felt incomplete. A shard can glow, a city can cheer, but the fire that once burned beside him — Zaiko — was missing.
Meanwhile, deep within the Ember Void, Zaiko meditated for months, fusing his cosmic flame with human emotion — a dangerous process that could either stabilize his soul or destroy it completely. Time passed differently there, and his mind drifted between memories of destruction… and redemption.
Then, something shattered the silence.
A star — once locked in place by cosmic law — fell from the heavens. Its collapse tore a hole in space, creating a rift between dimensions. From that rift emerged a new threat: The Crimson Crown, an interdimensional warlord seeking to collect fallen stars and forge the Throne of Infinity — a weapon that could overwrite existence itself.
Zaiko felt it first. Zen saw it next.
Across space and time, the two warriors locked eyes for the first time in what felt like years — through the flames of a collapsing realm.
The reunion wasn't gentle.
Zen flew straight into the rift, crashing into the Ember Void where Zaiko stood, barely holding his form together. Their fists collided — not in hate, but in fire. They needed to know if the other still had it. Sparks flew. Words were few.
When it ended, they stood, battered and smiling.
"Nice punch," Zaiko muttered.
"You slowed down," Zen smirked.
And just like that… the Guardians were back.
Together, they soared across shattered galaxies, chasing the Crimson Crown across broken timelines. Along the way, they rescued Lyra, now a prisoner of the Crown, and discovered something shocking:
The Throne of Infinity was built using pieces of Zaiko's old divine core.
To stop it, Zaiko would have to destroy the last remnants of his godhood. Zen would have to risk burning out his shard completely.
In the final battle, surrounded by collapsing stars, Zaiko told Zen:
"This time, if one of us falls — the other finishes it."
Zen replied: "We don't fall. We rise."
And they did.
The Throne was shattered. The Crimson Crown was erased.
And as they returned to Earth, battered and scarred but alive, the world looked up once more — not to a hero, or a god…
But to two brothers, standing side by side, lighting the way forward.
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