Beyond Worlds, Beneath the Star God

Velka stood atop the obsidian dais, her porcelain mask shattered, her true form revealed beneath the shimmer of illusion. Vines laced through her veins like arteries. Her bone-white skin shimmered with runes not etched by hand—but grown, like fungal scars across time.

Her eyes—twin voids of violet starlight—fixed on Kun.

"You were meant to be silence," she said softly. "Yet here you are… screaming."

Kun stepped forward, flames licking the air around his arms.

"I'm here to end your song."

Velka raised a hand. The air froze.

Elira barely had time to react before a shard of crystal lanced toward her throat—Kun caught it mid-air with a flick of golden energy, vaporizing it. Orlan slammed his staff into the ground, releasing a wave of kinetic force that shattered the binding circle around the blood crystal at the center of the chamber.

The room howled—the spell broken, the chamber now unstable.

Velka didn't flinch. She opened her arms.

And from her back unfolded wings of ash—vast, silent, fluttering like paper set alight. The air filled with her voice—not words, but a humming discordant song that bypassed the ears and struck the mind directly.

Elira staggered, grabbing her head.

Orlan's mouth bled.

Even Kun faltered, the Starfire inside him flickering like a candle in a storm.

"Your flame is still young," Velka whispered. "And I… am what waits at the end of its path."

She vanished—reappearing behind Kun in a blink—and struck.

He blocked just in time, the shockwave from her clawed hand rippling across the room and cracking the obsidian floor. Kun skidded back, eyes flaring.

Elira leapt from the side, blade glowing white-hot, aiming for Velka's ribs.

But Velka didn't even turn—her wing snapped around like a shield and deflected the strike, sending Elira flying into the wall with a grunt.

Orlan launched a series of binding runes—golden chains of arcane light wrapped around Velka's limbs.

For a second—just a second—she was still.

Kun acted.

> "Starfire Art: Nova Drive!"

He shot forward, fist glowing like a second sun, and punched her square in the chest.

The explosion shattered the dais.

Velka screamed—not in pain, but in anger.

Ash burst outward like a nova. All three were flung away.

The blood crystal at the center cracked… and from inside, a thin, dark filament slithered into the air.

A whisper followed:

> "Burn the firstborn…"

Orlan's face went pale. "No. That's not Kael's shard… it's a seed."

Kun rose slowly. "A seed?"

"From the Star That Never Set—the core of the original Celestora starforge project. They weren't trying to create a power."

"They were trying to trap one," Elira gasped, coughing. "Inside a body."

Velka hovered above them, now fully transformed. Her body no longer bled—she exhaled smoke, her veins glowing violet. Her voice, still soft, was now many.

"The Celestora called it divinity. But the flame was never divine. It was a door."

She raised her hand. The broken seed floated to her palm. It pulsed once—and Kun felt it.

The Starfire inside him recoiled.

But beneath that fear—something else stirred.

Not rage. Not even power.

Memory.

Suddenly, Kun's vision warped.

He stood not in the Mawhold—but in a sky of stars.

Before him floated a machine—vast, circular, constructed of celestial rings orbiting a flaming sphere. Chains of light held the sphere in place, while Celestora mages circled in orbit, casting runes into the void.

And inside the sphere—

Was a being.

Not human. Not god. Pure will.

Bound flame given shape.

The memory whispered:

> "To create a Starborn… is to cage a god."

Then he snapped back.

The chamber. The fight. The smoke.

Velka descended, ready to finish them.

Elira crawled to her feet, body bruised but eyes fierce. "We're not done."

Orlan poured all his mana into one last seal. "Kun—now or never!"

Kun clenched his fists.

The Starfire responded.

No longer flickering.

No longer resisting.

It merged.

Golden flames surged around him, no longer wild, but woven with his heartbeat.

His cloak burned away—replaced by a mantle of starlight feathers. His blade reformed, longer, sharper, etched with runes he had never learned but somehow knew.

His eyes glowed—not gold—but white.

Starfire Ascension: Level One — Sovereign Form.

Velka paused mid-flight. "Impossible…"

Kun raised his hand.

> "Let me show you how my story ends."

He lunged.

Their final clash ignited the chamber like a sun being born.