Chương 36: Episode 33: Battle of the Kings

I cut through the stormfront like a blade, wings fully flared, lightning snapping off my armor and scattering across the clouds. The sky was a battlefield of black and blue, and beneath me, a million alien birds surged upward, a living shadow blotting out the horizon. Their leader screeched. I didn't react. My expression didn't move an inch. I drew in a slow breath. The air tasted like ionized metal. Celestial fire burned behind my eyes. Enough.

A beam erupted from my palms, clean and surgical, slicing the storm in half from horizon to horizon. One bird disintegrated instantly, violet ash scattering like shattered glass across the thunderclouds. I folded my wings and dropped. The swarm rushed me, but I was already past them, daggers drawn. Their edges were white-hot and burned with layered celestial glyphs. Every swing left a radiant afterimage, trails of energy spiraling like comet tails across the sky. I carved through them with precise, lethal arcs.

No wasted motion. No hesitation. One creature lunged from below. I rotated through the air, severed its jaw, and planted a kick that sent its corpse spinning into the storm. Another dove at my back. I snapped my wrist and hurled a dagger through its skull. It detonated in a bloom of violet fire that lit the clouds like a dying sun. A whistle cut through the air, sharp and commanding. My blades ripped free from the falling bodies, magnetized to my hands and locking into my grip with a metallic shout.

The entire flock collapsed onto me at once. I didn't flinch. My aura ignited, turning my silhouette into a streaking comet. I plunged into them, cutting through bone and wing like cosmic shrapnel. Each strike left shockwaves rippling through the storm, and the sky shook with every clash of steel and flesh. Then I stopped mid-flight and crossed my arms. Violet fire spiraled up both blades, chains of celestial energy wrapping around my arms like divine restraints.

My eyes burned white, the KX sigil pulsing across my chestplate.

"Alien creatures are aboutta rain." Teleportation cracked the air, a violent displacement that shattered the nearest clouds. I appeared in front of one beast and split it clean down the center. Before its halves even fell, I was behind another, dragging a dagger down its spine. Then another. Then another. My movements blurred into thunder, an eruption of steel, teleportation flashes, and violet flame tearing the sky apart. But I needed more. The finale.

I shot upward, piercing the cloud layer in a burst of white heat. Above the storm, the world was silent. There was only me, the wind, and the glow of my weapons burning like twin stars. I folded my legs, pointed myself downward, and fell.

"VIOLET—" The air screamed. My armor glowed molten. Clouds shredded around me.

"INSANITY." Impact. The energy dome of the explosion tore the storm in half. Light swallowed the sky. Everything within a mile vanished, vaporized into drifting, inky rain. Feathers, ash, and smoke spiraled through the air like the remains of a fallen world. I stood, breathing steadily, surrounded by the silence I had carved out of destruction. The flock was gone. Far below, Foreshade stretched across the ocean like a dead god's remains.

Black towers twisted upward, and purple sigils crawled across cracked obsidian walls. The air around it felt wrong, heavy and ancient. The forest surrounding the island was nothing but splintered stumps and gray ash, as if life itself refused to stay. And at the center, chained with links thicker than trees, stood the castle. A fortress built to keep something in. I shot downward in a smear of violet and slammed onto the far end of the bridge.

Stone screamed beneath my palm as celestial energy snapped and sparked around me. I slowly pushed myself to my feet, fists clenched and wings flaring wide. The bridge stretched ahead, empty. My eyes crackled with light. Then the sky broke. Lunaranites dropped from above, armor clanging as they hit the stone in perfect formation. Spears locked. Shields raised. Wings spread. A living wall between me and the entrance. One of them stepped forward. I grinned.

"Yeah," I said, rolling my shoulders.

"Came in just in time for y'all's ass whupping." I launched. A streak of celestial light tore across the bridge. My feet barely touched stone, just thundered blurs. Arms back. Daggers spinning. Vision sharpened to pure motion. They surged at me like a flock of black birds. I leapt, hit, rolled. Celestial blasts fired mid-motion, detonating through the air and ripping them out of the sky. One flashed in front of me.

