Night fell like a curtain of mourning. The forest burned silently in the distance, embers floating into the black sky like dying prayers. Rai walked ahead without a word, his coat torn and his sword dim, the glow in his eyes finally fading to dull crimson. Kael followed, dragging the unconscious Seraphine behind him, her once-brilliant armor now cracked and blackened by divine flame.
They had escaped the Inquisition's vanguard—but not without consequence. The cultists were gone, scattered, or dead. Only the whispers of their chants lingered in the air, faint and haunting.
Kael's voice broke the silence. "She's not just a knight, is she?"
Rai stopped walking. The moonlight caught the scars on his neck, tracing the faint runes that still pulsed beneath his skin. "No," he said quietly. "She's one of mine."
Kael frowned. "One of yours? You mean—"
"She was a Sunbound Knight, sworn to protect the heart of creation itself." Rai's tone was low, heavy with memory. "When I sealed the gods, I shattered my army to scatter their souls across eternity. Seraphine… was one of the seven who carried my vow into oblivion."
Kael looked down at her—this woman who had tried to kill Rai not an hour ago, now lying helpless. "And now she's bound to you?"
Rai's hand trembled slightly. "Bound to what I became." He knelt beside her, brushing ash from her face. "The gods weren't destroyed—the Eclipse Seal devoured them. Fragments of their essence live on… in those who once fought beside me."
As if sensing his touch, Seraphine stirred. Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing eyes no longer glowing with holy flame, but faint, weary gold.
"Where… am I?" she murmured.
"Alive," Rai answered simply.
Her gaze darted toward him—and for a heartbeat, confusion and fear battled within her expression. "You… I remember light. A promise. A sword that broke the dawn." She pressed a hand to her head. "And then… fire. Endless fire."
Rai didn't answer.
Kael knelt beside her. "You're safe for now. The Inquisition won't find us here."
But Seraphine shook her head. "No. You don't understand. They never stop." Her hand gripped the earth, trembling. "I was their Saint of Purity. I led their crusade. And now… I am the heretic they'll burn first."
Rai's eyes flickered. "You led them?"
She turned toward him, eyes wet with anguish. "I didn't remember who I was. I thought the Flame gave me purpose. But now… I see pieces of what I've lost." Her voice broke. "You were the one who sealed the heavens. And I was the one who followed you into the dark."
Rai looked away. "That's a past we both buried."
"No." She pushed herself upright, trembling but defiant. "You may have buried it, but it's still burning inside us. I can feel it—the link between our souls."
Kael's expression hardened. "Then she's dangerous."
Rai nodded slightly. "Maybe. But so am I."
Seraphine reached for her blade, but Rai's hand caught her wrist gently. For a moment, they locked eyes—centuries of forgotten loyalty and guilt pressing between them like a storm.
"You don't have to fight me anymore," Rai said softly. "The war ended long ago."
Her voice came out as a whisper. "Then why does it still feel like it's just beginning?"
Rai didn't answer. Instead, he stood and turned toward the horizon, where faint lights flickered among the distant ruins—cities rebuilt upon the bones of the old world. "Because the Eclipse stirs again. The gods want what's left of their power back. And they'll use every soul that remembers me to take it."
Kael stepped beside him. "So what do we do?"
Rai's eyes narrowed. "We move before the Inquisition spreads word. There's one place left where the truth might still exist—the Vault of Aeras, where the first seals were forged."
Seraphine's gaze sharpened at the name. "That vault was erased from all holy records."
Rai smirked faintly. "Then it's exactly where we need to go."
As the three of them set off through the burning forest, the stars above them shimmered faintly—each pulse echoing a whisper only Rai could hear.
The vow unravels.The heart remembers.The world prepares to kneel once more.
And somewhere deep in the void, unseen by mortal eyes, a hand of light and shadow reached through the cracks of reality—awakening another of Rai's long-lost knights.
The second fragment had begun to stir.