By the time night fell, the stars had begun to bleed.
It started as a shimmer at the edges of the heavens subtle, like silk tearing under the weight of time. But as the light faded, the tears widened, and the sky itself began to leak starlight, dripping like broken glass into the world below.
I stood at the edge of a crater, the armor humming faintly, watching as the stars fractured above me.
"This didn't happen before," I muttered.
"Incorrect," the armor replied. "It happened once. When Azrael fell."
"What does it mean?"
"The sky remembers."
The crater wasn't natural. Something massive had collided with this place. Whatever had landed or had left a scar so deep, the very laws of the world had unraveled. Floating stones drifted aimlessly midair, looping around an invisible gravity core. Lightning flickered from beneath the ground, silent and cold.
And in the center of it all stood the remains of a skyship half of it shattered, the other half impaled by a spear the size of a tower.
I shouldn't have remembered it, but I did.
Flash. A memory not mine.
I saw a figure cloaked in gold, eyes blazing like suns standing on the prow of that same skyship, arms spread wide as fire cascaded from his palms. His voice was layered like three people speaking at once.
And across from him stood another man, cloaked in black mist, armor identical to mine.
Azrael. My breath caught.
"You left us no choice, Thalor," Azrael's voice echoed in my skull.
"You broke the Accord first," Thalor snarled. "You swore we would never touch the mortals"
"I didn't touch them. I became one of them."
The memory snapped.I fell to one knee, panting. What was that?
"Recovered data fragment: Conflict at Skyfall Ridge. Host memory re-engaging."
I stumbled toward the wreckage, drawn like a moth to flame. The ship was mostly dead runes flickering weakly, systems inert. But something glowed faintly near the shattered helm. I pushed aside debris and found it:
A crystal shard, still warm to the touch.
As I picked it up, my fingers burned but I didn't drop it. Instead, the world around me blurred, and suddenly
I wasn't alone.
A woman stood across from me.
Young. Barefoot. Skin like dusk, eyes like the stars themselves. She wasn't really there a memory, maybe, or a projection. But she looked straight at me like she knew my soul.
"Azrael," she whispered. "You promised you wouldn't let this happen."
I swallowed hard. "I'm not him."
"But you carry him. And that's enough."
"What was this ship?"
"It was a bridge. Between what we were… and what we became."
"Who are you?"
"The one who tried to stop you."
The shard pulsed and shattered in my hand. The woman vanished. But her voice lingered.
"They're coming. And you don't have long before the sky falls again."
I staggered backward, the weight of it all pressing against my chest. The world, the war, the gods… It was more than a myth. It was history written in ash and armor.
I turned to leave the crater and froze.
Someone was watching me.
A silhouette stood at the rim, cloak billowing in the wind, one hand resting on a hilt shaped like a meteorite shard.
"Finally found you," he said, voice deep, steady.
"Who are you?" I asked.
He stepped into the light.
His face was young, maybe my age. Sharp jaw, silver eyes that didn't blink. Tattoos of ancient glyphs curled up his neck, glowing faintly with heat. But the thing that struck me most was this:
He wore armor.
Not like mine. His was darker. Sleeker. And his didn't whisper.
"I am Kael," he said. "Skyborn. Seeker. And by order of the Celestial Concord, I am here to take you in."
I raised Eclipture. "Try."
He didn't draw his blade.
Instead, he pointed at my chest.
"Your sync rate is rising. That armor will eat you alive before I even touch you."
I hesitated. "What do you mean?"
"You're not Azrael yet. But you will be. And when that happens, you'll wish I had killed you first."
We stood there, silence stretched tight like a blade.
Then he turned.
"Come with me, Kai. Or die as Azrael."
"How do you know my name?"
He stopped.
"I was your brother. Before you forgot."