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

He couldn't breathe.

He couldn't stand.

He could barely feel his limbs.

K laughed softly.

"You lost"

Not mocking.

Victorious.

"The form has collapsed.

You gambled everything… and lost."

He approached slowly, each step echoing.

Juno tried to stand and shield Khael, but his legs immediately folded.

Andromeda and Ceyla crawled to reach him.

Ryn screamed helplessly.

Mari clutched her brother, shaking, crying silently.

K raised his hand.

Void energy gathered.

"Now then… let us end the Dragon Knight properly."

Khael forced his head up, eyes blurry, breath shallow, pain unbearable.

But he whispered

"…I'm not… done…"

K tilted his head. "In that state? You can't even lift your hand."

Khael's fingers twitched.

Something warm familiar touched his broken spirit.

A tiny glow.

Soft.

Weak.

But pure.

Matthew Lomwel's hand on his back.

Harmonae flickered, barely alive, but present.

Juno leaned on his shoulder.

Ceyla's trembling fingers brushed his arm.

Andromeda, bleeding from the nose, pressed his forehead to Khael's back.

Ryn screamed his name again. Mari cried harder.

Khael's heart

the one K said would break

did the opposite.

It steadied.

Just slightly.

But enough.

His eyes opened, glowing faint violet.

"I'm standing… because they are."

K's expression finally changed.

A flicker of annoyance.

Then something else

Concern.

"Impossible….your heart should've collapsed….."

Khael rose.

Shaking.

Barely alive.

A miracle of stubbornness.

But he rose.

Juno whispered, through tears

"Khael… don't die on us…"

Khael's voice was quiet.

Broken.

But unyielding.

"I won't…

Because I haven't beaten you yet."

K's jaw tightened.

The void hardened around his hand.

The killing blow formed.

The battlefield held its breath.

Khael stood, trembling, drenched in blood, violet light barely flickering around him

but standing.

Ready.

Alive.

Defiant.

The Dragon Knight

with a shattered heart that refused to break.

K's eye twitched.

Not in annoyance

but in genuine anger, the first crack in his perfect mask.

"I SAID…

GIVE ME THE SHARD!!!"

He thrust his hand forward, the Void spiraling into a spear of solid black nothingness, aimed directly at Khael's heart—the exact center where the Shard pulsed weakly beneath torn flesh.

Khael's knees buckled.

His breath hitched.

Every instinct screamed at him to move

but his body refused.

The violet flicker around him dimmed like a dying ember.

He could barely raise his arm. He could barely lift his head.

Then

"KHAEL!!"

Ceyla's voice cut through the battlefield like lightning through pitch-dark storm clouds.

Her broken body surged with the last sparks of her Storm Affinity, the greenish-black arcs snapping across her shattered limbs as she forced herself to stand.

Her vision blurred.

Her ribs screamed.

Her legs felt unattached.

But her mind roared:

(MOVE YOU IDIOT…MOVE…MOVE…MOVE…MOVE…MOVE…MOVE!)

Her fingers clawed at the ground as she dragged herself forward, pushing against pain so intense she tasted iron.

Juno yelled after her, voice cracking, "CEYLA….STOP….YOU'LL DIE….STOP!"

But she didn't stop.

Couldn't stop.

Wouldn't stop.

Ceyla bolted forward in a stumbling sprint, tears streaking through the blood on her cheeks.

Her heart thundered.

Not with courage

with terror.

Terror that if Khael fell here,

if he died in front of them,

if that light went out

nothing in this world would ever feel warm again.

"KHAEL—!!"

K noticed her too late.

His killing strike was already unleashed.

The Void Spear tore forward, cutting the ground in half, dragging shadows behind it.

Khael saw it

but his limbs refused to move.

"Ceyla—NO—" he rasped.

But she was already there.

Already between them.

Already throwing her body in front of him with everything she had left.

The Void Spear closed in

and in that split-second, Ceyla thought:

(If… if my body can stop even a fraction of that attack… if it buys him one second… if it lets him breathe… if it lets him live… that's enough.)

The spear hit her.

But not like anyone expected.

The violet light leaking from Khael snapped violently

surging forward in a tidal wave.

The moment the Void Spear touched Ceyla's skin, the Eclipse Gate

no longer controlled,

no longer stable,

no longer obeying Khael

reacted like a living beast.

An instinctive, feral defense.

The violet aura erupted outward with a scream of pure, raw emotion.

The Void Spear didn't pierce Ceyla

it was forced sideways, detonating into a violent shockwave that blasted the entire field.

K was pushed a full meter back, boots grinding lines into the stone.

His eyes widened.

"…It reacted automatically…?"

Ceyla stumbled, falling into Khael's chest. His arms instinctively caught her.

She clung to him, trembling uncontrollably, breath ragged.

"Why… won't you move…?" she whispered, voice breaking. "Why do you always take it alone…? Why do you never think of us never think of me, never"

Her voice died against his chest.

Khael stared down at her, stunned.

Something inside his shattered spirit

something buried under all the pain, all the rage, all the fear

shifted.

A tiny warmth.

A flicker.

Maybe it was her bravery.

Maybe her desperation.

Maybe the fact that she still moved for him when even he couldn't move for himself.

His hand, shaking violently, rested on her back.

"…Ceyla…"

K's jaw clenched.

"Enough."

He thrust both hands forward this time.

Void spirals exploded outward, gathering enough power to annihilate the entire ridge.

"I AM FINISHED WITH YOUR SENTIMENT, WITH YOUR DEFYING FATE, WITH YOUR PITIFUL HOPE."

K raised his voice to a deadly whisper.

"If the Shard won't come out voluntarily…

then I'll carve it from your corpse."

He launched forward

so fast the air itself split

and this time his strike wasn't aimed at Khael's chest.

It was aimed at Ceyla's heart.

Khael's world slowed.

His vision tunneled.

His pulse spiked.

Something ancient inside him cracked open.

He didn't think.

Didn't hesitate.

Didn't weigh the consequences.

His body moved before his mind.

He pulled Ceyla into him

shielding her completely with his own torso

and whispered the one word he had left.

"Mine."

K's attack hit

and everything went white.

To be continued…

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