Light.
It was the first thing Maxwell felt when he opened his eyes — not fire, not shadow, but pure light. His chest rose and fell, aching but steady, his hand still wrapped tightly around his sword.
He lay upon broken stone. Around him, the ruins of the Abyss smoldered, but they no longer screamed or shifted. The void was gone. In its place stretched a barren plain, quiet and still, as though the world itself exhaled after centuries of torment.
A weak groan made him turn.
Gabby staggered into view, her golden wings torn and bloodied, but still glowing faintly. She lowered herself beside him, brushing soot from his face with trembling fingers. "You're alive."
Maxwell gave a faint, rasping laugh. "You sound surprised."
"Always." Her tired smile carried more relief than humor.
Anthony limped toward them, the Codex pressed against his chest. Its light was faint now, the once-living words faded to ash on its pages. His robes were burned, his face pale, but his eyes shone with tears. "It is done."
Maxwell sat up slowly, his sword dim in his hands. "Samael?"
Anthony shook his head. "Gone. The chains, the fire, the Abyss — all unraveled with him." His voice broke, reverent. "By God's mercy, it is finished."
For a moment, none of them spoke. They only breathed — weary, battered, alive.
The sky above them was no longer a void. Faint traces of dawn stretched across it, streaks of gold breaking through clouds of ash. For the first time since their descent, there was no laughter in the wind, no chains rattling in the deep. Only silence.
Gabby looked skyward, tears glistening in her golden eyes. "It's over."
Maxwell stared into the horizon. His storm-gray eyes were still silver, but quiet now, no longer torn between crimson and light. He whispered softly, almost to himself. "I broke him. I broke myself free."
Anthony sank to his knees, lifting his crucifix with shaking hands. "Then let us give thanks… for life, for light, for a world spared." His prayer was soft, raw with emotion. "For though the storm raged, and the fire burned, the Word endured."
The three of them sat together in the ruins, bound not by prophecy now, but by survival, by choice.
Maxwell looked to them both, his voice steady. "Whatever comes next… we face it together."
Gabby's smile was faint but sure. "Together."
Anthony nodded, closing the ruined Codex. "Together."
The dawn rose higher, spilling light across the broken plain. The shadows fled, the ash scattered. And though scars remained — in their bodies, in their souls, in the world itself — the storm had passed.
Armageddon was no longer nigh.
It was over.