"Too slow." I kicked him away, flipped over a spear, and hurled a spinning dagger. BOOM. The explosion rippled across the entire bridge. I flipped through the blast, hit the ground running, snatched my dagger mid-sprint, energy snapping around my legs as I swerved hard to the side. Bullets tore past. I blinked. Flashed. Dragged a hand along the stone, sparks screaming as my legs became spinning rings of light. I tornado-kicked straight through a Lunaranite, sending his helmet flying.

I landed in the middle of the crowd. Bad place for them. I spun. Daggers danced, slashes, stabs, clean arcs of light. Bodies dropped around me before they even realized they were hit. Celestial energy whipped like a blade. I flipped back, kicked one skyward, twisted midair, and sliced two more down before I even touched the ground. I rolled, breakdanced through their legs, kicked them apart. Then I leapt. Energy wrapped around me, compressing into a blazing celestial sphere.

I tore through the remaining Lunaranites in rapid slashes, brushstrokes of light, then shot straight up into the sky. Explosions thundered behind me. I dropped. Landed hard in front of the entrance as the bridge erupted in celestial fire, cracks splitting the air itself. Silence. I stood, twirled my daggers once, and looked up at the portcullis.

"Your move," I muttered. I narrowed my eyes. My wings tightened.

"Locked portcullis," I said under my breath.

"My favorite." I stepped forward, violet flames gathering at my heels. Time to break them.

"CELESTIAL STRIKE!" WHAM. It detonated outward in a blast of celestial force as I stepped in. One eye sliced through the smoke and chaos; energy danced across my suit, licking off like flames. My dragon hoodie hung heavy on my shoulders, the tail of fabric swaying behind me as I walked into the castle. Darkness swallowed the room except for the streak of a blood-red rug and purple-torched sconces lining the stone floor. Rain hammered at the arched windows, a steady percussion from the storm outside.

I felt the ozone in my teeth. My fingers curled around my twin daggers, violet lightning crawling along their blades, and there he was on the throne: King Dreadixz. He'd dressed for the occasion, cape draped just so, helmet sharpened, armor gleaming like he'd spent too long staring at his reflection. A long silver sword hummed at his side, braided with black and purple energy. When he looked up, his eyes were knives. His wings spread slow; his tail thudded against the stone like a metronome of menace.

He smirked, a sound that filled the hall.

"What can I say? Not everyone makes an entrance. It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing, KX." His voice rolled out, amused.

"Thanks for using my hero name. Appreciate the formality." I let the sarcasm drip. He chuckled, and it sounded like metal grinding. He rose, throne creaking, and the metallic click of his boots came alive as lightning stabbed the sky and lit the room in a single white flash. Black and purple sparks braided around his Eclipse Sword as he walked toward me.

"You're fighting a figure way past your own blood, older than your hair follicles," he said, twirling the blade like a prize. My wings flared. My tail lashed. I kept walking, dagger twirling between my fingers, a show of calm I didn't entirely feel. I shoved my hands into my pockets, flicked the daggers free, and tossed them. They spun, caught midair, and settled at my hips. Celestial energy hummed under my skin.

"I fought to get here," I said, landing in my stance.

"And I'm finishing what I was destined to finish." He raised his sword. I grinned.

"You ready?" he asked, voice low.

"Born ready." He shot forward—a blur of ancient armor and swirling void energy—spinning his sword overhead before dropping into a mid-air flip. The Eclipse Blade came down like a guillotine made of pure nightmare, slamming into the crossed X of my daggers. The impact didn't just boom— it tore the air open. A shockwave rippled out in a ring of violet and black, ripping the torches off the walls and blasting both of us back like ragdolls launched from cannons.

I hit the ground sliding but launched myself forward instantly. We collided again— steel to energy, sparks to lightning— daggers flashing in loops as we traded strikes so fast they blurred. I juked left, dodging a sweep of his sword that carved a trench through the floor. Using the flat of the blade as a springboard, I vaulted up and rocket-kicked him under the chin before landing in a crouch that cracked the stone beneath my feet. Love what you're reading?

Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. He blasted upward, wings kicking open like giant black scythes, then spiraled down in a corkscrew of shadow energy. He hit the ground like a meteor, sending out another shockwave that blasted me off my feet and launched me into the wall hard enough to spiderweb the stone. Before the dust even settled, he sprinted in—boots sparking—and swung.

I ducked under the blade by an inch, only for him to snap-kick me so hard I ricocheted across the room and smashed through his own throne, splintering it into a storm of debris. I sensed him coming again—energy pressure like a collapsing star—and teleported, reappearing right above him, daggers spinning, air warping around the blades. I dove, letting out a grunt that pulled celestial power into my core. He hurled his sword upward like a throwing spear.

The blade intercepted my strike mid-fall, detonating a shockwave so massive it pasted me to the wall. I dropped to the ground on one knee—only to feel his hand clamp around my skull. He slammed me into the stone so hard the castle floor cratered, dark energy erupting outward like liquid shadow. I rolled across the rubble, coughing, forcing myself up as he came at me again in bursts of impossible speed.

His sword blurred—and I met every strike with my daggers: spinning, ducking, flipping, even cracking him in the jaw with a flying kick mid-combo. I landed on the wall, feet gripping the stone like gravity didn't know who I was, then blasted off in a comet of violet celestial fire. I streaked past him and slashed upward across his chin— a white-hot arc of celestial blaze— before skidding across the ground in a spray of sparks.

He spun his sword once, then brought it down and fired a massive beam of shadow energy straight at me. The entire room dimmed as if the blast swallowed the light itself. I threw up a celestial barrier—thick, bright, humming—and the collision shook the entire castle. The blast buckled the walls, shattered windows, and sent waves of energy crawling through the stone.

But I dug deeper— pulled in every atom of celestial force— and let it erupt outward in a blinding explosion that ripped right through his beam and shredded it into dust. I launched forward, eyes blazing like twin stars going supernova. He met me in the middle, his sword colliding with my daggers in a catastrophic clash. We spun. We flipped. We crashed through pillars and ricocheted across the throne room. Metallic screams filled the air as our weapons collided hundreds of times in seconds.

I stabbed my daggers into the floor—BOOM—celestial fire towered out of them like volcanic pillars. Flames roared up my legs, igniting them in violet brilliance.

"CELESTIAL JET-SHOT!" I blasted forward in a jet of celestial flame, turning into a burning comet as I tore through the air. BAM! A dropkick to the gut with one burning leg. He rocketed backward. Smashed through a section of the castle wall. Lightning lit the sky behind him as he exploded out into the storm. Rubble flew everywhere. Rain hammered down. Wind screamed through the giant hole in the castle.

While he was sprawled near the cliff edge, I teleported again—appearing right above him as lightning flashed across the sky like a strobe. We crashed weapons again as I dropped onto him, unleashing a feral storm of dagger strikes, screaming through my clenched teeth. He dodged his head side to side with snake-quick movements, blocking with his sword in a flurry of sparks.

Then he surged upward with his chest, grabbed me by the neck, spun— and drilled his fist across my cheek so hard I flew out into the open air, spinning helplessly as the storm swallowed me. And yeah… I dropped. I was flung across the storm, rain pelting me like a million tiny bullets as lightning stitched the sky open in jagged white veins. Wind shredded past my ears. My whole body felt like it was being punched by the atmosphere itself. Behind me, a roar tore through the storm.

"WRETCHED CHILD!" King Dreadixz shot toward me, wings stretched wide like shadowy blades, tail cracking through the air as he tore the rain apart with sheer force. He blasted forward, the storm bending around him. I snapped my eyes open— and when his sword came swinging, I blasted upward in a vertical explosion, twirling to avoid the fiery lunar blast screaming past my feet. He launched after me instantly.

We met mid-air in a clash of celestial and lunar fury, BOOOOOM — another shockwave erupted outward, tearing a ring through the storm clouds. We collided again. And again. And again. Each clash sending us spinning through the air like meteors bouncing off each other. Our final mid-air cross created a burst of violent light— and he spun in a violet-black cyclone faster than the storm could track, slashing across my chest. Pain tore through me. Blood flew.

