The earth was already broken. The sky, shredded. The air was filled with the smell of ozone and burning stars as Kael tore through the Abyss's endless maw. His threads of creation burned brilliantly, yet with each clash, his light grew heavier, darker—as if the Abyss had laced itself into his very soul.
Lyra's heart hammered. She raised her bow, its celestial string drawn with trembling hands, not at the Abyss—but at Kael.
"Forgive me…" she whispered, voice raw, eyes glistening beside her, Nyra's shadows coiled like serpents ready to strike. Her pale face was cold but resolved. "If we don't bind him now, he'll be lost forever."
The Abyss shrieked, as though mocking them. Tendrils lashed the sky, wrapping Kael's arms, his throat, his very chest. He tore free with divine fury, but each act fed the hunger, the black veins crawling further across his golden skin. His roar no longer sounded like defiance—it sounded like craving "More! I need more!"
The words weren't Kael's. They were the Abyss's. But they spilled from his lips all the same.
Lyra's tears fell as her bow glowed, its arrow burning white, forged of her essence—the purest light of her soul.
Nyra stepped forward, shadows lacing around her arms like chains, her voice low, steady:
"I'll shackle his darkness. You bind his heart."
They looked at each other once, enemies turned allies, and for the first time, there was no hesitation between them. Together, they loosed their powers.The ground split as Nyra's shadow-chains erupted upward, vast serpents of night that coiled around Kael's arms, his legs, his chest. They weren't meant to harm, but to hold to resist even a god's strength.
At the same instant, Lyra's arrow streaked into his chest, piercing through light and shadow alike, embedding itself in his heart. But instead of bleeding, Kael exploded in radiance. His body convulsed, torn between infinite hunger and the weight of love that the arrow carried.
"Kael!" Lyra screamed, her voice shattering through the chaos. "You are not the Abyss—you are you! You are the one who defied the stars to return to us, the one who chose love over destruction. If you give in, you'll lose everything you fought for—everything we fought for!"
Kael's body bucked against the chains, his roar thunderous, the sky trembling as galaxies shook from the sound. His threads lashed wildly, slicing through the heavens, threatening to tear apart the world below.
Nyra fell to her knees, shadows nearly unraveling under his sheer might. "He's breaking free Lyra, I can't hold him much longer!"
Lyra pressed her palms together, her aura blazing brighter than it ever had before. She poured everything her pain, her faith, her love—into the arrow still lodged in his heart. Her tears turned into sparks, raining upward like falling stars.
"Kael, listen to me!" Her voice cut through the chaos like a blade.
"You taught me that gods are not defined by power, but by choice. So choose, Kael. Choose us. Choose me."
The chains of shadow tightened. The arrow of light blazed. And for a heartbeat, the Abyss faltered.Kael's scream became a whisper. His blazing eyes flickered between gold and black, torn between salvation and corruption. His hand—trembling, bleeding threads of creation and void alike—reached forward toward Lyra.
"…Lyra…"
For the first time, it wasn't hunger in his voice. It was him.The Abyss shrieked in fury, collapsing its vast form inward, forcing itself deeper into Kael's wound. Shadows writhed to consume him whole. And in that moment, Kael stood between two eternities—one of love, one of ruin—balanced only on the arrow of Lyra's heart and the chains of Nyra's shadow.
The choice was his.