"Death is not always the end. Sometimes, it's the call that awakens something worse."
The body lay cold on the park's asphalt. Blood mixed with the damp mud after the rain, and the winged girl's figure moved away with a cruel smile on her lips. Raynare didn't look back. She didn't need to.
Issei Hyoudou was dead. Or so she believed.
An instant after his heart stopped beating, a subtle tremor shook the world invisible to human eyes. The sky didn't cloud over, no thunder sounded. But deep within the spiritual plane, a flame ignited.
"Again...?" a voice whispered from the shadows. "Again you need me...?"
An invisible fissure tore through reality like a broken mirror, right above the deceased body. The air sliced as if by blades. From within emerged a figure. Not an angel. Not a demon. Something in between. Something... much worse.
His black boots touched the ground with the softness of a predator. The face hidden beneath the dark green hood lifted, observing the scene with an inhuman coldness.
"This body... was me, but I am not him."
"And yet... to die for a woman like that. How pathetic."
He knelt before the corpse, placed two fingers on his dead counterpart's forehead, and closed his own eyes.
"Rest. You will no longer bear this destiny."
His fingers glowed with a crimson light. The body vanished, turned into energy. Absorbed. Claimed.
This was not Issei Hyoudou. At least, not the one the world knew.
This man had been trained by Lucifer, enlightened by God, and marked by Thoth, the divine scribe. Forged on an island where hell intersects with eternity. He had survived wars that humans couldn't even imagine. He had seen brothers die, cities burn, and his soul twist with every decision.
He was not a boy. He was a weapon.
And he had returned.
"Kuoh..." he whispered, looking at the horizon. "Is there still something worth protecting in this damned world?"
Hanging from his back was a metallic bow, etched with dark runes and sacred carvings. From his wrist hung a white ribbon stained with blood.
A memory of his sister.
An oath he had yet to fulfill.
He walked towards the city.
Invisible.
Silent.
Burdened by the past.
The shadow of a demon.
The murmur of an arrow.
The vengeance of an Issei who should never have returned.