Chapter 67: The Breach Lord

The night air was razor-cold, biting into the flesh of the fallen city.

A lone figure floated suspended above the smoking ruins he had once sworn to protect. He was clad in the heavy, ancient plate of a War God, his eyes entirely devoid of warmth—hollow, frigid, and dead. Blood soaked his armor, and thick crimson drops dripped rhythmically from the edge of his blade.

Thunder cracked directly overhead, splitting the dark sky. In flashes of blinding white light, multiple ethereal figures descended, circling him in mid-air.

Among them stood a young woman dressed in pristine white and blue robes. Rain stared at her older brother, the infamous God of War.

Her face, usually an unreadable mask of cold indifference, fractured as she looked upon his bloodied form. Even if she lived a thousand years, she knew she would never truly understand why he had turned his back on the realm—why he had betrayed the kingdom.

Xander looked at the legion of immortals surrounding him. Then, he threw his head back and laughed—a sound so bitter and cold it chilled the blood of everyone present.

One of the high immortals stepped forward, his voice booming across the skies. "War God! Your crimes against Heaven cannot be forgiven so easily. Drop your weapon now and be judged for your high treason!"

Xander stopped laughing. He looked at the speaker, a small, dark smile touching his lips.

"You know... I used to think my brother, that Celestial bastard, was nothing more than a hypocrite," Xander said quietly, his voice carrying clearly over the wind. "But I was wrong. You are all hypocrites. You so-called immortals disgust me."

He tightened his grip on his dripping blade, scanning the circle of divine beings.

"You hide your coldness behind the laws of the universe, your indifference behind the balance of Heaven, and your cruelty behind the will of Fate.

When the innocent suffer, you call it karma. When the weak are slaughtered, you call it the law of the jungle.

When an entire civilization is reduced to ashes, you call it the natural course of history. You give your cruelty noble names so that you may sleep peacefully at night."

Xander took a step forward in empty air, his aura flaring like black fire.

"And the most pathetic part? You have lived for millions of years, yet you have learned nothing. You mistake longevity for wisdom, power for righteousness, and indifference for enlightenment.

Tell me... what exactly makes you different from the demons you claim to despise? Is it your power? Your age? The fact that Heaven itself has granted you the right to look down upon others? No. You are simply monsters who have lived long enough to convince yourselves that your sins are laws of nature."

His shadow expanded outward, stretching long and wild across the sky, swallowing the moonlight.

"Heaven is unfeeling. Fate is cruel. Destiny is a lie. And the immortals who preach the laws of the universe are nothing more than cold-hearted bastards who have mistaken their indifference for enlightenment."

Without another word, he moved.

Flash.

---

The scene shifted violently forward through blood and shattered sky.

Rain lay pinned to the ruined earth, a heavy sword plunged clean through her chest. Blood pooled beneath her white and blue robes. Above her stood the War God.

He knelt beside her, his gauntleted hand trembling as he reached down to hold her cold fingers.

"I am sorry, sister," Xander whispered, his voice cracking beneath the weight of absolute ruin. "But this was the only outcome."

---

The ancient memory shattered into dust, scattering like glass in the wind.

Rain snapped back to the reality of the Golden Sun Realm—trapped in a new body, living in a broken world, kneeling on the scorched dirt beneath a sky of five suns.

She stared at the battered young man sitting before her, feeling the exact same soul-resonance radiating from his core.

Two names hung between them in the silent air, spoken simultaneously by two broken souls from a forgotten life:

"Xander."

"Rain."

Saint Barnabas looked at the girl, blinking in confusion. "Wait... you must be Rain, right?"

Rain pulled her gaze away from Orson and gave a stiff nod.

"So what on earth were you doing up there?" Barnabas pressed, gesturing to the shattered sky. "I mean, that hand was about to crush you into dust if I hadn’t moved fast enough to pull you out!"

"About that..." Rain muttered, sheepishly scratching the back of her neck. "Well, you see... me and this guy—Sen, I think? I can’t really remember his name—were fighting a wolf beast.

During the clash, I fell into the ocean. I couldn’t move, so I just kept sinking until I saw it. When I left, the thing was still chained down, so I don’t know how it managed to break free enough to reach for me."

Barnabas raised an eyebrow. "Wait, then how did you start falling from the sky?"

"Turns out the ocean floor in this realm connects directly to the high atmosphere. I just learned that the hard way," she said flatly.

As she spoke, her eyes darted back to Orson. The man was sitting cross-legged on the scorched ground, eyes closed, breathing evenly.

*Wait... is he meditating just to avoid talking to me?* Rain thought, her glare darkening into pure murder. Last time I checked, brother, you were a lot more talkative when you were running a sword through my chest.

Barnabas glanced back and forth between the two of them. They clearly had history; she was practically trying to incinerate him with her eyes, while he was aggressively ignoring her.

"Well, I’m going to have to report this," Barnabas sighed, shaking his head. "You two need to clear out of the breach immediately. And... are you certain that the Titan is still chained?"

Rain nodded. "Pretty sure."

"Well, good—"

BOOM!

A deafening roar shattered the air as a massive floating island crashed violently into the realm’s main landmass, kicking up a colossal wave of fire and debris.

Startled out of his skin by the explosion, Saint Barnabas let out a high-pitched yell and instinctively leaped straight into Rain’s arms—landing squarely bridal-style.

Rain froze, staring down in absolute shock at the grown Saint nestled in her arms. Barnabas stared right back, his eyes wide with panic.

For three agonizing seconds, they just stared at each other in utter silence.

Then, both of them burst into a simultaneous scream. Barnabas scrambled off her so fast he almost tripped over his own boots, violently clearing his throat as he tried to regain an aura of authority.

"WELL!" Barnabas barked, his voice cracking slightly before he lowered it an octave. "You two head out of the breach immediately and warn everyone to evacuate, understood?!"

He turned on his heel, ready to leap back into the sky.

Before he could take off, space violently distorted once more. Crimson light bled through the air as identical glowing system windows forced themselves in front of every single person across the realm:

[ ETERNAL BREACH LORD REVEALED ]

Name: The Burning Man

A king once beloved by his people, who sacrificed everything to save them, now reduced to nothing more than a primordial, burning Titan.

[ MANDATORY OBJECTIVE ]

Defeat the Titan to unseal the breach.

The realm fell dead silent.

Across the entire realm, every single contractor turned pale as ash—realizing the exit rift had just been locked, trapping them inside with a Dark One.