The silence following Kael's declaration was more terrifying than the sandstorm. In the vacuum he had created, the only sound was the frantic, high-pitched whining of Malakai's mechanical Scorpio Rig. The green plasma spinning within the Herald's tail was reaching a critical state, turning the surrounding air into a soup of toxic radiation.
Malakai looked at Kael—at the matte-obsidian armor and the calm, platinum eyes—and saw the end of his own legend.
"I am the Sting!" Malakai shrieked, his voice distorting into a digital roar. "I am the one who brings the end to the cycle! You are just a ghost of a dead Director's dream!"
Malakai lunged. He didn't use a bolt this time. He propelled himself forward with the green plasma, his mechanical tail arching over his head like a massive, glowing scythe. The rings of the tail detached, forming a spinning saw of corrosive energy that could cut through a continental plate.
Kael didn't move. He didn't even raise his guard. The Sovereign Star Protocol behind his eyes was no longer scrolling code; it was projecting a singular, golden command.
[SYNC RATE: 82%] [TRAIT ACTIVATED: THE EMPEROR'S EXECUTION] [CONCEPT: TOTAL KINETIC NULLIFICATION]
"You talk of dreams," Kael said, his voice dropping into a frequency that caused the obsidian ground to liquify once more. "But you haven't realized the nightmare you're in. You are standing in my domain."
As Malakai's plasma-scythe came within three inches of Kael's neck, the world turned white.
"STRIP."
The command wasn't a shout; it was a whisper. But the effect was absolute. The spinning rings of Malakai's tail didn't just stop—they lost the very concept of motion. The plasma didn't dissipate; it became a solid, harmless ring of cold light. Malakai himself was frozen in mid-air, his momentum not just halted, but deleted from the timeline of the universe.
Kael stepped forward, walking through the frozen saw-blades of green energy as if they were bubbles. He stood inches from Malakai's face. The Herald's silver eyes were wide, darting frantically, trapped in a body that could no longer twitch a single muscle.
"Year Three is about Authority," Kael said, reaching out a platinum-clad hand and gently touching the center of Malakai's obsidian chest-plate. "You used your power to consume. I used mine to command. That is the difference between a predator and a Sovereign."
[INITIATING: HEART-LINK EXTRACTION] [WARNING: RIVAL PROTOCOL DETECTED] [SYSTEM OVERRIDE: 100%]
Kael's fingers sank into the obsidian armor as if it were water. He reached through the physical metal and gripped the Scorpio Core—the digital heart of Malakai's Protocol.
"Delete," Kael commanded.
CRACK.
The sound wasn't physical; it was the sound of a reality-code breaking. The green light in Malakai's eyes vanished, replaced by a dull, lifeless grey. The Scorpio Rig on his back shattered, the mechanical legs falling into the glass dust of the crater.
Malakai fell. He didn't hit the ground with a thud; he simply slumped, his connection to the stars severed. He wasn't dead, but he was no longer a Herald. He was just a man in a broken suit, a scavenger who had lost his gamble.
[BATTLEFIELD VICTORY: ABSOLUTE] [SYNC RATE: 85%] [ITEM ACQUIRED: THE SCORPIO DATA-KEY (ARRAY 02)] [DEAD MAN'S SWITCH: 03:50:12]
"Kael!" Lyra's voice broke the silence. She ran toward him, her staff glowing with a relieved violet light. She looked at the fallen Malakai, then back at Kael. "You... you didn't just beat him. You erased him."
Kael looked down at his hands. The platinum glow was receding, leaving behind the dark, intimidating silhouette of the Sovereign Vanguard. He felt the weight of the Scorpio Data-Key in his palm. It was a dark green crystal, pulsing with a sub-harmonic frequency that matched the Second Sovereign Array.
"He was a mistake," Kael said, his voice returning to its human tone, though the regal edge remained. "He was what happens when the Protocol is found by the wrong hands."
Suddenly, the ground began to vibrate. Not from a Calamity, but from the approach of something massive. From the northern horizon, a fleet of Obsidian Dreadnoughts appeared, their black hulls blotting out the violet light of the Fracture.
The House of Obsidian had arrived to claim their Herald's remains.
"We have to go," Lyra said, her eyes widening as she saw the friction-cannons on the lead ship beginning to glow. "Even with your Inertia, we can't take on an entire fleet of Dreadnoughts!"
Kael looked up at the black ships. He felt the power of the Second Array within his reach, the Data-Key in his hand acting as a compass.
"We aren't running," Kael said. He turned toward the center of the crater, where a massive, black stone door was beginning to rise from the glass floor. The Second Array was opening for its true master. "We're going to give them something to remember."
He held up the Scorpio Key. The door emitted a low, resonant groan, and a bridge of white light extended toward Kael.
"Lyra, get inside. I'm going to set the Static-Pulse."
"Kael, that will lock this entire sector for a month! We'll be trapped!"
"No," Kael said, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "They'll be locked out. And we'll have the entire Year 5 database to ourselves."
As the first volley of Obsidian friction-bolts rained down from the sky, Kael slammed the Scorpio Key into the door's pedestal. A wave of absolute, unmoving energy erupted from the crater, freezing the incoming missiles in mid-air and creating a 10-mile dome of perfect silence.
The fleet above stopped. The world stopped.
Kael and Lyra stepped into the white light of the Second Array, the doors closing behind them with a final, heavy thud.
[DEAD MAN'S SWITCH: 03:45:00] [LOCATION: SECOND SOVEREIGN ARRAY — INTERNAL SANCTUM] [NEW CHAPTER INITIATED: THE YEAR 5 ASCENSION]