The warship rumbled beneath Kael's feet, its ancient systems fully awakening for the first time in untold centuries. Lightning coiled through the air, crackling along the walls of the Vault of Dominion as the entire chamber transformed into a battleground.
Kael's muscles burned with the charge surging through him, but his mind was sharper than ever. The Overseer had set him up. Had orchestrated this moment. But he had miscalculated.
Because Kael wasn't just reacting anymore.
He was taking control.
The Overseer's silver eyes gleamed as the power in the room shifted. He had expected Kael to hesitate. To falter.
Instead, Kael attacked first.
He moved in a flash of lightning, closing the distance between them in less than a heartbeat. His fist surged forward, wrapped in an arc of condensed electricity, aimed straight for the Overseer's chest.
The Overseer didn't flinch.
Instead, he raised a single hand—and caught Kael's punch mid-strike.
The impact sent a shockwave through the chamber, the sheer force warping the air around them. But the Overseer remained steady, his grip like iron around Kael's fist, holding him in place.
"You are strong," the Overseer murmured. "But not strong enough."
Kael's instincts screamed a warning.
A pulse of unnatural energy erupted from the Overseer's palm, sending Kael flying backward. He twisted midair, landing on his feet, his boots skidding across the charged metal floor. The backlash left his entire right arm numb from the force of it.
Ryven moved beside him, his body tense. "Alright, so punching him isn't working. Got any better ideas?"
Kael wiped blood from his lip and smirked. "Yeah. Hit him harder."
Ryven sighed. "You gladiators are insane."
The Overseer exhaled, almost disappointed. "You are playing with tools beyond your understanding, Kael. You think because you can bend the current, you are now my equal?"
Kael took a step forward, his eyes locked onto the Overseer's. Electricity surged through his veins, raw and untamed. He wasn't going to fight the way the Overseer expected him to.
He was going to break the rules.
The air around him hummed with building power, the ship's charge syncing with his pulse, feeding him in ways he had never felt before. The Vault of Dominion wasn't rejecting him anymore.
It was responding to him.
The Overseer narrowed his eyes, as if he had just noticed the shift in energy.
And then Kael vanished.
Not through speed. Not through strength.
Through pure electromagnetic redirection.
The next second, he reappeared behind the Overseer, the storm itself bending to his will, shifting his form through charged displacement. His fist was already moving before the Overseer could turn—and this time, it landed.
The impact sent a blast of force rippling through the vault, energy exploding outward as the Overseer was slammed backward, skidding across the floor.
Ryven let out a low whistle. "Okay. That was cool."
Kael rolled his shoulders. "Figured something out."
The Overseer rose to his feet, and for the first time since Kael had met him, he looked genuinely intrigued.
"You are adapting," he said.
Kael smirked. "And you're not keeping up."
The Overseer studied him, his silver eyes flickering with thought. "Perhaps not. But I am no longer your concern."
Kael barely had time to process those words before the entire warship trembled beneath them.
And then, the ceiling of the vault was ripped open.
A force beyond anything Kael had ever encountered surged downward, a violent storm of metallic constructs and electromagnetic suppression fields crashing into the chamber from above.
The Overseer hadn't been stalling.
He had been calling for reinforcements.
A fleet of high-tier Dominion Enforcers descended through the breach, their armored forms wreathed in contained energy, their weapons crackling with enough voltage to level entire cities.
Kael's breath steadied. This wasn't just another test.
This was the true war for dominion.
Ryven cursed. "Tell me you've got a plan."
Kael's mind raced. They couldn't fight their way through this—not directly. There were too many, and even with the power he had gained, the Dominion Enforcers were built to counter awakened warriors.
Which meant—
They needed to turn the ship against them.
Kael glanced at the warship's core, still pulsing with raw, unstable energy. He could feel its potential, the sheer untapped current waiting to be unleashed.
The Overseer followed his gaze and smirked. "I would not advise that course of action, Kael. You may have attuned yourself to this ship, but it was not built for one man alone."
Kael's fingers twitched with electricity.
"I don't need to control it," he said. "I just need to let it loose."
He closed his eyes, reaching deep, feeling the currents of the ship the same way he had felt the Stormborn Ascendant.
It wasn't just a machine.
It was an extension of the storm.
The Overseer's expression finally shifted—to something Kael recognized.
For the first time, the Overseer looked concerned.
Kael released his hold.
The warship roared to life, its engines surging with uncontrollable energy, the sheer magnitude of power tearing through the vault. The containment fields around the ship overloaded instantly, sending massive arcs of lightning cascading outward like a supernova.
The Dominion Enforcers barely had time to react before the energy consumed them.
Kael and Ryven were forced back as the entire vault collapsed inward, the sheer force of the ship breaking free from its ancient prison.
Kael gritted his teeth, pulling at the surrounding charge, manipulating the storm to shield himself from the collapsing debris. His body was running hot, the power inside him teetering on the edge of something new, something terrifyingly vast.
And then—
Everything exploded outward.
A blinding surge of white-hot energy tore through the battlefield, and when the light faded, Kael found himself standing in the wreckage of the vault…
And the warship was no longer underground.
It had risen into the sky, its towering form floating above the world, electricity crackling along its surface like an untamed storm.
And Kael knew, without a doubt—
It was his now.
The Overseer was gone, but Kael had no illusions. This wasn't over. The Dominion would not ignore what had just happened.
This was war.
And Kael Ardyn had just fired the first shot.