The night stretched on, an unbroken veil of darkness that mirrored Kaelen's thoughts. The city below lay in chaos, the streets thick with the roar of rebellion. From the tower, Kaelen could see the flickering fires, the torches that burned with defiance. The people had risen, their blood boiling with anger, their voices crying for justice. But Kaelen was no longer concerned with their rebellion. He had long since ceased to care about what they thought or desired.
The hunger, that insatiable beast, clawed at his soul with renewed vigor. It was louder now, sharper, urging him to take it all—to destroy, to consume, to leave nothing in his wake. He could feel the power growing within him, surging with a force he could no longer suppress. Every inch of his being screamed for more.
*More.*
The ancient magic of the crystal thrummed in his veins, each pulse feeding the darkness inside him, each beat of his heart a reminder that he had crossed the threshold. No longer was he merely a man. No longer was he simply Kaelen—the boy who had once dreamed of power.
He was something else now.
A god.
His grip tightened on the railing of the balcony, his knuckles white against the cool stone. His mind swirled with visions—visions of conquest, of kingdoms burning, of cities falling beneath his feet. The rebellion in the streets was just the beginning. It was nothing compared to what lay ahead.
The world itself would kneel before him. All of it would burn in his wake, reshaped in his image. His eyes, once human, now glowed with an unnatural light, a fire of madness and purpose. He had sacrificed everything to reach this point. And now, he would claim everything.
Seraphine's voice, calm and measured, reached him from the shadows. "My lord, the rebellion... it grows stronger by the hour. They will not stop."
Kaelen did not turn to face her, his gaze still fixed on the horizon, where the fires of revolt danced like angry stars. "Let them come," he said, his voice low and filled with a terrifying certainty. "They will fall, just like the rest."
Seraphine stepped closer, her eyes studying him, a mixture of awe and fear in her gaze. She had seen the power Kaelen wielded, had witnessed his rise, but even she was beginning to sense the deep, irrevocable change within him. She knew what he was becoming, what he had already become. And though she had always served him faithfully, a part of her now wondered if she was merely a bystander to a force that would eventually destroy them both.
"You are unstoppable now," she said, her voice almost a whisper, as if she were speaking not to Kaelen, but to the very darkness he had become. "But is this truly what you want?"
Kaelen turned to her at last, his eyes burning with a fierce intensity that made her flinch. "I have already made my choice," he said, the words laced with finality. "The world, the people, the gods themselves—they are nothing. I will break them all. I will *rule* them all. And when I am done, when I have crushed every living being beneath my heel, I will reshape this world. It will be mine, and mine alone."
Seraphine's breath caught in her throat. There was no hesitation in his voice. No trace of doubt. She had known him as a man driven by ambition, but this... this was something else. Something far darker, far more dangerous.
"Then you have already sealed your fate," she said softly, as if speaking the words aloud would make them real. "Once you take this path, there is no turning back. There will be no end to your hunger, Kaelen. It will consume you."
Kaelen's lips twisted into a cruel smile. "Let it consume me. Let it. I will burn until nothing remains. But in the ashes, I will reign supreme."
---
In that moment, Kaelen felt the full weight of the abyss settle upon him. The final barriers he had once tried to maintain—the remnants of his humanity, the fleeting thoughts of mercy or compassion—disappeared into the void. They were gone, as if they had never existed at all.
He was power now. He was the hunger, the darkness, the storm that could never be quelled.
His vision sharpened, and the world seemed to slow around him. He could see everything—every kingdom, every city, every ruler who dared defy him. All of them were ants, insignificant in the grand design. All of them would fall. The very fabric of existence itself would bow before him.
A distant laugh, cold and merciless, escaped his lips.
*Conquer the world?*
No. That was too small a goal.
He would *break* the world. He would burn it to the ground and remake it in his image. Every king, every queen, every god who dared stand in his way would be crushed beneath the weight of his ambition. His power would be absolute. His dominion would stretch beyond the mortal realm, across dimensions, and into the very hearts of the universe.
He would be the beginning and the end. The creator and the destroyer.
And nothing—*nothing*—would stand in his way.
---
The rebellion, once a flicker of resistance, would now become the first step in his conquest. Kaelen turned his gaze back to the city below, his eyes narrowing with a cold, calculating focus. He could feel the movements of the rebels like a pulse beneath his skin. They thought they were strong, that they could challenge him.
They were wrong.
"I will not waste my time with petty rebellions," Kaelen murmured, his voice cold as steel. "It is time to make an example of them. Let them see the true face of power."
With a snap of his fingers, the ground beneath the city began to tremble. Seraphine watched in awe as the earth split open, fissures forming across the streets, swallowing buildings whole. The very fabric of reality seemed to crack as Kaelen's magic poured forth like a flood, his will manifesting in the world around him.
Screams rose from the streets below as the earth itself rebelled against the city. Buildings crumbled. People ran in all directions, only to be swallowed by the cracks that appeared beneath their feet. The rebellion was crushed before it even had a chance to truly ignite.
Kaelen's eyes remained cold, his mind focused solely on the path ahead. This was only the beginning. The world would burn, and he would be the one to set the flame.
"I will conquer everything," he whispered, his voice filled with unshakable certainty. "The world, the gods, the very forces of nature itself. Nothing will escape my grasp. I will break every single being who dares stand before me."
And as the city below him fell into chaos, Kaelen knew in his heart that there was nothing left to hold him back.
He had become the darkness, and the world would tremble at his feet.