The Starfall Beast ran like a comet scraping across the earth—each step cracking the ground, each breath leaving trails of celestial frost.
I didn't tell it where to go.It already knew.
The path lit by divine dust slowly faded behind us.
Ahead, storm clouds churned unnaturally over the horizon.Not from rain.
From spirits.
Tens of thousands of them.
The further we travelled, the colder the air became—not natural cold,but the cold of remembrance.
This was where the heavens killed their own.
The City of Fallen Saints.
And here…somewhere under the rubble,was my next fragment.
THE CITY THAT SLEEPS UNDER CURSES
The beast slowed.
Stones and ancient pillars jutted from the earth like broken ribs of a colossal corpse.The air tasted like rust and abandoned prayers.
Fontains that once overflowed with divine water were now filled with black dust.Temples collapsed inward as if crushed by unseen hands.
And everywhere—absolutely everywhere—stood statues of bound angels and saints.
Their stone faces were carved with agony.
Their wings clipped.
Their halos shattered.
The heavens called this a sacred place.
It felt more like a mass grave.
THE WHISPERS BEGIN
The moment my foot touched the cracked pavement…
Every statue turned its head toward me.
Not physically.
But their shadows moved.
Dozens.Hundreds.All stretching toward my feet like hands reaching to cling to a god they once worshiped.
The Starfall Beast snarled, its bones rattling with warning.
I felt an old sensation stir at the base of my spine.
Recognition.
This place remembered me.
Because I had stood here once—over an execution pyre—while a thousand voices screamed my name in fear.
A whisper drifted through the ruins:
"Sovereign…"
Another voice followed:
"He has returned."
Then a third, louder:
"He comes to reclaim what is his."
The dead saints were waking.
THE SENTINELS OF THE DAMNED
A gust of wind ripped through the ruins.Stone cracked.Ash exploded upward.
From the dust rose three massive figures, shaped like armored giants carved from marble, halos broken and dangling like shackles.
Saint Sentinels.
Even the gods avoided them.
The lead sentinel's stone eyes glowed faintly.
"Intruder…"Its voice shook the entire street."Leave this place.Or be judged."
I cracked my neck.
"If anyone judges anyone here," I said, stepping forward,"it won't be you."
The sentinel raised its stone greatsword.
"Then perish—"
Its sentence cut off as the Starfall Beast lunged from behind me.
BRUTALITY REWRITTEN
The beast's claws clashed against the sentinel's sword, sparks of divine light exploding outward.
I dashed to the side.
Another sentinel swung its hammer toward me.
I didn't dodge.
I caught it.
The ground cratered beneath my feet, but I didn't budge.
My muscles trembled—not from the force—but from my awakening power overreacting.
"That all?"
I twisted.
Bones cracked.Stone shattered.The hammer snapped in two.
The sentinel stumbled back.
I gripped its fractured torso and slammed it into the pavement so hard the entire street split apart.
The third sentinel charged, wings made of marble blades spreading wide.
I stepped onto its shoulder mid-charge and drove my fist into its face—shattering half its head in a single blow.
The first sentinel shouted:
"WHAT ARE YOU—!?"
I grinned.
"Something your gods failed to kill."
I leaped, landed on its chest, and crushed its core with my bare hand.
Light burst from its body.
Silence returned.
THE DOOR TO THE FORGOTTEN CHAMBER
The ground trembled.
The ruins shifted.
As if the city itself recognized my victory,the street cracked open in a perfect circle—revealing a spiral staircase descending into darkness.
The Starfall Beast nudged my shoulder.
I knew what waited below.
My next fragment.
But as I took the first step downward…
A soft voice echoed behind me.
Not hostile.Not divine.
Human.
"Hiro…?"
I whipped around.
A young woman stood at the entrance of the ruins—messy dark hair, torn traveler cloak,eyes glowing faintly with lunar silver.
Not mortal.
Not fully divine.
Something in between.
I'd seen those eyes before…
In a memory…in chains…crying my name as she was dragged away…
She whispered again:
"Hiro… you're alive?"
My heartbeat stopped.
My hands clenched.
Because there was no doubt—
She was the first person the gods forced me to kill.
Or so I thought.
THE SHADOW OF MY PAST
Her voice trembled.
"You remember me… don't you?"
Memories slammed into me like lightning.
Her hand in mine.Her screams.The divine chains dragging her.My wings burning.The gods forcing my blade into her chest.
I staggered, gripping the cracked wall as the world spun.
She took a step forward.
"I… survived, Hiro.But you—you weren't supposed to."
The Starfall Beast growled.
She flinched.
But she kept her eyes on me.
Tears welled.
"They used me to punish you.To break you.To control you."
The air turned colder.
My fists shook.
Because even with all my divinity…
I couldn't protect her.
Not then.
Not now.
Unless—
"I'm here for your fragments," she whispered."The gods want to destroy what's left of you."
Her eyes hardened.
"But I won't let them."
THE NEXT ASCENSION BEGINS
I stepped toward the stairway.
She stepped beside me.
"You're coming with me?" I asked.
She nodded.
"Until the end.I owe you more than a life."
The Starfall Beast bowed its head, accepting her presence.
I descended into the darkness with her at my side—toward the chamber where a power of mine slept,waiting for me to reclaim it.
Behind us, the city sealed shut.
Ahead of us—
the fragment pulsed like a heartbeat.
My heartbeat.
The next stage of my divine return had begun.