The sky above Kur'thaal was no longer just dark.It shimmered.
Where once there had been only ash and storm, now golden leaves trembled on towering trees, their branches glowing faintly in the twilight. Vines laced the black stone of ancient ruins, and from the cracks between bones and fire, wildflowers bloomed.
Life had found its way into the Abyss.Or perhaps… it had been built.
At the center of it all stood Lioren.
He stood barefoot upon a high outcropping of volcanic rock, watching the wind ripple through the emerald canopy below. This place had been dead for millennia. Now, it pulsed. It breathed. And he had helped make it so.
Vael's voice broke the silence behind him.
"You always look so serious when you're proud of something."
Lioren turned, and a smile curled onto his lips before he could stop it.
Vael stood at the edge of the slope, his arms crossed, golden light filtering through the lush leaves to dance across his bare chest. His runes shimmered, subtly alive beneath his skin, and his black pants were stained with earth and soot. He looked untamed. Divine.
And very much at home.
Lioren chuckled softly.
"I don't think I'm proud yet. Just… surprised. Two years ago, none of this existed."
Vael stepped closer, slow and relaxed, the way one might approach a creature too beautiful to startle. His fingers brushed against Lioren's as he reached him.
"Two years ago, I didn't believe this realm could change," Vael said. "Now, I wake up next to an angel who turns soil to gold and makes rivers bloom."
Lioren's cheeks flushed.
"I had help," he muttered, eyes flickering downward.
He didn't say her name. He didn't have to.
Lilith.
She had trained him, pushed him. She'd shown him the ancient core of the Abyss and how to amplify it—not through destruction, but through possibility. Through creation.
With her power and Lioren's gift, they had done the unthinkable.They had made Kur'thaal beautiful.
And yet—beneath the roots, darkness stirred.
Lioren felt it, even now, humming in the stones.
"You're thinking too hard again," Vael said, leaning in to kiss the side of his head.
"I always think too hard."
"Not when you sleep." Vael's lips brushed against his temple. "You just whisper my name."
Lioren's stomach fluttered, but before he could reply—
a tremor rolled through the valley.
Soft. Distant. Like a heartbeat.
Lioren stiffened. His hand dropped to Vael's wrist.
"Did you feel that?"
Vael nodded once, eyes narrowing. He turned toward the mountain range that loomed in the north. Even from here, they could see the faint glow—the fortress. A jagged, unnatural construction of obsidian and star-metal shaped into high towers, perched like a sentinel on the cliff's edge.
It had not been there before.
Not until the angels came.
"Two years," Vael said grimly, "and still they haven't left."
"They're not here for peace," Lioren murmured.
Vael's jaw tightened.
They both knew what the presence of that fortress meant: Queen Rishe was preparing for war. And even now, with no blood spilled since Seraphine's retreat, every day the fortress grew larger, more fortified.
And it watched.
Rafael had shaped the land beneath it—twisting mountains into blades, valleys into traps. And Nathaniel… Lioren didn't need to see him to know he was there.
Waiting.
Vael looked back at him.
"You sure you're ready, Lio?"
Lioren hesitated.
He had trained for this. Studied. Fought. Created. He had reshaped a realm—and yet, the idea of seeing the angels again, of facing their judgment, made his wings—no, the space where his wings had once been—ache.
But he was not the same.
And neither was the world.
He looked into Vael's eyes, his hand finding his again.
"Whatever happens, I won't let them take this from us. Not Kur'thaal. Not you."
Vael's grip tightened.
"Then it begins."
From the shadows behind them, Varasha stepped forward, her cloak woven from voidlight and serpents.
"The scouts have returned," she said. "They saw something move near the edge of the cliff."
Lioren and Vael exchanged a glance.
"Is it them?" Lioren asked.
Varasha's grin was sharp.
"Oh, it's them. And they're building something they expect you to fear."
Lioren's eyes glowed faintly, a soft gold halo rising behind his pupils.
But there was no fear.
Only resolve.