Kale stood at the edge of the cliffs behind the Silva estate, overlooking the valley below. The morning sun caught on his hair, the wind wrapping around his cloak like a living thing.
The world felt different.
Lighter.
Sharper.
Alive.
He lifted his hand and focused. In an instant, five separate magical arrays formed in the air around his fingers—different languages of mana, from different realities—all responding to his will like they were born from it.
"That's new."
He clenched his fist.
The arrays collapsed with a ripple.
"The power's not just returning. It's multiplying."
Each loop had left echoes. Fragments. Slivers of divine essence, eldritch remnants, or god-slayer instincts burned into his soul. But now… they were converging.
He felt stronger.
Not just in magic.
In will.
In essence.
In command.
"My soul isn't resetting anymore. It's compounding."
Inside the estate, Scarlet trained in the inner courtyard, her movements fluid, fast, decisive. She moved like someone who remembered death too well—and had no intention of meeting it again.
Kale watched her quietly.
She noticed.
"You're staring," she said, panting lightly, blades in hand.
"You've gotten faster."
"You've gotten more smug," she countered.
He smirked, then stepped into the circle. "Let's see if I've gotten stronger too."
They sparred.
And this time, she couldn't even touch him.
Kale moved like a phantom—effortless, precise, bending space between blinks. Every strike he dodged, every blow he countered—it felt less like combat and more like art.
Scarlet stared at him, breathless.
"You weren't this fast yesterday."
"I know."
"It's accelerating."
"My soul's absorbing the fragments faster now. I'm evolving with every breath."
She heard the edge in his thoughts again—faint but rising.
And for once, she wasn't afraid.
She was in awe.
That night, they stood in the observatory tower, stars lighting the room in silver.
Kale reached out, calling pure elemental flame into existence—then shadow, then celestial light. Each orb rotated around his hand like planets around a sun.
"I wasn't able to wield opposing elements like this without backlash," he said. "Last loop, it took me a month. Now it's a day."
Scarlet stepped closer, placing a hand on his chest.
"Then the world better keep up."
Kale kissed her—slowly this time, not desperate like before, but intimate. Certain. His hands slid around her waist, pulling her close as magic swirled around them in gold and violet.
This time, there was no sword waiting above them.
No countdown.
Just power—and love—rising together.