Arcane drifters

Arcane Drifters – Chapter 90: "The Empress, the Summoned, and the Dawn of a New War"

The ground still shook from Shen's arrival.

Thousands of Arcane Generals stood frozen.

The air around him bent under the pressure of his awakened energy. Shen looked across the burning battlefield where Kenya, Eliz, and Ruke lay exhausted.

He raised one hand.

Pure golden aura wrapped around them. Their wounds closed. Their strength returned.

Ruke blinked in disbelief. "He healed us… without saying a word."

Eliz felt warmth in her body — as if her soul had taken a deep breath for the first time in hours.

Kenya stood tall again, fire reigniting. "Welcome back… Shen."

But far away… on the other side of the world, in a castle made of sapphire clouds, a woman opened her eyes.

Her voice echoed across dimensions, though no one could hear it.

"So… the Star Core has returned."

Her name: Lade, Royal Empress of the Sky Nation Verdigria.

The strongest human ruler alive.

She walked barefoot across marble floors. Her army bowed. Behind her, floated a sword wrapped in cosmic runes. A sword never drawn since the Great Godfall War.

"If the Arcane have returned… so must we."

---

Meanwhile, in a quiet village tucked in the edge of nowhere, a teenage boy stared at the sky.

His name was Luke.

A normal person. Or so he thought.

He wasn't a Drifter.

He had no magic.

But a summoning circle had once dragged him from another world into this one.

He never understood why.

Until now.

A glowing mark on his arm lit up. The same sky Shen cracked above Earth shimmered above Luke's head.

"…It's beginning," he whispered.

He didn't even know what it meant.

But deep inside, something had awakened.

---

Back in the battlefield, Shen took one step forward.

The Arcane Generals screamed.

One of them lunged — AR-2, roaring in rage.

"YOU THINK YOU'RE A GOD?!"

Shen vanished.

In a single blink, he appeared behind AR-2.

A golden blade sliced through the sky.

AR-2 exploded.

Shen didn't even look.

"I don't think I'm a god," he said calmly.

"I'm just someone who's done waiting."

Far above the planet, hidden observers — beings known as Sky Watchers — watched Shen from beyond mortal vision.

"He has reached Second Phase," one of them said. "Pure Identity… evolving."

"Yes," whispered another. "And with him… others are rising."

---

Zaniel finally stepped off the tower.

He whispered, "So it begins."

Ryulga grinned in the middle of battle. "He's here. Time to clean this up."

And in distant galaxies, other rulers stirred.

The war on Earth was no longer just about survival.

It had become the center of a multiversal collision.

And Shen?

He was just getting started.

---

Chapter End

---