A dead silence lingered — the kind that felt wrong. Too calm. Too still.
Kael was the first to notice it. The hum in the air — not of machines, but something else.
"Ren," he said quietly, hand lowering to his holster, "you feel that?"
Ren blinked. The world around him seemed to pulse. The birds stopped mid-song. His pulse jumped against his throat.
"Yeah," Ren whispered. "Like static… inside my head."
Lyra, scanning the perimeter, froze. "Something's… watching us."
Then it came — not a sound, not a voice, but a thought pressed directly into their skulls."It's beautiful, isn't it? The quiet before you ruin it again."
Ren flinched. His vision blurred.
The others turned — nothing there. Just the sunlight filtering through buildings. Then, from between the shards of light, he walked out.
A man, or something close to one. Black hair, messy yet deliberate, purple eyes gleaming faintly as though lit from within. No uniform, no insignia — just a gray shirt, a long coat, and the stillness of someone who didn't belong anywhere.
He didn't smile. Didn't move wrong, didn't breathe wrong. Everything about him fit, yet felt off. Like a dream trying too hard to mimic reality.
Kael stepped forward, hand on his blade. "Identify yourself."
Azel tilted his head. "You shouldn't talk to me." His voice was soft, human in sound but hollow in tone — like it had been borrowed. "It'll make me remember things I don't need to."
Anya frowned. "What does that even mean—"
Before she could finish, Kael lunged forward. His blade sang through the air — clean, precise. The strike should have cut straight through Azel's neck.
It didn't.
The moment the blade reached him, Kael's arm froze mid-swing. Not by force. By command.
Azel's purple eyes flickered, and Kael's body betrayed him. His muscles locked. He dropped to one knee, blade clattering to the ground.
Ren tried to move — to raise his arm, to activate his Lock — but his body refused. His thoughts were his, but his body belonged to someone else.
In his mind, that same calm voice spoke again, closer now."Don't strain. You'll tear something important."
Ren gasped. He couldn't even open his mouth. He could only feel the voice crawl through his head like silk, searching, whispering, learning.
Lyra drew her weapon and fired three rounds. The bullets curved midair — not slowed, not blocked, just redirected. They hit the walls behind Azel with dull thuds.
He turned his gaze toward her. "Unnecessary."
And then Lyra dropped, clutching her head, eyes wide and unfocused. No wound. No blood. Just silence.
Anya ran forward, panic overriding reason. "What did you do to her—"
Azel moved. Gracefully. Too gracefully. His step was like water slipping downhill, unhurried, inevitable. He raised one hand, and Anya's voice cut off mid-shout as her body stiffened.
Kael tried to stand again, veins bulging, sweat dripping down his face. "You—bastard—"
Azel finally looked at him fully. His eyes weren't just purple — they were deep. Reflective. As if something vast was looking out from behind them.
He said quietly, "I'm not your enemy."
And then, in the same breath, he tilted his head. "Not yet."
Kael barely saw him move before the air around him bent. A single motion — open palm to chest — and Kael was thrown backward, crashing into the broken concrete, unconscious before he hit the ground.
The rest of the team stood frozen, powerless.
Ren's breathing was shallow now. He fought every command in his body just to move a finger. Just one.
"Why…" he rasped, barely audible, "…why are you here?"
Azel looked down at him. For the first time, something almost resembling curiosity passed through his expression — faint, fleeting.
"Because something beneath your feet is waking up," he said simply. "And you're all standing on its mouth."
Then he stepped back. The sunlight fractured again, scattering through his form like light through glass. One moment he was there. The next — gone.
The world snapped back. The noise returned. Ren fell forward, coughing, gasping for air. Lyra stirred weakly, Kael still down, Anya trembling.
The silence was gone. In its place came a deep rumbling from below.
Cracks split the ground, and something worm-like — enormous, metallic, ancient — began pushing its way upward, its surface pulsing with faint, rhythmic light.
Ren's head throbbed with the echo of Azel's words."You're standing on its mouth."
He looked at Kael's motionless body, then toward the rising shadow.
For the first time in his life, Ren wasn't sure if the true enemy was the monster beneath them — or the man who had just walked away.