Chapter 20 – Ash Crown Ascendant
The firelight pulsed like a heartbeat.
Kael stood in the center of Kovarra's Teeth, the Codex glyphs spiraling across his skin like wildfire. The ground around him crackled with static, ash trembling under his feet. His warband formed a loose circle behind him—injured, bloodied, but standing. Always standing.
Across the battlefield, Malixen Khaelis approached slowly.
His cracked obsidian mask gleamed under the dying sun. The Null-Wardens had scattered, their use complete. Malixen wanted this alone.
Kael's voice cut through the stillness.
"I told you not to come back."
Malixen stopped.
"I needed to see if your fire was real," he replied. "Or just smoke."
The Codex pulsed.
[Sovereign Status: Active – Glyph Sync (Stable)]
[Adversary Designation: Null-Crown Sovereign Variant]
Kael raised his hand. The glyphs locked into perfect symmetry.
Malixen drew his glaive.
The wind vanished.
They moved.
The first clash cracked the canyon.
Kael met the glaive with an open palm strike—redirecting the Codex energy into the stone behind him. Malixen spun low, slashing through Kael's thigh—only for Kael to pivot, counterstrike, and drive his elbow into Malixen's ribs.
They separated.
Kael's breath misted, not from cold—but from Codex overdrive. Malixen flicked blood from his cracked mask.
"You're not burning out," he said.
Kael's voice was steel. "I'm not burning alone."
They fought again.
Each blow reshaped the battlefield. Glyphs ignited on impact. Debris floated, suspended in Codex gravity. Teyra and Luma shielded the injured as fragments of stone and data-thread rained from the sky.
Dreadmaw tried to charge in—Serrin stopped him.
"This fight isn't for us," she whispered. "It's between Sovereigns now."
Kael surged forward, eyes blazing. The Codex flared from his chest—arcs of golden light chaining out like tendrils. He launched a strike that fractured reality, warping the air into shimmer fields.
Malixen activated his coral armor. Glyphs pulsed along his mask. He vanished—teleporting behind Kael.
But Kael caught him.
He turned, grabbed Malixen's wrist, and threw him across the canyon floor. The earth cracked.
Kael stood tall.
"I'm not the Sovereign you mocked," he said. "I'm the one who survived."
Malixen rose, bleeding.
He held his broken mask in his hand now, exposing half his face—scarred, half-metallic, but still human.
"You talk of survival," he spat. "But you haven't failed enough."
He stabbed his glaive into the ground. Glyphs around the canyon lit like veins.
[Codex Lockdown Initiated]
[Pulse Inversion: Pending]
Kael was pushed to his knees as reality bent. His glyphs rebelled. The Codex tried to shut him down.
But something new stirred in him.
A presence.
A voice, familiar—not Xenovorax.
His own.
"You've bled. You've broken. Now burn."
Kael rose.
The glyphs inverted. Instead of resisting the pulse, they consumed it. The Codex threads twisted around his arms, forming a crown of pure light.
He had stopped listening.
He was commanding.
[Sovereign Class: Chainbroken]
[New Trait: Echo Reversal – Active]
Kael stepped forward, now glowing. Not wild. Controlled.
Malixen struck—Kael caught the glaive.
And shattered it.
With a roar, Kael drove his fist into Malixen's chest. Codex feedback exploded, launching them both into the air.
They hit the ground hard.
Dust settled.
Kael rose first.
Malixen lay still. Gasping. Defeated.
But alive.
The warband approached. Serrin beside him. Dreadmaw. Ironmark. Whisper-Vow limping but fierce. Luma supporting Teyra.
Kael stood over Malixen. His Codex still flared.
He raised his hand—then lowered it.
"I don't kill echoes," he said.
He turned to his warband.
"We hold the Teeth. And now—we hold the pulse."
They stood taller.
The Codex whispered.
[Pulse Count: 83]
[Designation: Sovereign Ascendant Confirmed]
And from the high ridge, beyond the canyon, something else stirred.
An observer in deeper shadow.
Watching the Sovereign rise.