"You said the gods were my teachers?" Kael's voice resonated across multiple frequencies of existence, each one a different note in a symphony of defiance. Reality warped around him, responding not to his will but to his very nature. "Then let me show you what I learned."
Zephyr, shaken but still wrapped in divine certainty, raised his hands to cast another sealing spell. But something was wrong. The divine energy that had flowed through him like a river now felt sluggish, resistant.
That's when understanding struck him like a physical blow.
Kael's Aura was not magic. Kael's power was not divine. Kael's existence was something that should not be—could not be—and yet was.
"This is not..." Zephyr's perfect voice cracked with the first hints of fear. "This is not of the gods."
Kael stepped forward, each footfall leaving cracks in reality that leaked pure chaos. His grin widened as he saw the realization in Zephyr's eyes. "Confused, Zephyr? You thought your god could chain me? You still don't understand."
Another step forward. Zephyr raised his hand to cast another spell—and froze.
A pressure unlike anything in creation settled over the battlefield. Reality itself seemed to bend away from what was about to happen. Kael's eyes, now burning with power that had nothing to do with gods or magic, fixed on Zephyr's perfect form.
But when he spoke, his words were not meant for the apostle.
"God of Magic."
Zephyr's body locked in place. The divine runes inscribed in his flesh blazed with blinding light. His mouth opened, but the voice that emerged was vast and terrible—the voice of a god.
The sky above them tore open like tissue paper. Reality screamed as something too vast for mortal comprehension pushed through. Time fractured. Space warped. The laws of nature themselves buckled under the weight of divine presence.
For one eternal instant, the God of Magic manifested through his chosen apostle. Pure celestial power radiated from Zephyr's form, threatening to unmake everything it touched. The battlefield froze in perfect stasis as time itself held its breath.
"KAEL, YOU DARE ADDRESS ME DIRECTLY?"
The god's fury shook the heavens, but Kael stood unmoved. His void-marks pulsed in time with a power that had nothing to do with divine will, each beat sending ripples through the god's imposed order.
"You thought I was your pawn." Kael's voice carried no rage, no defiance—only absolute certainty. "You thought I was your failure. But I am neither. I am something you cannot control."
Divine rage shattered mountains. The world itself began to break apart under the god's presence. But then—
Reality snapped back like an overstretched rubber band. The tear in the sky sealed itself, divine presence forcibly ejected from the mortal realm. Zephyr collapsed to his knees, blood leaking from his eyes, nose, and ears—the price of channeling even a moment of his god's true power.
But the God of Magic's voice lingered for one final command:
"Then let my will be known."
Divine energy erupted from Zephyr's fallen form. His body ignited with power beyond anything an apostle had ever wielded. He rose into the air, flesh becoming pure magical energy, voice harmonizing with the echoes of his god. His movements transcended physical law, each gesture carrying the weight of divine mandate.
This was the ultimate power of the gods, their final gift to their perfect servant.
Kael didn't hesitate. He charged straight at this avatar of divine will, void-marks blazing with power that existed outside of creation itself. The collision between them broke reality.
Mountains crumbled under the force of their conflict. Storms of pure magic and impossible chaos ravaged the landscape. The sky itself split and reformed with each exchange of blows. Divine law clashed with chaotic possibility in a war that threatened to unmake existence itself.
But in the end, even ultimate divine power proved insufficient.
Zephyr fell, his perfect form broken and crumbling. Divine energy leaked from him like blood as he stared up at Kael with the first real emotion he had ever felt—fear.
"Why..." His voice was his own again, small and confused. "Why couldn't I stop you?"
Kael looked down at the fallen apostle, violet eyes reflecting something almost like pity. "Because your power was given to you." The void-marks on his skin pulsed with quiet certainty. "Mine? I took it for myself."
Understanding finally dawned in Zephyr's eyes. Then his body dissolved into motes of golden light, nothing more than another failed instrument of divine will.
Kael stood among the ashes of heaven's perfect servant, his gaze turning upward to where the gods watched from their eternal realm. His voice carried across the barrier between mortal and divine, laden with promise rather than threat:
"Even your strongest champion was nothing before me. Come down yourselves, cowards."
The gods did not answer.
Because for the first time in their eternal existence, they knew fear.