There was no sound at first—only light. Endless, searing light that burned the horizon to glass. Then came the screams, faint at first, then rising like a storm as reality folded inward. Rai stood amidst it all, his armor gleaming black against the brilliance, his crimson eyes fixed on the heavens above.
He knew this place.He had lived this moment before.This was the day the world ended.
Around him stretched the once-great Elyndra Plains, now a battlefield carved between mortals and gods. Rivers of gold—the blood of divinity—flowed across scorched earth. The sky was split by a colossal wound, through which light poured like molten fire. Floating citadels collapsed one after another, raining down fragments of divine architecture.
Rai's reflection—his past self—stood not far away, cloaked in a mantle of black flame, his hand raised toward the heavens. The ground trembled beneath his words.
"By this vow, I shatter your eternity!"
At those words, reality screamed. The gods descended from the tear in the sky—wings of light, faces of radiance too pure to look upon. Their voices rolled like thunder.
"You, born of dust, dare bind us?"
The past Rai smiled—a terrible, triumphant thing. "Not bind. Replace."
Chains of black light erupted from his body, lashing upward, coiling around the gods. Their golden halos cracked, their divine forms dragged screaming toward him. Every chain that connected became a seal, every seal a piece of his soul.
Rai—the present one—fell to his knees, clutching his head as memories tore through him. He remembered every name. Every god. Every death. And how Lyra had stood behind him, her hands trembling as she watched the man she loved turn into something divine—and monstrous.
"Stop it!" she had cried in that memory. "You're not saving anyone—you're devouring them!"
The old Rai had turned, his voice calm but hollow. "To save this world, someone must bear its sins. If not me, then who?"
The sky darkened as the last god fell, their bodies dissolving into rivers of light that flowed into his chest. The world began to warp, unable to contain the energy of eternity itself.
Rai's reflection turned toward him now, stepping through the collapsing memory, the chains slithering behind him like serpents.
"You see now," the reflection said softly. "You weren't cursed. You chose this."
Rai's voice shook. "To stop them. To protect everyone."
The reflection laughed—low, bitter, knowing. "No. You wanted to replace them. You wanted to prove that man could be god. That love could conquer divinity. And it consumed you."
Images flashed—Lyra sealing him beneath the collapsing sky, her tears falling onto his chest as she whispered her vow. The world burned around them, and still, he smiled.
"You broke heaven," she had said. "But you also broke me."
The reflection extended his hand now. "You've spent centuries running from this truth, Rai. But it's time to finish what you started. Break the seal, merge with me—and we will reclaim the world from the gods who never left."
Rai's breath trembled. The temptation burned through him like fire. For a moment, the darkness within him whispered—Yes. End it. Take back what's yours.
Then he saw Lyra's face in his mind, her final words before fading in Halion: "What you love is what will destroy you."
He stepped back. "No. I won't become that again."
The reflection's smile faltered. "Then you'll die as nothing. A shadow of what you were."
"Maybe," Rai said quietly, drawing his sword. "But at least I'll die human."
The reflection's eyes flared crimson. "Then you choose death."
Light and shadow collided as Rai struck at himself—the past and present clashing in a storm of power that tore through the void. Chains shattered, stars fell, and the world of memory began to break apart.
As the light consumed everything, the reflection's voice echoed one last time:
"You can't kill what you are, Rai. You can only delay it."
When Rai awoke, he was lying on cold stone once more. Kael was beside him, bloodied but alive. The catacombs had collapsed, sealing the heart once again.
"Rai…" Kael rasped. "What happened?"
Rai looked up at the dim sky beyond the cracks in the earth. His eyes burned red—not from power, but from tears.
"I remembered," he whispered. "I wasn't the savior. I was the sin."
And far beneath them, the god's heart beat once more—slower, quieter, but alive.