The battlefield was still.
Smoke drifted through the broken tunnels, mingling with the scent of scorched stone and blood.
The last of the enemy had fallen, but victory had come at a price.
Kael staggered, his knees trembling. His vision blurred.
His breath hitched in his chest, like broken glass. He looked down.
His right arm, the source of his angelic powers, was glowing erratically, pulsing like a broken star.
"Kael!" Yuna rushed to his side, catching him just before he collapsed.
He tried to heal instinctively, desperately. But this time… nothing happened.
The pain struck like a blade through his nerves. It wasn't just exhaustion.
Something deeper. Darker. His sigil flared wildly, then dimmed.
Then the scream came.
Kael's body arched as he let out a raw, guttural cry—not just from pain, but from something tearing within him.
The air around him cracked, and the world stopped.
Literally.
The torches froze. Falling dust paused midair. Even Yuna's worried expression froze in place.
Time… had stopped.
But Kael wasn't in control. Not fully. The pain had triggered it.
He stood alone in a frozen world, gasping, the echo of his scream bouncing off stillness.
His knees buckled again, but he caught himself, forced his hand open, and whispered:
"No… not now. Don't lose it."
He closed his eyes and pushed.
Time slowly began to move again, ticking back into reality like the winding of a broken clock.
The flickers of sound returned, and Yuna's hand touched his arm once more.
Kael opened his eyes.
"Caziel…" he rasped, barely able to speak. "Who… were they?"
Caziel, still holding a torn cloak, looked grim.
"They weren't just hunting us," he said. "They were testing you."
Kael's breathing was shallow. "Why… can't I… heal?"
"I don't know," Caziel admitted. "But the more you use your time powers, the more unstable your body becomes. You're tearing yourself apart."
Yuna looked at Kael, eyes filled with worry and disbelief.
"They knew. They knew you'd push yourself this far. They wanted this to happen."
"They want him to break," Caziel added. "Or worse… evolve."
Kael stared at his hand—the one that held angelic power. It twitched, no longer glowing.
But before he could say anything more, a sharp pulse throbbed in his head.
A flicker, like a distant memory forcing its way through a locked door.
A woman's voice.
Soft. Familiar. Echoing through his mind.
"Kael… if you ever find it… if you ever feel drawn to it… remember, the sword was never meant for destruction.
But it was never meant to be left behind, either."
A flash. A faint image of his mother sitting beside a fire, holding him.
She was younger than he remembered. Speaking softly, as if telling him a bedtime story.
"A place untouched by time, hidden where no one dares to go. That's where it sleeps. The sword of reckoning."
His head split with pain the more he tried to focus on it.
Every word felt like it stabbed his brain. He clutched his skull and dropped to one knee, groaning.
But instead of letting it consume him, he froze time again—this time on purpose.
Everything went silent. Frozen.
And in that silence, he let himself breathe. Let the pain settle just enough to remember the final piece:
"If you touch it with the wrong hand… it will reject you. But if you're ready, it will awaken you."
Kael exhaled and released the freeze, slowly rising to his feet.
"There's something I have to find," he said, barely above a whisper.
Yuna and Caziel both looked at him.
"What is it?" Caziel asked.
Kael's eyes burned with quiet resolve. "A sword. One that might explain everything."