The battlefield felt colder.

Not from wind, nor from the lingering Voidborn ash drifting in fragile spirals through the wounded air—but from the quiet, murderous certainty in K's eyes as the ground beneath Khael began to splinter in jagged fractures.

An invisible pressure pulled downward, a black gravity well forming under Khael's feet.

His draconic heels sank a few inches into the ground before his wings flared, instinctually counteracting the pull. The violet shimmer of the Dragonion Form rippled violently across his scales.

He could withstand it. But barely.

K stood calmly atop the ruined slope, dust drifting from his coat as if the world dared not cling to him.

That cruel smirk returned measured, calculating.

"I warned you, Khael Corzedar. Power born from sentiment decays under pressure."

The black gravity swirled tighter, a spiraling maw beneath Khael's feet.

The Dragon Knight gritted his teeth behind the obsidian mask.

(He's targeting my emotional recoil… he wants the instability to spike… the Shard will… devour me.)

He felt it: the Shard pulsing faster, syncing with the turbulence inside him, feeding on his conflict. A cold whisper slithered through the back of his mind like a blade drawn across nerves.

(Let go. Let go. Let go.)

"No," he growled, claws digging into the cracking earth. "I don't break that easily."

But the gravity well intensified again, snapping the ground like paper.

Ryn shoved debris aside and screamed his name. "KHAEL!"

He didn't dare look. Just hearing them made the Shard pulse harder.

Then another voice shaking, barely alive.

"K… Khael…"

Juno Arkai, half–knelt on one knee, blood trailing down his chin, his Fifth Vein Gate still radiating dangerously unstable silver and red light. He could barely stand, but he forced his broken body up another inch.

Ceyla, limp on the ground, raised her eyes to him. Matthew's unconscious hand slipped from his chest, the faint remaining glow of Harmonae flickering like a dying ember. Andromeda Ban dragged himself forward on trembling arms, face clenched in terrified determination.

They were all watching him.

Their hope.

Their fear.

Their broken trust in their own strength.

K saw all of it.

And he smiled.

"Your allies have given everything. Yet you still refuse what must be done."

His fingers curled, and the void around him thrummed.

"So let me help you… choose."

He snapped his fingers.

The gravity surged

and the entire battlefield shuddered as Matthew Lomwel's body was lifted off the ground.

Not physically.

Spiritually.

The Void Art began pulling his spirit loose.

Juno's eyes went wide. "NO—NO, NO, WAIT..MATTHEW!"

Andromeda screamed, voice cracking. "STOP IT…STOP..HE'LL DIE…STOP!"

Ceyla reached a hand out, barely whispering. "Khael… please…"

The Dragonion's violet aura spasmed. Khael's claws clenched so hard his scaled knuckles cracked. The mask shivered with fractured reflections of the world around him.

His body wanted to unleash power.

His heart wanted to protect them.

The Shard wanted him to let go of both.

K lifted his palm toward Matthew.

"Void Art: Soul Dethread."

Juno's scream was raw. "KAHAEL!!!"

Khael moved.

The black gravity snapped as the Dragon Knight ripped himself free with a violent, wing-assisted surge. The earth exploded beneath him as he launched toward Matthew ignoring everything else, even K.

The Shard pulsed like it gained a heartbeat.

He arrived just as Matthew's spirit thread began to peel from his chest. The violet Dragonion aura flared, engulfing both Matthew's body and the unraveling spirit.

The collision of violet Shinrei and K's black Void line detonated in a silent flash.

Matthew's spirit

fell back into place.

But the backlash

Khael took all of it.

His chest cracked open with light. The Dragonion's armored ribs split as violet Shinrei burst outward, uncontrolled, burning his body from the inside.

He choked, staggering, claws tearing trenches into the ground.

(Pain… too much…too much…GET OUT OF MY HEAD..)

The Shard vibrated so violently he felt it tearing into his heart.

Juno dragged himself forward despite the blood dripping from his eyes. "STOP…STOP MOVING….KAHAEL…. Khael YOU'RE BREAKING YOURSELF"

Andromeda, shaking uncontrollably, slammed his fist into the earth. "DON'T DO THAT AGAIN.YOU AREN'T A SHIELD..YOU'RE OUR…."

Ceyla's voice cracked through the chaos.

Soft.

Terrified.

Real.

"Khael… you don't need to protect us alone."

"WE'RE HERE…DON'T SHOULDER EVERYTHING…DON'T"

All their emotions crashed into him.

The Shard loved it.

The violet aura spiraled violently, the wings flickering, the mask fracturing.

K's smirk sharpened, crueler than ever.

"Look at them. Look how they break you."

The void behind his back expanded into a spiraling halo.

"You protect them, and in return they become your chains.

Emotion is not strength. Emotion is collapse."

Khael roared, forcing his shaking claws into the ground to stabilize himself.

"SHUT…UP"

"You know I speak truth," K whispered. "The Form is at its limit.

Your heart cannot sustain it."

The Shard throbbed so violently it lanced his chest with pain.

K stepped forward, the halo darkening.

"So I will help you shed it. I will kill every single one of them one by one while you watch."

The battlefield froze.

Even the wind stopped.

K raised his hand toward Juno first.

Juno stared back, exhausted, trembling, but defiant. "Do it. If that's what it takes for Khael to rise…DO IT THEN!"

K smirked. "Brave. Pointless."

A single black speck formed on his fingertip.

Khael's entire body reacted.

His wings flared, claws snapping upward ready to launch, to tear K apart.

But his heart

was still fractured from saving Matthew.

He couldn't muster the full surge.

K's Void Speck shot toward Juno.

Ryn screamed. "MOVE"

Juno didn't have the strength to dodge.

And once again

Khael did what destroyed him most.

He threw his entire body in front of Juno.

The Void Speck hit him in the abdomen.

A crack like glass shattering echoed inside his chest.

The Dragonion Form flickered violently, scales breaking off in luminous chunks.

Juno caught him before he fell, screaming his name.

"KHAEL! YOU IDIOT…STOP….WHY DO YOU KEEP…"

Khael coughed violet light.

"…because you're my… friends…"

The Dragonion wings dimmed.

The Shard pulsed one last time.

Then

the entire Dragonion Form detonated in a burst of violet light.

Not outward.

Inward.

Khael collapsed to his knees, his form breaking away in glowing shards, revealing his battered, blood–soaked human form underneath.

"You lost"

To be continued…

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