The sky split apart.
Not once, not twice—but in a thousand different places.
From every fracture of the Veil, light bled like dying stars while shadows spilled like oceans of ink. The battlefield was no longer ground and sky—it was a collapsing cage of screaming worlds. Soldiers stumbled, their weapons clattering uselessly as half the horizon dissolved into writhing darkness and the other half burned with searing brilliance.
At the center of it all, the Entity writhed. Its colossal body, though wounded by Anna's twilight strike, only grew more monstrous as its core pulsed blacker than midnight. Every beat of that heart tore new rifts into the Veil.
Foolish insects, its voice thundered across every mind. You dare wound me? Then you shall watch as I devour the heavens themselves.
A single limb—vast as a mountain—swung downward. The shockwave crushed an entire legion beneath it, soldiers vanishing without a scream. The air quaked. The world groaned.
Anna's wings of fused light and shadow flared as she steadied herself midair. Her body trembled, her veins burning from the cost of wielding both powers, but her eyes never wavered.
"Elena! Kael! Stay with me!" she cried, her voice straining above the storm.
Kael staggered forward, blade in hand, though his cursed flames burned so hot they seared his own flesh. His face twisted with agony, crimson veins glowing across his neck. Yet his gaze locked on Anna with unshakable fire.
"I'm not…letting you fight alone," he growled, forcing his body to move even as shadows consumed his arm.
Elena stood between them, staff trembling in her hands. Every breath rattled in her chest, her light barely more than a candle against the Entity's storm. But her voice rang steady.
"If the sky falls," she said, "then we'll hold it up together."
The Entity's laughter rolled like thunder. Hold it up? Then let us see you crushed beneath eternity.
The Veil cracked wider. A gaping wound opened above, and from it poured horrors—shadow beasts with molten jaws, winged serpents woven from light twisted into corruption, and faceless titans that howled with the sound of shattering glass.
The battlefield drowned.
Anna swept her wings wide, unleashing a torrent of twilight fire that scythed through the first wave of beasts. Screams echoed as abominations burned to ash, yet for every one that fell, ten more clawed their way through the breach.
Kael roared, his blade bursting into a storm of cursed fire. He tore through the horde, each strike a blaze of destruction. But the flames burned deeper into him, peeling away his humanity piece by piece. His shadowed eye glowed brighter, his voice cracking with something no longer entirely his own.
"Kael!" Anna shouted, desperation breaking through her fury.
"I'm fine!" he snapped, though blood poured from his mouth. "Just—keep fighting!"
Elena raised her staff high, summoning what little radiance she had left. The light wrapped around Anna and Kael like fragile armor, shielding them from the Entity's crushing waves of despair. Her knees buckled, but she refused to fall.
The ground split open as a titan of obsidian and light surged forward, its massive fists swinging for Anna. She darted aside, wings leaving streaks of twilight in the air, then plunged forward, slashing its chest with blades formed of fused power. The titan shrieked as it dissolved into dust, but already another emerged to take its place.
The Entity's voice deepened, shaking the bones of every soldier alive. You are dust. You are fleeting. And I…am forever.
Its core expanded, dark light swallowing the heavens. The rift tore wider, the stars themselves trembling as though being consumed.
Anna gasped, her power flickering as the Entity began to pull the entire sky into itself. The battlefield darkened, as if the sun had been extinguished.
Kael dropped to one knee, clutching his chest as his cursed power threatened to devour him whole. Elena fell beside him, her staff cracking in half, her light nearly gone.
And above them all, the Entity roared—
And began to eat the sky.
The heavens collapsed.
The Entity's core pulsed, each beat a detonation that dragged the sky inward. Clouds twisted into whirlpools, stars bent like molten glass, and whole constellations bled away into its grasp. The battlefield shook as though the world itself was being devoured.
Anna hovered at the heart of the storm, wings blazing twilight—one half shadow, one half light. Her chest burned, every vein screaming with power her body wasn't meant to hold. But still, she spread her arms wide.
