The valley of Ilyrian Echoes was once a sacred battlefield where gods sang and died. Now it was a scar in the land, hushed by centuries of fear and forgotten prayers. The grass that grew here was tinted silver, a strange inheritance from the celestial blood that once soaked the soil.
It had been untouched for centuries, and for good reason. Ilyrian Echoes was considered cursed, a place where the whispers of the dead could be heard by those with awakened blood. The trees surrounding the valley were gnarled, leaning inwards as if eavesdropping. Stones cracked beneath every step, and the air itself felt heavier as if grieving.
Ysera had not returned here in ages. Her presence was like a paradox light and rage. She stood in the open, blade at her side, her eyes locked on the boy who had once borne Azrael's soul and might bear something worse now. But more than that, she stood as both a protector and a judge.
Kai's breathing was ragged. The sigil beneath his feet flickered as his body pulsed with chaotic light. His wings, spectral and unstable, stretched in pain. They were neither fully formed nor gone, caught in limbo like his soul. He wasn't just standing in the middle of a battlefield he was the battlefield.
Ysera took a cautious step forward. "You are not whole." Kai looked up slowly. "I'm not one person. I'm a battlefield." Her expression softened. "That makes you dangerous."
His lips curled faintly, a bitter smile. "So I've been told."
The silence between them wasn't just atmospheric it was history trying to speak. Ysera remembered when she first found Kai at the edge of the Weeping River, trembling and alone. The boy who had refused to cry, even when his dreams burned. But something changed. The closer he got to the truth of who he was, the more that inner flame turned volatile.
"I came here once," she said, gazing around the valley. "When the sky cracked open. The old gods tried to seal it, but they were too late. Azrael stepped through and silence followed him."
Kai's fingers dug into the dirt. "He wasn't evil. He was... tired. Of being a symbol. Of being used."
"Symbols don't bleed," Ysera replied softly. "But he did. Just like you."
Kai didn't answer. Instead, he looked skyward. The clouds above shimmered with an unnatural hue, as though some great celestial eye had blinked open. He could feel the air humming, not just with power, but with memory old and buried.
"Why here?" he asked. "Why bring me back to this place?"
Ysera stepped forward until she stood only feet away. "Because this is where the fracture began. Not just in the sky but in you. And if we're to heal you, Kai, we must start where it broke."
He shook his head, but there was no anger in his voice. Only fear. "I don't know what's mine and what's his anymore."
Ysera's voice dropped. "Then we find the line. Together."Far beneath the earth, in the Forgotten Deep, the Revenant stirred.
He walked the hollow corridors of ancient god-graves, dragging his weapon behind him a blade forged from the teeth of a slain starbeast. The walls bore murals of forgotten wars, too vast and surreal for mortal minds. Above him, the ceiling pulsed like a living thing, feeding him memories.
The tombs of the Ascendants old gods who defied the Starfather lined the walls. Here, silence wasn't stillness. It was reverence, grief, fear. Their names were carved in divine script, some of them broken by time, others obliterated by betrayal.
The Revenant touched one of the cracked carvings two crescents crossed over a crown. "Your kingdom fell in fire," he muttered. "And I fell with it."
He remembered the screams when Azrael ascended. He remembered when faith turned to ash, and gods bled like men. But most of all, he remembered Kai. The child reborn from cosmic refuse. The heir to both divinity and destruction.
"You were never supposed to survive," he said, voice low. "But neither was I."
From the darkness, his Echo Legion emerged wraithlike beings conjured from regret and blood rites. They were soldiers from every era, wearing armor from centuries long buried.
The Revenant looked upon them. "You were loyal in life. Be loyal in death. He walks again, and so do we."
His voice rose, reverberating through the caverns. "When the stars fall again, let them fall for me."
He turned and walked toward the surface. With each step, ancient bindings unraveled.
Above, in Ilyrian Echoes, Kai and Ysera knelt in a ritual circle. The sigils beneath them were older than language, carved in blood and starlight.
"Close your eyes," Ysera instructed.
Kai obeyed.
"What do you see?"
He exhaled. "A mirror. But it's cracked. On the other side, something's watching me."
Ysera reached for his wrist. "Step through."
Kai's breath caught. "I'm afraid."
"So was Azrael," she whispered. "But fear didn't save him. It broke him."
With a surge of light, the sigils flared. Kai gasped as memories flooded in not his, but Azrael's. Towers of obsidian. An ocean made of stars. A throne in chains.
And then the sky falling.
But more than the vision, he felt the emotions behind them. Azrael had loved deeply, lost recklessly. His fall was not from arrogance, but from heartbreak. He had wanted to save the realms and ended up scorning them instead.
Kai's eyes flew open, tears streaming. "He didn't want to destroy the world. He wanted to unmake its pain."
Ysera looked away. "But the cost was too high. He killed gods who stood in his path. Burned prophecies. Tore apart fate itself."
"I'm not him," Kai whispered. "But I carry his pain."
"Yes," Ysera said. "And that pain can either forge you or consume you."
Distant thunder cracked the sky. Not from weather but from war.
Ysera stood, her blade humming. "The Revenant is coming."
Kai looked at his hands. "I'm not ready."
"Then we prepare," she said. "Not with blades. But with truth. You must own what's inside you, Kai. Or it will own you."
A strange breeze stirred the silver grass. The valley responded sigils glowing faintly, whispers rising from the dirt. The land remembered Azrael. And now it was waking.
Kai clenched his fists. "Then let's wake it properly."
Ysera smiled for the first time. "Good."
She reached into her cloak and pulled out an ancient scroll. "This holds the names of the Silent Choir gods Azrael erased from memory. If the Revenant has found a way to revive them…"
Kai nodded. "Then we're fighting more than ghosts."
He turned toward the horizon, where thunder rolled and light fractured.
"The sky fell once," he said, "because we weren't ready."
"And now?" Ysera asked.
Kai's voice was cold and clear. "Now it falls for them