Night bled into the city like liquid glass. Neon veins pulsed across the towers of New Aurion, casting fractured halos upon the smog-choked air. But above it all beyond the metallic skyline the stars were wrong. They shimmered too close, pulsing as though trying to break through a fragile layer of sky.
Arka stood at the edge of a high platform, coat whipping in the cold wind. Below him, the city moved with the rhythm of electricity and survival drones humming, lights flickering, humans too busy to look up. They had forgotten the heavens.
The woman from before stood beside him now, her hood lowered. Her name, he'd learned, was Kael a field captain of the city's Vanguard Division, the group charged with defending humanity from celestial anomalies.
She studied him quietly before speaking. "You've been off the grid for three days. No ID, no record, and that mark…" She paused, her gaze lingering on the faint silver glow under his collar. "That's the symbol of extinction, you know. The stories say the Starwolf's awakening ended the first world."
Arka didn't look at her. "Stories say many things. Most forget why."
Kael exhaled. "Then tell me. Why are the stars bleeding again?"
He turned his eyes skyward. The cracks were faint, spider-webbing across the firmament a thin veil of light fracturing against something vast behind it. "Because the heavens were never fixed," he said quietly. "They were only delayed."
Kael frowned. "You talk like you've seen it before."
"I ended it before."
Her expression flickered between disbelief and curiosity, but before she could ask, an alarm cut through the night shrill and urgent. A holographic sigil projected in the air beside her, rotating rapidly.
ALERT: DESCENT SIGNATURE DETECTED — EASTERN DISTRICT.
CELESTIAL CLASS: OMEGA.
Kael swore under her breath. "That's impossible Omega signatures haven't been seen in centuries."
Arka's eyes narrowed. "Then history repeats faster than I thought."
They raced through the high platforms, leaping onto a hovering transport that roared toward the Eastern sector. The skyline blurred past steel bridges, glass domes, remnants of temples buried beneath new structures. Yet as they neared the district, the glow of the city dimmed.
And then they saw it.
The sky above the Eastern Ward was breaking.
A vertical wound of light split the heavens, tendrils of golden fire reaching downward like divine lightning. From within that wound, something emerged not falling, but descending with purpose.
It was shaped like a human, but immense, its wings mechanical yet organic, each feather carved with ancient celestial runes. Its body pulsed with light not white, but fractured, shifting between gold and black.
Kael gripped the railing. "What in the stars is that?"
Arka's voice was low. "An echo."
The creature turned its head and though it was miles away, Arka felt its gaze pierce through the distance. Recognition. Resonance.
The mark on his chest flared in response, burning with unbearable heat. He stumbled, gripping his shoulder.
"Arka!" Kael caught him, startled.
"It's not attacking," he muttered through clenched teeth. "It's calling."
The sky pulsed once, and then silence. The light vanished. The wound sealed. The air went still, as if the world itself exhaled in confusion.
But the mark on his chest didn't stop burning.
He looked down and beneath the silver pattern, faint new lines were forming. Symbols he hadn't seen since the First Age.
Kael saw it too, stepping back. "What's happening to you?"
Arka's expression darkened. "Something's rewriting the seal."
"The what"
Before she could finish, the city lights dimmed. Every screen, every circuit, every drone flickered then displayed the same sigil that now burned beneath his skin.
A voice echoed through the speakers, ancient and melodic. Not a human tongue, but every soul seemed to understand.
"The Silence stirs. The wolf returns. The Gate reopens."
Kael's blood ran cold. "That voice… it's broadcasting everywhere."
Arka raised his head slowly. His eyes gleamed faint silver.
"No," he whispered. "It's not broadcasting. It's remembering."
He turned toward the skyline where one by one, constellations were realigning, forming a single massive shape across the night.
A wolf made of stars, its eyes burning gold and black.
Kael's voice shook. "Tell me that's just a light distortion."
Arka's answer was quiet, final. "That's the sign of the Second Descent."
Above them, the wolf constellation opened its jaws.
From the heart of the heavens, a single silver tear fell and where it touched the earth, the ground bloomed with light.
Something was awakening.