General Runa’s prayers are answered, and within moments, divine energy explodes into the battlefield like a tidal wave of brilliance.
The skies shimmer with golden hues, the earth trembles beneath their feet, and flowers bloom out of season, bursting into life across the blood-soaked terrain.
The once scorched battlefield is now bathed in unnatural warmth and overwhelming light. The sheer pressure of the divine presence thickens the air, making it harder to breathe.
Duchess Amana shields her eyes, her instincts screaming at her to flee.
"Kyle, we need to retreat—now."
But Kyle doesn’t move. His eyes remain locked onto the figure at the center of this divine outpouring.
He tells her calmly, yet firmly.
Amana flinches slightly. There’s a tight knot in her chest that she doesn’t understand— discomfort, perhaps even hurt. She tries to dismiss it, but it lingers.
"Are you saying I’m a burden?" \
She asks without meeting his eyes.
Kyle finally glances at her.
"No. I’m saying I can’t protect you and fight her at the same time. If something happens to both of us, we lose everything. The army falls apart. The people fall apart."
Amana’s expression tightens. His logic is sound. Cold, but sound. Still, something inside her aches at the implication.
"You’re our leader, Amana. If I fall, they’ll still have someone to follow. But if you fall while I’m distracted fighting a god... I’ll never forgive myself."
Those words settle the storm in her chest. Reluctantly, Amana gives him a nod, though the unhappiness in her gaze doesn’t fade.
She turns to run—only to find her path blocked. The divine energy has condensed in front of her, forming a shimmering wall of light that ripples like water yet feels solid as stone.
From the heart of that light, General Runa raises her face.
But this is not the same woman who mocked them moments ago.
Divine markings now coil and glow along her skin like molten scripture. Her eyes blaze with an unnatural hue, her voice echoing as if multiple beings spoke through her at once.
"Where are you going, mortal? Did you think you could walk away from judgment?"
She asks Amana, the tone neither mocking nor cruel—but absolute.
Amana’s fingers twitch toward her sword, but Kyle is faster. With a sharp movement of his hand, a thread of his mana lashes out, slicing through the divine barrier like a blade through silk.
The energy flickers, destabilizes, and shatters into harmless particles of light.
Kyle commands again without turning his head.
Amana hesitates for only a second longer. Then, biting her lip, she dashes through the opening Kyle has made.
Her heart pounds—not from fear, but from something deeper. And as she runs, she doesn’t look back.
Runa watches her go, but doesn’t chase.
"She will not make it far."
Runa says softly, but her focus returns to Kyle now.
"But it doesn’t matter. You and I—we finish this here."
Kyle cracks his neck, stepping forward as the battlefield quiets around them.
"You said you’d spread your god’s name to the world. But you don’t even get to say your own anymore, do you?"
Runa’s expression doesn’t change, but the divine energy swells in response to his words.\
"I am the vessel of divine will. My name is irrelevant."
He raises a single hand, and his mana pours outward, slamming against the divine presence like a tidal wave of darkness to counter Runa’s blinding light.
The entire field shudders. Soldiers from both sides in the distance stop fighting and turn to look.
It is not just a battle anymore. It is a reckoning.
"You’re strong. But strength alone cannot overcome divinity."
Runa admits, voice still distorted by the divine.
Kyle smirks, drawing his sword, its edge humming with blackened energy.
"Good thing I’m not just strong, then."
With that, the divine and the defiant charge one another, shaking the heavens above.
General Runa’s body jerked forward, feet barely touching the ground as she attempted to pursue the Grand Duchess.
The divine markings on her body pulsed with light, and her cloak flared behind her as her aura surged. But before she could take more than a step, Kyle moved.
His sword shot out like lightning, blocking her path in a flash of polished steel and roaring mana. His presence alone was enough to halt her momentum.
A tremor rippled through the ground as their auras collided—his dark and heavy, hers radiant and overwhelming.
The general didn’t stop immediately. Her gaze was hazy, not entirely focused on Kyle, her body driven more by instinct than intent.
Her expression was strange—blank, almost hollow. The light in her eyes was bright, but not fully aware.
Still, she remained standing, facing him.
Kyle watched carefully, his breath steady.
"You’re not in control anymore. That’s not you looking through those eyes."
But then, something shifted.
The more she stood before him, the longer Kyle held his ground with unyielding force, the more her posture began to change.
Her body tensed, her hands trembled. Her brows furrowed. Her eyes started to shift—losing their vacant gleam, focusing again.
And when their gazes met, Kyle saw it clearly—the moment she came back to herself.
But it was enough for the god inside her to react.
Her pupils vanished, swallowed by a harsh divine glow. Her lips twisted into a scowl, and her voice came out layered and strange, distorted by the god now inhabiting her body.
"This vessel is insufficient. The mortal’s body is fragile. Weak. I cannot channel my full power ."
The god growled, moving her limbs like a puppeteer struggling with tight strings.
Despite his words, the energy radiating from General Runa exploded outward. Divine pressure crashed against Kyle like a tidal wave.
The trees behind him split at the base from the sheer force, and the soil buckled beneath their feet. Kyle clenched his jaw and raised his blade, bracing for the impact.
A beam of divine power surged toward him, splitting the air with a screech. Kyle brought up his sword and cast his mana like a shield.
The blast struck him dead-on, launching him backward through the debris-strewn field.
But instead of slamming into the ground, Kyle twisted midair. He slammed his feet into the earth with control, the force of his own mana cushioning the impact.
Dust burst around him, masking his figure for a moment before he stepped out of the cloud, uninjured and unimpressed.
"You said you couldn’t use your full power. Yet here you are, already trying to vaporize me. Don’t get greedy."
Kyle said, brushing off a fleck of divine ash from his coat.
The god snarled through Runa’s lips.
"You’re nothing but a defiant mortal. You dare mock me, knowing what I am?"
Kyle’s aura flared again, stronger this time, shadows coiling at his feet like smoke.
"I’m the one who burned your priest, shattered your vessel, and turned your healing champion into a corpse. If anyone should be scared right now, it’s you."
The divine energy surged again.
Kyle raised his sword and launched forward, his blade meeting the divine energy with a deafening clash.
Sparks flew, and the air howled with the power of the collision.
Kyle pushed forward, his sword glowing with concentrated mana. He aimed directly at the weakest point—the side where the divine energy faltered.