Chains of Divinity

The impact shattered every bone in Kael's body.

He lay in a crater of his own making, feeling his cursed immortality knitting him back together. Each snap of bone realigning, each tear of muscle reweaving, sent waves of agony through his consciousness. The gods had never granted him immunity to pain—only death. Sometimes, he wondered if that too had been part of their cruelty, another way to remind him of his humanity even as they stripped it from him.

Above, the sky looked wrong. Not the crystalline perfection of the divine realm, but something wilder. Stars wheeled in patterns that defied celestial geometry, and colors he had no names for painted auroras across the darkness. Even the air felt different here, heavy with raw magic that made his skin tingle and his divine marks burn.

"Some prison," he muttered, pushing himself to his feet despite protesting muscles. The world around him was unlike anything he'd seen in his centuries of existence. Trees reached higher than the tallest towers of mortal cities, their leaves shimmering with internal light. But these weren't the perfectly ordered forests of divine territories—these trees grew in beautiful chaos, each one finding its own path toward the strange sky.

A rustle in the underbrush caught his attention. Kael reached for his sword, only to find an empty scabbard. Of course—the gods wouldn't let him keep his weapons. Centuries of combat experience kicked in as he assessed his surroundings, looking for anything that could serve as a makeshift weapon.

The creature that emerged was pure nightmare, but not in any way divine law would permit. It moved like lightning given form, its body a constantly shifting mass of electrical energy and crystalline shards. Jagged teeth sparked with each movement, and its eyes—gods, its eyes—burned with intelligence that should not exist in a beast.

"Well," Kael managed, falling into a defensive stance, "you're new."

The thing struck faster than thought. Only centuries of fighting divine warriors saved him from decapitation, but the creature's claws still raked across his torso. The wound crackled with residual energy, refusing to heal immediately like his injuries usually did. For the first time in centuries, he felt real fear—not of death, which could never claim him, but of pain he couldn't predict or understand.

Blood—his blood—stained the pristine grass, and where it fell, reality itself seemed to shiver. The divine marks on his skin pulsed erratically, trying to process this new kind of damage. Kael staggered back, pressing a hand against the wound. "That's... interesting. Been a while since something could mark me."

The creature circled him, electricity arcing between its crystalline spines. Its movements were predatory, calculated. This was no mindless beast—it was a hunter, and it had found prey worth stalking. Each step it took left small distortions in reality, like ripples in a pond of existence itself.

Something stirred in Kael's chest—not fear now, but excitement. How long had it been since he'd faced a true challenge? How many centuries since he'd felt the thrill of genuine uncertainty? The gods had made him unstoppable, but in doing so, they'd stolen the raw joy of real combat.

"You know what?" He grinned, despite the pain. Or perhaps because of it. Pain meant he was alive, meant this was real. "I needed this. Centuries of being unstoppable gets boring."

The beast lunged again. This time, Kael was ready. He rolled under its attack, grabbing one of its crystalline spines as it passed. The electricity coursing through its body sent spasms through his muscles, but he held on, using the creature's momentum to snap the spine free. Divine marks blazed across his skin as he channeled power into the makeshift weapon, turning it from mere crystal into something that could channel his strength.

"Let's dance, shall we?"

The battle that followed was pure savagery. The beast was faster, stronger, armed with powers Kael had never encountered. But Kael had centuries of combat experience, and more importantly—he had something to prove. Each wound hurt, each strike sent fresh agony through his body, but he kept fighting, kept learning its patterns.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Kael drove the crystalline spine through the creature's core. It exploded in a burst of electrical energy that sent him flying backward into one of the massive trees. The impact should have killed a mortal man ten times over, but Kael had transcended mortality long ago.

Lying there, body broken and slowly healing, Kael laughed. Not the bitter laugh he'd given the gods, but something genuine. Something alive. "Is this meant to be punishment?" he called out to the sky, to the gods who had banished him. "Because I haven't felt this alive in centuries!"

The forest's only response was the constant hum of raw magic. Kael pushed himself up, examining his wounds as they slowly knitted themselves closed. The pain was still there, a constant reminder of his new vulnerability, but it was... refreshing. A challenge. Something new to overcome.

He retrieved the crystalline spine—his first weapon in this new world. Where his blood had touched it, the crystal had changed, becoming something that was neither divine nor purely natural. Interesting. Even here, it seemed, he could affect the essence of things.

As he set off through the luminescent forest, Kael felt something he hadn't experienced in a very long time: uncertainty. The gods had stripped away much of his power, yes, but they'd given him something precious in return—the chance to grow stronger again. To evolve beyond what they had intended.

And this time, there would be no divine laws to hold him back.

Behind him, where his blood had fallen, small shadows began to gather. The divine marks on his skin might be weakened, but something else was awakening in their place. Something that this wild realm recognized and welcomed.

The gods had meant to imprison him. Instead, they had set him free.

And freedom, Kael was learning, had teeth.