The Heir to the Abyss

Ascension

“It’s over, Valko!” Kalen’s voice cracked like a whip. “The Legion can’t save you. The celestials will come for you. There’s nowhere left to run. Surrender.”

“Oh, Kalen, we’re so alike in this way. Faced with insurmountable odds, neither of us yields,” Valko cackled. “We’ve been on a collision course since the moment we met. Today, I turn you into my broken masterpiece.”

“What are you waiting for?” Kalen took a step closer. “Claim your audience with The One Below All Creation. You’ve carved your way across worlds, worn a thousand faces, and dragged us all to the edge.” His voice was unyielding. “But you won’t. You’re stalling. None of your stolen faces can hide it. You’re afraid. You’ve always been afraid. That’s why you’ve already lost.”

“You’re right, Kalen. I am afraid.”

The admission stunned everyone. Silence crushed the room. Time slowed.

Valko’s mania slipped away. His posture sagged as if something inside him cracked. When he spoke, the words seemed torn from a place long buried. “I’ve been afraid my whole life,” he said softly. “My father broke me from birth. Then Astaroth, Morgaelion, and Thezgoron replaced one terror with another. I hurt people to hide my shame and called it art.”

Kalen advanced but halted when Jabober shifted his eyeless gaze. The skeleton warrior raised his scythe in warning. Valko didn’t notice or didn’t care.

The shapeshifter’s gaze drifted, unfocused. His voice unraveled. “Even now, as I reach for omnipotence, fear still lives in me. It delays me… but it will not stop me. Not this time. Perhaps I march to my eternal doom. Perhaps I ascend to my final evolution, where fear is a distant memory.” He turned toward the blood-smeared wall, speaking only to himself.

“Stop this madness!” Kalen shouted.

Valko answered by drawing the Sword of Chaos. Its blade pulsed, vibrating the air in harmonic rhythm. “Madness? You mistake madness for genius!” The playful mask of lunacy snapped back into place. “The hour has come for me to take my rightful place as Heir to the Abyss.”