The air trembled with every heartbeat.
Not Arhaan's — the world's.
Each pulse sent a wave of warmth through the Covenant camp, making fires flare brighter, wounds knit faster, and hearts beat in rhythm with a force too ancient to name.
Arhaan stood at the edge of the plateau, overlooking the broken plains below. His hands shook as streams of light leaked from his skin, golden cracks tracing up his arms like molten veins.
Kael approached quietly, the morning wind tugging at his torn cloak.
"You're losing control again."
Arhaan exhaled, the air shimmering with power. "I can feel it — the Flame. It's alive. It wants to move, to spread."
"Then fight it."
"I am," Arhaan said. "Every moment."
---
He reached for the Oathbreaker, but the blade pulsed before he touched it.
The runes across its surface burned brighter, alive with the same divine fire coursing through his veins.
Then — a flash.
The world vanished.
Arhaan found himself standing in a sea of light, endless and formless.
Above him, countless wings beat in silence — each one a fragment of a god long forgotten.
And before him stood a shape made of flame and starlight.
> "You carry my spark," the voice said — vast, neither male nor female.
"But you are not yet me."
Arhaan fell to one knee, clutching his chest. "You're the First Flame."
> "I am what remains of it," the being replied. "The memory of creation, bound in mortal flesh. You are my vessel — my last chance to begin anew."
Arhaan looked up, eyes burning.
"Why me?"
> "Because you defied destiny without hating it. Because when Heaven chained you, you chose to save instead of destroy."
The being's light dimmed slightly.
> "But hear me, mortal. The longer you bear me, the less of you will remain. The Flame consumes — even gods."
Arhaan rose slowly.
"Then I'll burn on my own terms."
---
Reality snapped back.
Kael was shouting his name, shaking him.
Arhaan's eyes opened — and for an instant, they were no longer red or gold.
They were white fire.
The ground beneath him ignited, yet his allies were untouched.
A ring of light spread outward, turning ashes to grass, broken stones to blooming flowers.
Selara and the jinn captains fell silent, staring in awe.
Kael whispered, "You… changed the land."
Arhaan blinked, dazed. "I didn't mean to."
Selara stepped forward, her voice trembling.
"No. You willed it. You've become the bridge — between destruction and creation."
---
Far above, in the Celestial Armory, the High Arbiter felt the disturbance.
The Divine Annihilator's pulse faltered — for the first time, its flame dimmed.
The Arbiter's composure cracked.
> "He's merging with it… taking what belongs to Heaven!"
His voice thundered through the vaults of Heaven.
"Then unleash the Choir of Judgment! Let no light but ours remain!"
Thousands of trumpets sounded in unison, and a tide of Seraphim descended — their wings blazing brighter than dawn.
---
Arhaan felt the heavens rumble.
Kael gripped his sword. "They're coming."
Arhaan turned toward the horizon, eyes still glowing faintly white.
"Then let them."
He raised the Oathbreaker, its chains snapping loose and coiling in the air like living serpents of light and shadow.
"I won't run anymore," he said.
"I'll show Heaven what freedom looks like."