His body was wrecked—wounds bleeding freely, his breathing shallow and uneven. His sword trembled in his grip, slick with blood, too heavy now for a warrior of his caliber. His legs were failing him. His mind was racing. His heart pounded like war drums in a losing march.
"This..." he muttered, while looking at the now lifeless bodies of his comrade. His voice hoarse, disbelief turning to dread as it settled deep into his bones.
A whisper sliced through the silence like a dagger.
"Was that all you’ve got?"
The voice ca from behind.
SLASH! SLASH!
Kael’thus whipped around, blade lashing wildly. His swings were clumsy, desperate—each one missing its mark, striking only air.
"YOU—!"
"DIE!"
"DIE!!"
Each shout cracked louder than the last, echoing with rage and panic. His sword slashes ca fast and uncoordinated, driven more by instinct than precision. His golden eyes, usually sharp and calculating, now looked frenzied—like those of a cornered animal on the edge of breaking.
But Rhiki wasn’t there anymore.
He had already slipped out of reach—fluid, calculated, calm. A phantom dancing around a dying fla.
And then—
"Now behold. Traitor."
Three Rhikis erged from the shadows, closing in like wolves around a wounded stag.
Kael’thus froze.
He couldn’t keep up. His muscles scread. His lungs burned. His mind reeled from the realization that he—Kael’thus the Runesword Master, the prodigy of goldhair royalty—was going to die here.
Like this.
Surrounded. Alone.
And in the hands of his own kin?
His sword slipped in his weakening grip, and his legs refused to move. Fear crept in—not the fear of death, but of failure. Of unfinished dreams. Of never proving he was more than the bloodline he had betrayed.
’Is this how it ends...?’
One of the clones dashed forward and without hesitation, slashed through his right arm with blinding speed. The pain was blinding—but worse was the sound. tal clanged, his sword hit the ground, and blood sprayed across the rock-stained floor.
The weapon that had once symbolized his pride, his rise, his rebellion—is now gone.
’Is this really it?’
His thoughts and regrets started to sink deeper in his consciousness.
Another blade ca from behind. Sharp. Silent.
SHHK!
It pierced clean through his back, shoving into his heart with terrifying precision. Kael’thus gasped—but no sound ca. The clone vanished just as swiftly, leaving only coldness blooming in his chest.
His legs buckled.
The world spun.
And then the real Rhiki stood before him—expression unreadable, eyes locked in on a dying elf.
Mana pulsed into the black dagger, now burning with violent light.
"This," Rhiki said coldly, "is for the Queen Mother."
SLASH!
The dagger carved a clean path across Kael’thus’s throat, and ti seed to freeze.
No final words.
No dramatic cries.
Just a low, broken exhale... and silence.
The renegade goldhair fell to his knees, then slumped to the ground, lifeless.
A dream that once aid for the stars had ended in the dirt—crushed not by fate, but by the weight of his own ambition. His vision of a crown, of an empire shaped by his will, now nothing more than ash in the wind.
But Rhiki wasn’t done.
"And this is for the people you have betrayed..."
With a cold sneer, he stepped forward—and delivered one final, sweeping kick to Kael’thus’s lifeless body, sending it skidding across the broken battlefield like garbage tossed aside.
There was no honor in that death.No mourning.Only silence.
And the smoldering reek of betrayal and burnt ambition.
The impact sent him flying.
He slamd into the wall of the rock do with a brutal crash.
KRRSSHHH!!
Stone cracked. Dust exploded outward. The stone do trembled. And Kael’thus’s body slumped into the debris, half-buried but forever forgoten.
The shaking caused the do to finally shatter. Rubble crashed down, burying the bodies of the intruding Dark Fate beneath the weight of their own battlefield.
Not far off from his location, chaos continued.
Three enchanted blades sliced through the air and finally pierced the long, scaled body of the naga marksman—Slarveon. One of the blades struck her head directly, punching a hole clean through.
UGHGH!~
"NOOO!" Lannic scread with his eyes filled with fear and shock.
He stood beside her in horror as her serpentine form convulsed, then slumped into a heap. Lifeless. Gone.
He too is alone now.
Above them, Kardel hovered atop his mount, Usan, eyes burning with fury.
"I told you... you’ll regret harming our Queen."
His staff glowed with azure light as twelve crystal blades spun around him like judgnt incarnate. The sa skill that he used against Auren, only this ti its far deadlier.
Suddenly Rhiki arrived beside Kardel with a smug look.
"You are only fighting two yet you’re still not done?"
"So what? I love to take my ti." Kardel answered before turning his focus on his target.
His spinning blades circled towards Lannic, closing in like a jaw of the beast.
"Any last words?" Rhiki and Kardel said in unison.
And then...
Sothing strange happened.
Not fear.Not panic.
But excitent.
Lannic’s expression suddenly changed from fear to exitent.
Hahaha...
Kardel’s expression twitched.
HAHAHAHA!~
"Why are you laughing?"
No answer—just that wide, unnerving grin.
Rhiki glanced sideways, eyes glowing with observation magic. Kardel had Lannic trapped. They were winning.
So why the hell was this bastard smiling like that?
HAHAHAA-
STAB!~
STAB!~
STAB!~
Kardel finally lost his patience.
With a cold, silent wave of his hand, his twelve spinning blades launched forward—arcing through the air like judgnt itself. In a flash, they pierced through Lannic’s defenses and silenced the defiant aquamancer once and for all. The mad defiance in his eyes faded as his body collapsed, lifeless and still.
And just like that, it was over.
Rhiki and Kardel had dismantled the invading force of the Dark Fate—completely, efficiently, and without rcy. A flawless victory.
But it hadn’t co easy.
Their success was only possible because of the Queen’s earlier sacrifice—her divine intervention had absorbed nearly eighty percent of the Dark Fate’s initial onslaught, leaving the enemies battered, scattered, and vulnerable for the second round. Without her, this outco would’ve never been possible.
And now, the two strongest leaders of their respective tribes—Rhiki and Kardel —had proven once again why they were feared and respected within Runewood.
Without wasting another second, the two turned and raced back to where they ca from —toward the crater where the elven queen is located.
Unaware.
Unaware of the final threat quietly blooming in the distance.
Because while the others fell, the last remaining mber of the Dark Fate had already reached the final phase of the unsealing.
And beneath the fractured skies and molten floating islands, a slumbering horror began to stir—Vulkris, the Beast of Chaos.
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