Indra's POV
The winds howled like ancestral voices as Indra stood atop the obsidian spire, the landscape below scorched by earlier battles. The fragmented horizon shimmered, a storm always on the cusp of breaking. The Sigil's energy still throbbed beneath his skin, the runes etched along his arms softly pulsing with every heartbeat. But he wasn't alone anymore.
A faint hum in the air — not of energy, but presence. Indra turned.
She emerged from the mist like a blade unsheathed — lean, swift, eyes glowing like molten gold. Her armor shimmered like starlight locked in steel. "Kaelari of the Dawn Clade," she said, bowing her head slightly. "I felt the Sigil awaken. So it's true — a new Stormbearer walks."
Indra felt the storm stir within him, assessing her. She was fast, he could feel it — faster than the cyber jackals, maybe even faster than him. "You've seen the anomalies?" he asked.
"Fought them. Lost two of my kin to a Hollow Ascendant." Her tone was sharp, clipped — efficient pain. "We'll need more than brute force. We'll need unity."
Before he could answer, another presence descended like a shadow cut from the void.
A figure in jet-black robes appeared behind her, silent as smoke. His mask bore a broken hourglass. "Chronis," he said simply. "I've seen what's coming. Time fractures around you, Indra. The Sigil was never meant for one man alone."
Indra's eyes narrowed. "And yet, it chose me."
"Only the first shard," Chronis replied coolly. "There are six. Scattered across the realms — each bound to trials, each waiting for a wielder."
The ground trembled. In the distance, a spire cracked open, releasing a pulse of dark energy into the sky.
"The next anomaly," Kaelari murmured. "It's not a dungeon. It's a
Before Kaelari could finish her sentence, the ground cracked violently beneath her. A thunderous roar erupted from the breach nearby — a shrieking, malformed beast of digitized bone and sinew, its face a cascade of flickering error codes, limbs twitching unnaturally as if caught in multiple timelines at once.
"Kaelari, move!" Indra shouted.
But the creature was faster than anticipated. In a blur, it lunged from the cracked ground, its jaws unhinging with a screech that split the sky. Time warped around it — a sign it had fed on dimensional instability. Kaelari twisted to draw her dual sabers, but a massive claw caught her mid-motion, knocking her off her feet and flinging her toward the jagged edge of the abyss.
Instinct overrode thought.
Indra vanished.
The Storm Veil activated — his form blurred into lightning echoes as he reappeared in midair, catching her mere inches before she hit the edge. With one arm wrapped around her waist, he rotated mid-air and landed hard, skidding backward in a spray of scorched stone. His Thunderheart pulsed violently, feeding his limbs strength as the monster roared and charged again.
He gently lowered her. "Stay down."
Then he turned.
The Tempest's Eye opened.
The creature's energy bled into the wind — frayed, unstable. Indra saw it. The vulnerable pulse near its neck, the moment between charges where its timeline shuddered. He raised his right palm, gathering a storm-forged spear of pure electricity. The spear's tip vibrated with a high-pitched tone — like destiny singing.
The beast leapt.
Indra surged forward like a bolt unleashed.
With a scream of thunder, he met the creature mid-air. The spear drove through its throat — right through the temporal rift — and the monster imploded in a spiraling vortex of lightning and time, disintegrating in a flash of blinding stormlight.
Silence followed.
Kaelari sat up slowly, her face a mix of awe and gratitude. "You… You saw its weakness?"
"I felt it," Indra said, extending a hand. "The storm showed me."
She grasped it, her pride giving way to something else — respect. "Perhaps the Sigil did choose right."
Chronis watched silently, his masked face unreadable. "You're not just awakening. You're evolving."
Indra looked out toward the rising breach in the distance.
"Then we evolve together. One trial at a time.