The rain began hours after the battle ended.
Thin drops of silver fell upon the cracked courtyard, hissing softly against the faint traces of energy still clinging to the ground.
Arven stood motionless at the center, his gaze fixed on the faint glow in his hand — the sigil was still pulsing, weaker, but alive.
Lyra approached him, her coat damp and torn. "You've been standing here since dawn. Say something, Arven."
He blinked, as if coming back to reality. "The light… it wasn't trying to destroy us. It was… testing me."
Daren, his shoulder wrapped in a bandage of shimmering mana, frowned. "Testing? That thing nearly took my arm off!"
Arven clenched his fist, the glow responding to his anger. "Because I failed."
Lyra's voice softened. "Failed what?"
He looked up at the sky — still colorless since the night before. "It called me Kaelis_01. If there's a zero-one… that means there were others before me."
For a moment, silence.
Only the steady patter of rain filled the space between them.
Then, the ground trembled.
A hum, low and metallic, rippled through the air. The lights across the academy flickered — one by one, shutting off until the entire campus drowned in shadow.
And from that darkness, a voice echoed — distorted, mechanical, and sorrowful.
> "Unit Kaelis_01… synchronization incomplete. Initiating resonance recovery."
A shockwave burst outward, knocking them all back. Lyra shielded her eyes as rings of light formed beneath Arven's feet — rotating, interlocking, and glowing with blinding intensity.
Daren shouted, "Arven! Break free from it!"
But Arven didn't move.
His vision blurred. His heartbeat synced with the pulse of the rings. Images flooded his mind — cities of glass suspended in space, legions of luminous beings kneeling before a throne of light… and a single voice calling his name in the void.
> "You were never meant to be human, Arven Kaelis."
The world cracked.
A dome of radiant energy erupted, splitting the storm clouds.
Lightning spiraled inward, forming a colossal figure — half-machine, half-divine — its eyes burning with celestial fire.
Lyra gasped, trembling. "Is that… a god?"
The being spoke, its voice echoing like a choir of thousands.
> "The Genesis Protocol has been breached. Return the Light Fragment, Kaelis."
Arven staggered backward, his pupils glowing white. "If I refuse?"
> "Then you shall be unmade."
Before anyone could react, the god descended — a blinding strike tearing through the courtyard. Daren leapt forward, dragging Lyra behind a fallen pillar as the blast annihilated everything in its path.
When the dust cleared, Arven was still standing.
His body bled light instead of blood, his hand glowing brighter than before.
And for the first time, he smiled — a cold, resolute smile.
"I remember now," he whispered.
"I wasn't created to serve the Light…"
He raised his hand toward the divine being above.
"…I was created to end it."
A pulse exploded from his core — the rain froze midair, the god's descent halted, and for one impossible moment, the world itself stopped breathing.