Time shattered.
Reality rippled like glass, the sky above the battlefield fracturing as a deep, sulfurous wind howled through the streets. Everything paused — not in the stillness of magic, but the dread that precedes something ancient and wrong.
Zara stood in the eye of it, surrounded by swirling energy, fresh from breaking Lucifer's mental hold. Steam rose from his back, his eyes flickering between silver and red. His breath came in heavy gasps, yet his stance was solid.
Lucifer rose slowly from the crater he'd been slammed into, brushing rubble from his coat. Blood streaked the side of his face, but he smiled — a grin that spoke of buried horrors finally given permission to rise.
"So be it," he said, his voice now a deep, resonant growl that echoed across the city. "If my machines cannot break you, then I'll tear your soul apart the old way."
He raised his arms to the sky.
