The sky ignited as we stepped out of the temple.
Streaks of violet flame tore through the clouds, followed by sharp, ringing howls that split the night open. Something, no, many things,were descending. I felt the armor heat against my skin, a hum building in my bones.
"Skyborn hunter-class approaching. Five signatures. All fully synched."
Kael swore. "They sent the Reapers."
"Reapers?"
"Elite enforcers. No conscience. No mercy. They purge memories along with flesh. If they kill you now, everything Azrael was everything you could be dies with you."
He pulled his meteor-forged blade. "We stand or we vanish."
We didn't wait. The first strike came in the form of a spear of light, tearing the air apart. I barely dodged. It slammed into the temple steps and exploded, hurling Kael and I back.
A figure hovered above us, cloaked in black feathers, helm shaped like a bird skull.
"Surrender the Echo," the Reaper boomed, voice amplified by war-runes.
"Come take me," I shouted.
They descended.
I moved without thinking, Eclipture singing in my hand. The blade curved mid-swing, adapting to my intent. Kael danced beside me, his blade a blur. For a moment, we were not enemies. We were warriors bound by the last breath of a broken sky.
A Reaper surged forward, blades extending from its arms. I parried, twisted, drove Eclipture through its chest—and felt its memories. A flash: a dying world, a vow made before an empty sky.
> "Target destabilized. Signature disrupted."
The Reaper exploded into feathers and ash.
More came.
We fought across the ruins, slipping through illusions, dodging skyfire strikes. Kael bled from a dozen cuts. I didn't know if they were winning or just surviving.
Suddenly, one of the Reapers spoke. Not aloud.
Into my mind.
"Azrael. You remember. You must remember. That's why you ran. That's why you hide."
I growled. "Get out of my head."
"You betrayed us. You loved them. You broke us. And now you dare return?"
Something in me snapped.
Eclipture flared, not with heat but gravity. The air thickened around me. Kael shouted something, but I couldn't hear.
The armor shifted.
My body lifted off the ground.
Wings of black light tore from my back.
The remaining Reapers stopped. One dropped to a knee.
Kael looked up, wide-eyed. "What are you becoming?"
I didn't know.
But it felt right.
And terrifying.
The Watcher's voice echoed in my skull.
"When the sky falls twice, the second time it does not rise again."
The Reapers vanished, retreating into cracks in space.
I fell to the ground, coughing, the wings dissipating.
Kael helped me up. He didn't speak for a long moment.
Then he said, "You're awakening. Faster than they predicted. We have to leave. Now."
I looked at the burning sky.
And I knew:
This was only the beginning.