I gasped, spiraling downward through the clouds, spinning helplessly as the rain became a blur and gravity sucked me toward the city below. Dreadixz didn't wait. He dove past me—and gut-punched me so hard I rocketed even farther across the sky, tumbling above the glowing neon skyline of Foreshade. Before I could even breathe, he blasted under me and struck upward. The hit detonated a shockwave in mid-air—a brilliant ring expanding outward— and launched me straight back into the open sky like a firework.

Then everything went dark around him. Violet and black flames wrapped around his entire body in a spiraling inferno. His eyes snapped open—full lunar fury, feral and ancient. His wings spread so wide they eclipsed the moon. He appeared above me in a blink. His sword rose. Burning. Crackling. Pulsing like a dying star. He swung down— —and a ring of black and violet energy exploded outward, vaporizing the rain around it and sending me rocketing to the ground in a beam of pure force.

I slammed into the earth hard enough to create a crater that rippled across the entire district. Buildings shook. Cybernetic purple car alarms screamed. Birds scattered like the sky itself panicked. My vision flickered. Everything was blurry. I could barely breathe, barely move. Lightning cracked— and when I looked up, through the haze, I saw something that didn't look real. Bright violet and black lightning twisted around the sky like a god rewriting reality. Then— Dreadixz roared.

Black and violet stars literally swirled around his sword as he burst out of the clouds with a spiraling trail of cosmic fire behind him. He wasn't flying anymore— he was falling with intent to annihilate. His sword dragged behind him as he spun through the storm, carving spirals of energy that made the clouds tear open into massive rings. The energy around him burned so bright it flickered white at the edges, licking across his armor, twisting in violent patterns.

He twirled the sword like a dance of destruction, wild, controlled, unstoppable. Every movement bent the storm around him. Every turn made the clouds part in terror. Then he gripped the sword with both hands— pulled all the swirling energy into the tip— and the sky froze. A single black star sparked into existence. I heard him scream through the thunder—"GUTTURAL… LUNAR!!!" And the sky split open.

Black and violet slashes tore the world apart— slicing through clouds, cutting through buildings, carving the ground into exploding fissures. The entire horizon looked shredded. One slash cut through me. Time snapped to black and white for a split second— my body flashing like a negative photograph— before reality came crashing back. Then he appeared right in front of me. No sound. No warning. Just pure lunar wrath. He drove his sword into my chest— —and the world turned white. Not bright. Not glowing. White.

Like the light swallowed every color that ever existed. Violet lunar fire erupted outward in a massive explosion that shook the land. The shock tore through the sky. Split the clouds. Split the earth. Split the whole damn horizon. For a moment, Foreshade trembled like it was about to fall into the void. Then Dreadixz snapped his fingers. A razor-thin slash of dark violet energy appeared beneath me— and slammed me into the ground like a suspended execution. He rose slow — a mountain waking.

Violet and black energy crawled across his eyes like ink spilled over a star; his armor was torn and dented, a map of the fight carved into iron. A fresh cut ran down his cheek; blood mixed with the grime. His crown was gone. The mask slipped away, and beneath it the king looked human and terrible: a long brown beard, a mouth scarred by old wars, one eye raw and burned where Archie had struck him at Eclitsic.

"Is this our Chosen One…?" he whispered, and the question was a blade that slid across the quiet. I lay sprawled on the ground, the world a dizzy smear of rain and smoke. Blood painted my chest and the stone beneath me — hot, sticky maps of each hit. The sword jutted from my ribs like a terrible landmark; pain shot through me in waves that knocked the air out of my lungs. Each breath was a jagged thing. My eyes stung, but they still burned with celestial light.

He dragged me by the hair like a ragdoll and shoved my face into the grit. Rocks scraped my skin; the scent of ozone and burning metal filled my nostrils. Sunrise was bleeding into the sky, turning smoke to silver and purple, and the whole world felt like it was bracing for something.

"Kid." His metallic glove curled around the sword's hilt.

"These are the battles where you're meant to win." He pushed, smiling that flat, brutal smile.

