The mountain groaned beneath the fading echoes of battle.
Lava cooled.
Silence returned.
Then—a voice. Calm. Twisted. Deeply wrong.
"Balance is broken."
---
Matt turned.
From the scorched gate, a figure emerged—robes of ash-black silk, each step melting stone.
Her once-divine face was cracked like porcelain.
One eye glowed silver. The other, drenched in Void.
Mailane gasped. "That's an Eternal."
Grey's voice dropped. "They said the Eternals don't interfere."
Sam muttered, "Maybe this one did."
---
Eshindra, Divider of Scales
Former Judge of Balance. Corrupted Eternal.
"I once preserved equilibrium," she said, voice like cracked glass. "But balance is a myth built on compliance. And you, Matt Salurga… are the anomaly."
Matt's gaze hardened. "You knew the Paladins planned to enslave Earth. And you said nothing."
"I am Balance," she replied. "Not Justice. That was Amiya's lie."
---
Boss Encounter: Corrupted Eternal vs. Voidborn Ascendant
Eshindra raised her hands.
Floating scales materialized—each flickering with memories, sins, and pain. The weight of a soul, measured and weaponized.
"Let's see which side breaks first."
The scales tipped.
Matt staggered as visions surged—Amiya's betrayal, Nyuga's fall, the ones he couldn't save.
But then he saw them.
Mailane.
Sam.
Grey.
The Orc tribes. The fire kings. The living who still believed.
His jaw clenched.
"You don't weigh me anymore.
I do."
---
Ashen Celestial Mode: Reignited
Black-gold flames surged. Void sigils spiraled across his arms.
He launched forward.
Their clash defied sound.
Reality warped. The battlefield fractured.
One scale shattered—then another.
Matt severed her arm.
Light and shadow spilled out like celestial blood.
Eshindra staggered. Then laughed.
"So it begins. The Council will fall. The gods will feed on themselves."
She vanished—reversing time as she went.
---
Aftermath
Mailane wrapped Matt's arm, celestial ichor still leaking from his skin.
Grey studied the shattered scales.
"They're cracking," he whispered. "Even the untouchable ones."
Matt looked to the stars.
"This isn't just war anymore.
It's collapse."
---
Elsewhere…
Far above Hollow Sky, in the Throne Constellation, five divine seats floated across the astral void—each throne forged from the laws of creation itself.
One was empty.
The Throne of Balance.
Eshindra's fall had been felt.
Inside the chamber, five godlike figures stood—colossal, formless, burning with cosmic law and infinite symmetry.
One spoke.
"The Void touches godflesh. The Judgment Flame flickers."
Another: "Matt Salurga ascends too quickly. His soul is unbalanced."
A third: "Yet he carries order. Reshapes rules without collapse. That… is dangerous."
Silence.
Then a final voice, cracked and ancient:
"We must vote.
The Thrones will decide his fate."
---
Back in Hollow Sky…
Matt sat atop a broken wall, hand bandaged, skin still glowing.
The Hollow Sky burned softly—held together by magic, loyalty, and defiance.
Mailane sat beside him.
Sam was cooking questionable meat.
Grey napped on a pile of sentient moss.
Matt stared skyward.
"They're watching."
Mailane nodded. "The air feels thinner."
"No," Matt said. "Heavier."
---
Suddenly—
A beam of starlight struck the ground.
Reality ruptured.
A being descended.
Not a Paladin.
Not an Eternal.
Something higher.
An Envoy of the Council.
Faceless.
Robed in law and memory.
Voice like all languages at once.
"Matt Salurga. You have violated divine equilibrium.
Your ascension is unapproved."
Matt stood. "You came to erase me?"
"No.
Five trials. Five realms.
Survive—and you earn recognition.
Fail… and you will be unmade."
Five orbs ignited—Void, Flame, Time, Memory, Death.
Portals opened.
Matt clenched his jaw.
"Then let's get started."
---
Elsewhere…
In the molten remains of Thermuz's realm, an ember pulsed.
A shadowed figure approached.
Monshin.
He lifted the ember—Thermuz's heart fragment—and whispered:
"Keep evolving, Flameborn.
The more you become… the sweeter your fall will be."
He crushed the ember—and fed it to something awakening beneath the stars.