Recap: Kael sealed the Crimson Pact, awakening deeper within the Shadowblood curse. In a dream-like realm, he encountered the Faceless Sovereign—an ancient entity offering power in exchange for allegiance. When Kael awoke, Lyria was still by his side, her loyalties shaken. Their bond deepened in a moment of vulnerability—only to be interrupted by a monstrous Heavenbound Abomination descending from the sky. Now, they must fight together, or fall apart.
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The beast's roar split the sky like tearing steel.
It landed in front of the ruins with a crash that cratered the earth, its eight limbs twitching unnaturally as white-hot glyphs shimmered across its crystalline carapace. The air thickened with divine pressure—like a god breathing down their necks.
Kael didn't flinch.
Shadow laced around his arms like living smoke. The mark on his chest blazed, and his eyes flickered between midnight and crimson.
Lyria stepped beside him, her glaive glowing with ethereal flame. "That's a Skyfire-Class Abomination… enhanced with Heaven's sanction. One of the top-tier bioforged guardians."
Kael smirked. "So basically, a nightmare."
The beast lunged.
Kael moved first.
A black spear of umbral essence burst from his palm and collided with the beast's face, detonating in a pulse of anti-light. It shrieked but kept coming. Lyria followed with an aerial flip, her glaive carving a molten arc down its spine.
But the creature was relentless.
It regenerated.
Twice.
Lyria cursed. "It's using divine regeneration! We can't kill it like this!"
Kael narrowed his eyes. Something inside the mark on his chest… responded.
Then the whispers came again.
> "Feed me the divine. Break the chains. Eclipse must rise."
He didn't understand them. But his instincts did.
Kael dove straight toward the beast, unarmed, shadows converging around his back like wings. At the last moment, he let himself be swallowed.
Lyria screamed, "Kael—!"
But inside the creature's maw, something clicked.
Kael's hand reached toward its glowing core—the source of its divine regeneration. A pulsing, artificial "heart" embedded by Heaven's engineers.
The mark on Kael's chest drank the light.
The core shattered.
And so did the creature.
Kael erupted from its collapsing body like a blade of vengeance, dripping in golden ichor, the shadows now pulsing brighter and darker than ever before.
Lyria stared in disbelief. "What… what are you?"
Kael dropped to one knee, panting. "I'm not sure anymore."
As the rain fell in silence once more, they surveyed the remains of the beast. It had a sigil embedded in its skull—one not of Heaven, but of something older.
Lyria picked it up. Her face paled.
"This isn't Sanctum tech… this is pre-Eclipse."
Kael looked up. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means…" she swallowed, "this war isn't just between mortals and Heaven. Something older is waking up. Something that shouldn't be."
Kael felt it too.
The power inside him wasn't just Shadowblood anymore.
It was inheritance. From a forgotten epoch.
Then the sky cracked.
Not thunder—a fracture.
For a split second, the clouds parted unnaturally, revealing a burning sigil far above the firmament—like an eye watching from beyond the veil.
Kael and Lyria stood frozen.
> Something has noticed them.
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