The ruins of the temple still smoldered when Kael walked away from it.
The air reeked of ash and sanctified blood.
Lira followed at a distance, her heart pounding. She had seen Kael destroy armies before, but this was different. His power didn’t just burn — it erased.
“Kael,” she called softly, “you can’t keep running like this.”
“I’m not running,” he said, without looking back. “I’m hunting.”
“For what?”
He stopped at the edge of a broken valley, the horizon still glowing red from the destruction he had caused. “For the one who built this curse.”
“The System?” she asked.
He nodded once. “I destroyed their gods. Now I’ll destroy the one who made them.”
Lira swallowed hard. “If the System truly has a creator… Kael, you might be walking into something even you can’t destroy.”
Kael’
