Storms rarely formed without clouds, yet tonight the sky tore itself open in clean silence—no thunder, no lightning, just a widening crack of blinding blue.
Kael froze first. His shadow peeled away from his feet as if trying to flee.
"That's not weather."
Lyra clutched her staff. "Then what is it?"
Auren felt it before he understood it—pressure, ancient and merciless, like the sky itself bending to observe him. The karmic sigil on his chest flared gold, then white-hot, then unstable.
"A god," Auren whispered. "One of them is coming down."
The crack in the sky split open like an eye waking from centuries of disinterest. Through it stepped a figure—too tall for mortal proportion, too luminous for the human gaze.
He descended slowly, not flying but simply ignoring the concept of gravity. His cloak was woven from starlight; his face masked by a helm shaped like a crescent moon. Every step he took rewrote the air.
Kael hissed.
"A Celestial Judge… Why would he descend?"
Lyra's voice trembled.
"Auren, what did you do?"
Auren didn't answer. He couldn't. His heart hammered like a war drum.Something deep inside him—something buried since the First War—recognized this presence.
The Judge touched the ground. At once the Whispering Vale bowed. Trees bent. Dust spiraled away from his feet in reverent arcs. Even the ghosts that had lingered moments ago fled like frightened birds.
The god spoke—not loudly, but with a resonance that rearranged the world around them.
"Auren. Returned Knight. Bearer of the Karmic Flame.""You have broken the second seal."
Lyra gasped. Kael stepped in front of her, one hand on his dagger even though the gesture was laughably insignificant before a deity.
Auren met the Judge's gaze—or the idea of his gaze.
"I didn't break your seal. Your past is catching up to your lies."
The air cracked. The Judge's power sharpened like needles around them.
"Your insolence persists.""Even in your second life."
Kael swore under his breath. "He knows. He actually knows."
Lyra looked from Auren to the god, confusion and fear warring in her eyes.
"Auren… second life?"
Auren didn't look at her. Couldn't.The Judge stepped closer.
"You died once.""Yet you stand again, defying fate and debt alike."
Auren's jaw tightened.
"If I'm alive, then maybe your gods aren't as untouchable as they pretend to be."
For a moment—even divine silence shook.
Then the Judge raised his hand.Not to attack.To reveal.
Light swirled, forming an image—a battlefield of white marble, rivers of blue fire, a fallen knight surrounded by broken wings. Auren's body. His death. His choice.And the woman from the apparition kneeling over him, screaming his name.
Lyra's breath caught.Kael closed his eyes.Auren's fists clenched until blood dripped.
The Judge allowed the vision to fade.
"You asked for a forbidden bargain.""You defied the immutable laws.""Now the consequences arrive."
Auren's voice came out low, steady, scarred by emotion he refused to show:
"If I broke your laws… then the laws were worth breaking."
The Judge's helm tilted, almost contemplative.
"Your rebellion echoes through realms.""The third seal trembles.""When it breaks—your true past will awaken."
Auren stepped forward, golden flame swirling around his arm.
"Then let it break. I'm done running from ghosts."
The Judge lowered his head—not in submission but in recognition.
"Then we are no longer watchers.""We are participants."
And with that, the god dissolved into starlight, leaving only a single fragment behind—a shard of divine metal humming with celestial authority.
Kael exhaled shakily.
"Auren… do you understand what this means?"
Auren picked up the shard.The sigil on his chest responded like a heartbeat synchronizing.
"It means the gods just entered the war."
He looked at the sky, eyes burning with purpose.
"And for the first time… they're not on the winning side."
"When a god descends, the world does not bow. It shivers—because even heavens fear change."
~ Sky Dragomire