If I fall, then they fall too.
If I burn, then let me burn for them.
She unleashed another wave of twilight fire, carving through the swarm of abominations. Yet even as they burned, more emerged from the rift above, crawling out of the nothingness.
"Anna!" Elena's voice broke through the chaos. She staggered forward, her broken staff glowing faintly as she forced the last of her light into Anna's wings. The glow steadied her for a heartbeat longer. "Don't—don't give in!"
Anna turned, her throat tightening. Elena's light was fading, her face pale and blood dripping from her lips. And Kael—
Kael was collapsing.
His sword clattered to the earth as his cursed flames tore him apart from the inside. Shadows erupted from his arms, spreading across his chest like veins of black fire. His eyes flickered between crimson and abyssal void, his voice a strangled growl.
"Get…away," he rasped. "I can't—hold it—"
The Entity's laughter boomed across the battlefield. See how easily they shatter, Vessel. Your light dies. Your shadow breaks. You cannot save them.
"Shut up!" Anna roared, her wings snapping open. She dove to Kael's side, searing away the beasts lunging for him. She knelt, gripping his shoulders, even as the cursed fire burned her skin. "You're not alone, Kael. Not now, not ever!"
His hands shook, one reaching toward her, the other tightening into a claw. The curse howled, trying to turn him against her, to rip her apart. His eyes flashed void-black—then crimson again, wet with tears.
"Anna…" His voice cracked. "Kill me before I—before I hurt you."
Her breath caught. For a heartbeat, time froze.
"No." She pressed her forehead against his, forcing her light and shadow to flow into him. It seared her to the bone, her veins bursting with agony, but she held on. "I'll burn. I'll break. I'll even become a monster if it means staying with you."
The Entity screamed, the sound rattling the battlefield. Then you are mine!
A torrent of darkness shot downward, swallowing them both. The ground fractured, an entire legion swept away like ash.
Anna and Kael vanished into the storm.
When Anna opened her eyes, she stood in a void. A thousand chains coiled around her, each glowing with the Entity's sigils. Kael hung beside her, suspended, his body cracking apart like porcelain, cursed fire spilling from the fractures.
The Entity's massive form loomed above, no longer distant but within reach, its face carved from shadow and starlight. Its voice echoed like law.
Choose, Vessel. Save him, and your soul is mine. Reject him, and you may yet live.
Anna's pulse thundered in her ears. Elena's faint light flickered in the void above, straining to hold the chains at bay, but it was breaking.
Her wings flared. She tore one chain apart. Then another. Then a hundred. Her body screamed, blood running from her eyes, but her voice rang louder than the storm.
"I choose both! My light. My shadow. My Kael!"
The void shattered.
Back on the battlefield, a blinding wave erupted as Anna broke free, carrying Kael in her arms. Her wings burned brighter than ever—light and shadow entwined in impossible harmony. For the first time, the Entity recoiled, its vast form wavering.
Kael stirred weakly, his curse smoldering but no longer devouring him whole. His gaze, though heavy with pain, locked onto hers with a faint, trembling smile.
"You're insane," he whispered.
"Maybe," she breathed back, "but I'm not letting you go."
The Entity roared, its body twisting, the rift above yawning wider. Lightning of void-fire and star-flame lashed across the battlefield, annihilating whole ranks of soldiers.
If you will not submit, then I shall unmake the world itself!
It raised its titanic arms, dragging the collapsing sky down. The battlefield itself began to fold inward, as if reality were paper being torn in half. Screams rose everywhere as soldiers and beasts alike were pulled toward the nothingness.
Elena, staggering on her knees, thrust her broken staff into the ground. "Anna! Kael! Now!"
Anna's wings flared. Kael lifted his sword, its edge igniting in cursed fire purified by her twilight. Together, they soared upward.
The Entity's vast core loomed above, pulsing with endless hunger.
"Ready?" Anna gasped.
Kael smirked through the blood. "Always."
They struck—light, shadow, and flame entwined into one devastating blow.
The battlefield erupted.