"But you didn't." The blade drove deeper. Pain tore a new language through me and I screamed until the sound broke like glass. Tears slicked down my cheeks — not only from the pain that radiated through my ribs, but from the one that sat heavier: the ache of failure. Everything I'd worked for felt like a candle sputtering out in a storm. He rained blows down on me like a god performing punishment. Each hit landed with the vibration of an earthquake; each strike made celestial energy around us snap and flare.

"DO YOU REALIZE HOW MUCH EFFORT YOU HAD TO PUT IN JUST TO COME AND FIGHT ME?!" he barked, and then another blow.

"AND THEN LOSE?!" Another.

"WHAT IS YOUR REASON FOR FIGHTING THEN?!" The fists came like a hammering heartbeat.

"IF YOU'RE JUST GONNA DIE!"

"AN INSECT!"

"THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE — AN INSECT WITH NO PURPOSE!" My vision blurred into an ocean of red. Each hit felt like an emotional cannon, exploding a memory into my chest: training nights, the promise I'd made, the faces of everyone I'd let down. The grief of it burned hotter than the blood. He didn't stop. He couldn't see the way my hands trembled, how my will was a frayed rope. And then — a cleft of air cut through the rhythm.

On instinct, on nothing but the barest thread of something stubborn, I clapped my palms against his fists as he winded up for another strike. A WHOOM of pressure slammed outward; wind rolled across the battlefield in a living sheet. For a heartbeat, he froze, eyebrows arched in surprise, the blood on his beard catching the dawn. It was enough. My mouth trembled. A smile — thin and ridiculous — cracked across my face through the blood.

"You—didn't… let me—finish," I whispered. The words felt like a promise and a dare at once. Celestial energy answered me. It rose from the ground like smoke obeying a command, snaking up my ribs and through the sword lodged in me. My fingers tightened around his gauntlet with all the strength I could steal from whatever reserves remained. Violet light blossomed at my knuckles, a small sun that burned the fog.

My hair began to change; the strands lengthened and ignited into spiky tendrils of violet flame that whipped like banners in a storm. The energy wrapped my limbs, knitting itself into armor of light. My eyes — my stupid, stubborn eyes — flared with a symbol: two glowing letters, K and X, burning where pupils should be. Every breath I pulled pushed a thread of luminous purple into the air; each exhale spelled the two letters, like a signature carved into the dawn.

The ground answered with a thunderous second: a shockwave rolled outward from me and smacked into Dreadixz's chest. He slid backward, boots scrabbling for purchase, armor grinding against stone until sparks flew. Celestial flames licked across my skin, then wrapped both of my legs in roaring violet fire. I pushed off the floor and stood. Sound swelled — the distant, cinematic thrum that feels like destiny setting its rhythm. My heart thudded in time with it, a living drum pulsing violet light through my veins.

Energy coalesced into a spear of radiance between my palms and then cracked the sky itself: a towering column of violet that pierced the clouds and bathed Foreshade in a wash of impossible color. Trails of celestial smoke twirled along the beam, painting the city in strokes of otherworldly light. The flames crawled across the courtyard toward Dreadixz like hungry rivers. He snarled, eyes flicking with both annoyance and a shred of respect.

For the first time since this began, his beard — the ragged mess that made him look like a king and a butcher — moved in the wind with something like uncertainty. I didn't scream. I didn't shout. I walked. Each step left footprints scorched into the stone; each breath made the air shimmer. My hooked fingers smoked with energy; I crossed my arms and unleashed everything I was holding back. A jagged streak of violet shot upward, ripping the clouds open, sending shards of lightning cascading around the beam.

The sky screamed and Foreshade answered, windows exploding inward as the shockwaves rolled through. Dreadixz met me with a slow, deliberate turn of his head.

"If that's how we're playing, kid… let it be," he said, voice low and dangerous. Then he lunged. He punched, and the world fractured into a burst of speed. I blinked in violet light and teleported beside him — the motion a blink, a trick of will — then backhanded him into the air. He felt the impact; I felt it in my jaw. He flew up, suspended in a whirl of wind, and for a split second his expression looked… thrilled.

