Sigil took a single step forward, and deep within his chest, the blood of the Starborn clan began to burn. The first sensation was pain, not the superficial sting of wounds or the exhaustion of battle, but something far older. It felt as though every drop of blood in his body had suddenly remembered a primal legacy it was never meant to recall.
His heartbeat thundered. Once. Twice. The third beat boomed across the entire battlefield like a distant, echoing drum.
Morgan's smile faded slightly, the golden chains around him rattling in response. Sigil lowered his head as veins of black and white light spread beneath his skin, crawling across his neck and arms like living rivers that pulsed in perfect rhythm with his pounding heart.
"Patriarch..." Orion's voice trembled, the violet lightning around his own body flickering unstably.
"No."
Another heartbeat echoed through the plains. The air above the island violently distorted, causing the churning blood clouds beneath the golden dome to suddenly slow their rotation. Every cultivator looked upward in shock. Even the spectral chains harvesting life seemed to hesitate for a fraction of a second.
Morgan's eyes narrowed instantly. "What are you doing?"
Sigil did not answer. His body shook violently as the ground beneath his boots cracked apart. For generations, the Starborn bloodline had slumbered, remaining dormant and diluted by time, hidden behind countless historical restrictions. But Sigil was the closest thing the clan had produced to its ancient ancestors. Now, with his wife dead, his clan dying, and his son watching from below, he no longer had a single reason to hold back.
A surge of white fire erupted from his body, followed a millisecond later by a torrent of black flames. The two forces collided and intertwined around him, detonating the earth as a massive pillar of black and white fire shot straight into the heavens.
The golden dome trembled. Morgan's pupils contracted, and for the first time since obtaining the inheritance, he felt a sensation he had almost forgotten: genuine unease.
The pillar continued rising, splitting the clouds above as thunder exploded across the sky. Three stared in stunned silence from the dirt. Within the raging flames, the silhouette slowly straightened as the pressure pouring from Sigil increased with every passing second. His black hair whipped wildly behind him, his skin glowing faintly as the veins of black and white light mapped intricate patterns across his entire body, resembling countless stars stitched directly into his flesh.
Another heartbeat echoed. The dome shook violently, and several of the chains suspended in the air suddenly shattered into dust.
Morgan's expression changed. He aggressively raised a hand. "A Sovereign's words are law."
Golden light surged across the battlefield, forcing the unnatural pressure to descend once more. Mountains cracked along the horizon and the sea surrounding the island churned into a frenzy. But when the crushing force reached Sigil, it simply stopped. The black and white flames surrounding his body merely swayed against the impact, nothing more.
Morgan froze. For the first time, his Sovereign Law had failed to absolute command. Not completely, but enough to break his momentum.
A loud crack echoed from within the pillar, followed by a rapid succession of shifting bones and expanding muscles as raw power surged through Sigil's frame. The black fire gathered behind his left shoulder while the white fire pooled on his right, slowly taking distinct shape. A massive wing unfurled from his left side, pitch black, looking as though endless darkness flowed through every individual feather. A second wing emerged from his right side, pure white and shimmering with radiant light. The two wings spread outward, swallowing the battlefield beneath their massive shadow as thunder exploded again.
The pillar of fire finally shattered away, leaving an absolute, breathless silence. Everyone stared.
Sigil floated above the ruined earth. His left eye had turned completely black, his right eye completely white, neither containing a pupil or a shred of human emotion. Above his head floated a rotating scarlet halo. The crimson ring looked neither holy nor demonic; it looked ancient, as though it had existed long before heaven and earth were formed.
The moment the halo appeared, every remaining chain on the battlefield trembled and cracked. The harvesting process slowed to a halt, and the dying cultivators suddenly found themselves able to breathe again.
Morgan's face darkened as the inheritance within him screamed endless warnings of danger. Below them, Three could not take his eyes away from the figure in the sky. For a brief moment, Sigil no longer looked like the father he knew, he looked like an entity lifted from myths, something that should not exist in the current era. Orion's face turned entirely pale, knowing exactly what this transformation meant. The awakening was real, and the bloodline had answered, but the cost would be unimaginable.
Morgan slowly clenched his fists, his voice echoing across the terrain. "You think this changes anything?"
The golden dome pulsed and thousands of chains moved into motion as the sea of blood above churned violently. Yet none of it affected Sigil. The Patriarch of the Starborn Clan simply looked at him, his voice calm, far calmer than before, and far more terrifying.
"You killed my wife."
The black wing spread wider, the white wing followed, and jagged lightning descended from the heavens. The scarlet halo glowed, darkening the world around him. Morgan felt the physical pressure strike him like a falling mountain, forcing him back a single step. It was only one step, but everyone on the battlefield saw it.
The entire island fell silent. Sigil raised his sword, letting the black and white flames wrap tightly around its blade. His mismatched eyes locked onto his target.
"You wanted a battle. Then come."