Night had fallen over the ruined valley.
The fires from the battle still flickered faintly, lighting the broken earth in shades of orange and ash.
Elian sat beside Raviel, who leaned against a shattered stone, blood still dripping from his wounds.
Kael and Lyra worked quietly nearby, binding what they could, though both knew it was a losing fight.
The silence between them was heavy — the kind of silence that came after surviving something that should've killed them.
Elian finally spoke.
> "You said… the seal is waking. What does that mean?"
Raviel's breathing was shallow, but his eyes — even dimmed by pain — burned with grim clarity.
> "It means your mother's magic is failing," he said.
"And what's behind that seal… isn't just your power, Elian."
Elian frowned. "Then what is it?"
Raviel's gaze shifted toward the night sky — a sky with no stars, only clouds heavy with strange red mist.
> "When Lirael forged the Eclipsera Seal, she didn't just bind the Abyss within herself. She bound its heart."
Lyra froze. "Its heart? You mean—"
> "The Abyss isn't a place," Raviel whispered. "It's a being."
Elian's pulse quickened. "A being?"
Raviel nodded weakly.
> "A consciousness… older than gods. It was the first shadow to wake after creation. It calls itself Noctyra, the Eclipsera God.**"
Kael clenched his fists. "So you're saying this thing is alive inside him?"
> "No," Raviel said slowly. "It's sleeping. Your mother used her own soul to lull it into silence. Her light wrapped around it — your life became the lock that kept it dreaming."
Elian's throat tightened. "So if I die…"
Raviel finished for him.
> "The god wakes. And the worlds burn."
A sudden cold swept through the camp.
Elian shivered — not from wind, but from something deeper.
A faint voice echoed in his mind, almost too soft to notice.
> "Do you know what you are, child of two broken worlds…?"
He flinched. "Did you hear that?"
Lyra looked at him. "Hear what?"
> "Your light screams in the dark… but it sounds so sweet."
Elian clutched his head, his seal pulsing violently under his skin.
It felt like something inside him had opened an eye.
Raviel's expression darkened. "It's already begun…"
Kael reached for him. "What's happening?!"
> "The Abyss is stirring," Raviel said. "It senses weakness. The seal is unstable — every time you fight, every time you bleed, you're feeding it."
Elian's voice trembled. "Then what am I supposed to do?! Stop living?"
Raviel looked at him — not with pity, but with brutal honesty.
> "No. You have to learn to hold it awake without letting it wake you."
Raviel's strength was fading fast, but his words came sharper now — urgent.
> "Listen to me, Elian. There's something else you must know. Your mother didn't die by Heaven's blade."
Elian froze. "…What?"
Raviel's voice cracked.
> "She died sealing Noctyra. But she wasn't alone. Someone helped her — someone from the Abyss."
Lyra's eyes widened. "Someone from the Abyss? You mean—"
> "A demon lord. One who betrayed their kind to aid her. His name was Erevos."
Kael frowned. "That name… sounds familiar."
Raviel's gaze locked on Elian.
> "It should. He's your father."
The words hit like thunder.
Elian stared, lips parting, unable to breathe.
He stumbled back, shaking his head. "No… that's not possible. You said he was sealed—"
> "He is sealed," Raviel rasped. "Deep in the Abyss, chained beneath Noctyra's slumber. Your mother trapped him there to keep the god quiet. But now that the seal is breaking… he might wake first."
Elian felt the world spin around him.
Every truth he knew — shattered.
Elian clenched his fists. "So I'm… the son of the angel who sealed the Abyss, and the demon who lived inside it."
Raviel managed a weak smile.
> "You're not angel or demon, Elian. You're the bridge between what should've never met."
Lyra whispered, "Then that's why Heaven fears him…"
> "Yes," Raviel said. "Because if Noctyra wakes — only Elian can reach it. And if he fails… there will be no second chance."
A deep rumble echoed across the valley.
The fire dimmed. The air itself bent.
Kael looked up. "What now—?"
From the horizon, a dark storm rolled in — but it wasn't clouds.
It was shadows — endless, crawling, alive.
Raviel's voice turned grim.
> "The Abyss has found its voice again."
The ground beneath them cracked, light bleeding from Elian's seal like molten fire.
He clutched his chest, eyes wide, as the same whisper returned — louder now, darker, clearer.
> "Your death is my dawn."
And in the reflection of the flames, for a brief instant, Elian saw it —
a colossal eye opening in the void, staring back at him from within his own soul.