The class was quiet. The sun outside filtered through crystal-paneled windows, spilling warm gold across the marble floors of Central City's highest academic tower. A light breeze moved through the classroom like an invisible whisper, and the lecturer's voice, steady and articulate, echoed calmly across the room.
Rika sat still, her eyes glazed over, seemingly attentive. But inside her mind, chaos was unfolding.
> The future… again. Why now?
Her breath hitched as her system violently spiked, the interface glitching before it re-stabilized. It had just received a burst of visual data, distorted, and terrifyingly raw. Images of three individuals cloaked in divine light, wielding impossible power, surged through her. One stood atop oceans of flame, another dissolved entire cities into stardust, and the third , shrouded in chains of time ,stepped into the mortal plane with death trailing behind.
The classroom faded.
Her heart raced.
A split second later, her chair scraped violently against the floor. She stood, pale and wide-eyed, and without explanation, bolted out of the room.
"Rika?!" her lecturer called, startled. Students turned, murmuring. A few chuckled, thinking it was some dramatic tantrum. But those who knew Rika even just a little could see the tremor in her steps wasn't fear.
It was urgency.
---
The doors to the grand library burst open.
Kael didn't look up immediately. He was perched by the large arched window, lost in a volume bound in obsidian leather, reading about ancient systems and their convergence with mortal bodies.
He looked up the moment he felt the air shift.
Rika stood there, panting slightly. Her silver-gray eyes were intense, her fingers twitching slightly as if still replaying the vision.
"It has begun , they are coming" she said simply.
Kael closed the book slowly, registering the weight of her tone. "Tell me."
She approached, pulling up her system's visual records but immediately pushing them aside. "I don't trust the system's interpretation. Not this time. I saw it first, not it."
Kael raised an eyebrow.
Rika continued, voice lower now. "Three. The heaven's chosen. The first commanded fire...no, not fire. Primordial flame. The second used entropy… decay. Entire realities unraveled in her presence. And the third…"
She hesitated.
"The third rewound time. I watched a warrior die and then be brought back to life by undoing the moment."
Kael stood.
Rika added, softer now. "I saw Earth. Covered in blood. Yours, mine… Elara's. Everyone. Kael, if those three descend, they'll make war seem like a footnote in history."
Kael's expression didn't change, but the room grew colder.
He turned to her. "Then we have to go."
"You mean the golden realm??"
"Yes"
"You're not welcome there, it won't end well"
"They'll have to listen this time, I destroyed them before, so their only way of surviving is through me, and I can't fight here on earth". He paused and took in a deep breath, clenched and unclenched his fist, it was just a simple movement but the whole building start shaking and trembling, he sighed ...
"Too fragile". Rika said after seeing the display. "Then I'll come with you"
" I need someone I trust here. Eyes on Earth. That's you." Kael replied her without even looking up, it was clear that he didn't want her opinion on this.
Rika hesitated… but still added " Elara is still here". She looked at his face trying to see his reaction but there was none .
After a moment of silence he turned towards her. "Let's go"..
Kael raised his hand. Space folded. A gleaming crack opened in the air.
And just like that, they vanished.
---
Above the golden realm, the sky trembled.
Winds howled through gilded canyons and mountain peaks carved in divine light. Celestial birds screeched as the very fabric of the atmosphere rippled with dimensional force.
Two figure appeared in the sky, cloak billowing, eyes burning with quiet calm.
Kael and Rika.
Within the Golden Halls of the martial gods, a deep bell tolled, resonating not with sound, but with pure intent.
Inside the council chamber, martial gods rose from their seats.
"He's here," murmured the Warbringer.
"Is she behind this?" growled another. "That cursed girl with the broken foresight."
"We knew she'd be trouble."
"Do you think he knows?"
"Of course he does. But he came anyway."
"Fools, all of you," said an older god with pale glowing skin. "If Rika moved, it means it matters. She's never abused her power."
They turned to face the center dais. The High Martial God, cloaked in silence, simply said:
"Prepare."
Outside, thousands of martial spirits watched from below, eyes filled with mockery.
"He returns, thinking himself bold."
"Didn't he barely survive the last war?"
"He walks into a lion's den."
But deep beneath the surface, even the least of them felt a trembling. Because Kael was not the same.
And they knew it.
---
Back in the Golden Realm's gate plaza, Rika stood beside the portal's residue.
She whispered, "You still carry that burden alone... even now."
Her mind drifted again, this time calmer, clearer. The vision had ended with the sky cracked open, and two titans clashing across galaxies. But it wasn't them she feared most.
It was the silence that followed.
> I saw the aftermath. And no system could predict what happens next.
She turned.
The sky above Earth was still blue. Still peaceful.
But not for long.
She closed the portal behind her as she looked towards the golden gates that seemed to be in the process of being opened.
From within she could already see armies dressed in obsidian and golden armour , jogging their way forward.
Kael sighed "why must they always be headstrong??"
"I just hope they know that we're here and stay away from earth" Rika said softly.
---
In a quiet manor nestled deep in a forest on Earth, beside a river that shimmered under moonlight, a young man opened a drink from the freezer.
He chuckled.
"Even this reality is getting noisy."
He walked back to the study, calm, composed.
His system blinked awake. But he didn't wait for the prompt. He simply said:
"Begin deep sync. I want to feel everything."
The walls of the manor shivered. But the trees outside were undisturbed.
---
And in the heavenly realm, amidst clouds made of stardust and divine law, a new council convened.
Three cloaked figures stood in front of the gods.
One with eyes of flame.
One with skin like glass reflecting galaxies.
And one who stood barefoot.
A god spoke: "You will descend. Your orders are clear."
"Destroy the martial gods, spare no one."
"Kill Kanaan blade."
"And you," the god pointed to the third, "will wait. Until the time is right."
The heavens had chosen.
And war was coming.