"LET THIS FIGHT BE ONE EVERYONE REMEMBERS, DON!" he roared, voice gone massive enough to rattle the heavens. I dropped my daggers. My body glowed like a beacon of violet flame; hair whipping, chest heaving with a force that tasted like consequence and hope. I faced him, hands unclenched, the two letters searing hot in my vision.

"If that's what you want," I said, every syllable a fuse, "then I'll give it to you… painfully." The wind pushed back. Thunder held its breath. The whole world leaned in. Light didn't just emerge — it tore through the darkness, ripping a hole in the night as I blasted upward. The ground split from the force, stone lifting like it was afraid to touch me. Dreadixz didn't hesitate, dude sprinted toward me through the dark like a demon who's been waiting centuries for this one moment. We collided midair.

The shockwave screamed, ripping the sky in jagged lines like something alive and angry. I seized his arm, twisted, and hurled him across the heavens. He became a streak of purple and black flame tearing through storm clouds. He recovered instantly, hurling shadow-blasts at me that looked like chunks of the night sky burning. I swerved through the storm — lightning flashing, rain evaporating before touching me — and we crashed again, right above the distant terrain. His eyes flashed. Mine flashed back.

Then he swung his blade. CRACK. I snapped it in half like it was made of bone. My counter-blast hit him so hard he tumbled through the thunderstorm, getting swallowed by the darkness between lightning strikes. He clapped his hands. Black fire surged outward — writhing, alive, like the screams of something dying. I responded by summoning ten violet celestial shields, each rune glowing like an eye. They shattered one by one, taking the brunt of the demonic fire. I charged. He countered. We met in the storm again.

Punches, kicks, strikes — all happening faster than the lightning around us. One wrong move and the world below would've been vapor. I slipped to the side, elbowed his ribs, flash-kicked his other arm upward, snatched it, spun downward, and slammed my heel into his chest. A spear of violet lightning ripped down the sky on impact. He screamed — more fury than pain — as he saw his own reflection burning in my eyes. Then we shot downward in twin streaks of light. The crash wasn't a crash.

It was a detonation, a shockwave ripping across Foreshade, flattening ruins, shaking mountains, turning the horizon white. Smoke choked the air. My glowing arm swept it aside. He lunged for my legs; I spun and hurricane-kicked him so hard he flew across the land like a meteor. He burst through a jagged rock formation, shattering stone like glass. I didn't hesitate. Two blazing celestial beams erupted from my arms, swirling like twin dragons of fire. They merged in the air into one impossible, howling blast.

When it hit him — the world turned purple. A dome of celestial energy consumed Foreshade. Everything inside evaporated into violet nonexistence — buildings, rock, shadows, all erased in one silent flash. When the dust finally faded, I stood in the center of the carnage, glowing like a lone star surrounded by darkness. Celestial flames curled around me like dripping liquid light. I flicked my finger. A small flame leapt off — pulsing like a heartbeat.

Across the ruined ground, Dreadixz lay slumped, armor cracked like a broken shell, sword snapped in half. Blood leaked down his beard, his face torn, bruised, barely recognizable. He lifted his head. One trembling tear of blood slid down his cheek.

"Years of fighting…. and yet a child—has bested me… I'm perplexed—but also—pissed…" I spit out a celestial flame and stepped forward through the burning city — each footstep glowing with violet pulses. My shadow stretched across the ground like a monster walking beside me.

"No wondering how I beat you," I said quietly.

"Just understand this is the end, Dreadixz. This time? Forever." I reached down, grabbed the broken half of his sword, and stood above him as my eyes narrowed.

"This is the end… of your chapter… of your episode."

"RAH!" I drove the blade into his chest. The explosion wasn't bright — it was violent, cold, a violet eruption that shook the entire land. The storm stopped. The rain froze. The world fell into dead silence. I dropped to my knees, head bowed, as the celestial energy peeled away from me like smoke leaving a dying fire. Everything was quiet. Too quiet. I lifted my head. Dreadixz lay sprawled across the ground, blood pouring from his chest. No breath. No movement. No heartbeat. He was finally… dead.