The cathedral air trembled with opposing forces.
Golden divine pressure filled the upper chamber like a suffocating ocean, while something darker began rising from Kael’s body in slow, deliberate waves. The shattered chains around his wrists dissolved into dust that drifted across the marble floor.
Every priest in the hall felt it.
Valther felt it most clearly.
“That presence…” Valther whispered, his voice thin with disbelief. “Impossible.”
Kael stood still at the center of the chamber. His breathing remained calm, but his heart pounded heavily against the sealed core within his chest. The ancient restraints placed upon his demonic power had begun to fracture from the strain of divine interference.
He did not intend to break them.
The gods forced his hand.
Inside the divine battlef
