Dawn broke over Eidolon City like a wound bleeding light across the sky. What had once been a familiar urban landscape was now something from a fever dream, six blocks of downtown transformed into architecture that belonged to no earthly realm. Buildings twisted into impossible spirals, their surfaces reflecting colors that had no names. Streets ran in patterns that hurt to follow, geometric arrangements that spoke of forces beyond human comprehension.The official death toll stood at forty-three, though that number only counted bodies that could be identified. Emergency crews were still finding spaces where people had simply... ceased. Not vaporized or consumed, but edited out of local reality so thoroughly that only their absence remained visible.From the window of Maya's apartment twelve blocks north of the devastation zone, Azrael watched the news coverage with growing unease. Every channel carried the same footage—shaky phone videos of impossible beings fighting in the streets,

The Central Market transformed into a battlefield in the span of heartbeats. Sariel's divine radiance blazed through the covered bazaar like captured sunlight, her angelic form shedding its human disguise as she moved with inhuman grace between the vendor stalls. Simultaneously, Vex erupted in shadow and flame, his hybrid nature no longer concealed as he closed the distance with predatory speed.And caught between them, hundreds of innocent civilians who had come seeking answers found themselves face-to-face with forces beyond their comprehension."Everyone down!" Maya shouted, though her voice was lost in the chaos as panicked shoppers scattered in every direction. Some ran toward the exits, others dove behind vendor stalls, and many simply froze in terror as reality bent around them.Azrael had perhaps three seconds before both hunters reached him. He could unleash his power, drive them back, protect the civilians—but doing so would expose his true nature to hundreds of witnesses wi

Elena Vasquez stepped closer, the fragment of crystallized parchment still glowing with otherworldly light in her hands. In the grimy alley that smelled of urban decay, she seemed oddly out of place—not because of her appearance, but because of the presence that surrounded her like an invisible aura of ancient knowledge."The Vault of All Things Lost," Maya repeated, her newly enhanced senses picking up resonances in the woman's voice that spoke of power carefully controlled. "That sounds like something from mythology.""Most mythology is just history that powerful beings tried to erase," Elena replied. "The vault exists in the spaces between realms, collecting fragments of truth that someone wanted destroyed. Every burned library, every forbidden text, every law that tyrants tried to abolish—copies end up there, preserved by the universe's own immune system."Azrael studied the woman with supernatural senses that could perceive layers of reality invisible to mortal eyes. What he saw

The vision of Gabriel's chained form faded slowly, leaving Azrael kneeling at the crystal altar with blood still flowing from his palm onto its black surface. But the ritual had worked—he could feel the difference immediately. The Forsaken Flame burned steadier within his chest, no longer threatening to consume him with each use. The chaotic energy that had made his power unpredictable was now focused, controlled, shaped by understanding rather than raw emotion.Elena helped him to his feet, her ancient eyes studying his face with the intensity of someone reading a particularly complex text. "The flame has accepted you," she said quietly. "But I can see the cost. The darkness is already beginning to take root.""The harvested souls want more than freedom," Azrael replied, flexing his fingers as silver-black fire danced between them in perfect obedience. "They want the Goddess to pay for what she's done to them.""And do you agree with them?"The question hung in the air as Maya approa

The approach to Saint Meridian's Cathedral took them through streets that had been abandoned long before the supernatural forces moved in. Broken windows stared like empty sockets from buildings that had once housed families, shops, dreams. Now they served as watchtowers for things that had never been human, their shadowed depths hiding eyes that tracked the trio's movement with predatory interest.Azrael felt another pulse from the divine sigil, stronger this time, sending waves of weakness through his limbs. The curse was accelerating as they drew closer to their destination, as if it could sense the possibility of its own destruction and was fighting to complete its work first."Movement on the rooftops," Maya whispered, pointing to shapes that flowed across the skyline like liquid shadow. "Whatever's in the cathedral, it has sentries posted for blocks around."Elena clutched a satchel containing ritual materials they might need to properly use the Chalice of Unmaking. "Underworld