The thing outside waited, patient as death, wearing a stolen face and a worn silver ring that no longer fit quite right.
Everything was not fine.
Everything had only just begun to rot.
High above the city, the creature spread its vast wings—black feathers slicing the night with a low, ominous rush. It rose into the sky, the cold wind whipping across its skin, carrying the lingering warmth of devoured life. Crest energy pulsed through its veins like liquid fire, guiding it unerringly toward the house where Elisa's scent lingered strongest.
It landed on the lawn without a sound. Wings folded away.
Then it released its killing intent—heavy, suffocating, a blanket that spread through the neighborhood, silencing dogs and stilling the air itself.
Inside, Aurora's blood turned to ice.
This was wrong. All wrong. The knock had been too perfect, too ordinary. She reached out with her senses, probing the presence beyond the door. The crest energy there was immense—deeper, darker than anything she could match with her own power sealed. A cold spike of fear pierced her spine. They were outclassed. Outmatched.
"Elisa—Jack," she whispered urgently, voice trembling. "Someone's here to kill us."
The doorbell rang again.
Bright. Cheerful.
Wrong.
Jack took a hopeful step forward. "Steve?"
Aurora reacted instantly. Void energy surged from her hand, dark tendrils wrapping around Jack's arm and yanking him back hard enough to make him stumble. Pain flared, but fear drowned it.
"No." Her eyes widened, terror mirroring his own. "That's not Steve. That's death."
Elisa went pale, the metallic stench of blood slipping under the frame like smoke. Her knees weakened; bile rose hot and sour.
"I feel it," she breathed. "The blood. The intent."
Jack's face drained of color, panic flickering in his eyes. His hands shook.
"What now? Steve's gone—"
"Hide. Now." Aurora's voice was sharp, but the word cracked, hollow even as she spoke it.
Her breath came faster. No choice left.
Void energy gathered in her palm, condensing into a spear of pure darkness—humming with power that vibrated up her arm. She hurled it with a desperate cry.
The front door exploded outward in a spray of splintered wood. Debris whipped through the night.
The spear shot forward. A black arrow streaking for the figure's heart.
For a heartbeat, it looked true.
Aurora's breath caught. Hope flared.
Then the wing unfurled—steel feathers flashing under the porch light.
The impact rang out, a deafening clang that shook the street. Void shards scattered like dying stars.
Aurora froze mid-air. Shock numbed her, stealing the air from her lungs.
Then defiance surged. A snarl twisted her face.
She spun. Vortex roaring to life. Grass tore free. Wind howled, whipping tears from her eyes.
The creature slid one step closer—boots scraping concrete with deliberate slowness.
Now.
Aurora's slash carved the air, sharp enough to cut moonlight itself.
It missed—by inches.
Fire answered.
A sudden, roaring exhale—crimson flames erupting in a searing wave that lit the night like a sunrise from hell. Heat slammed into Aurora; she dove desperately, the fire's edge blistering her skin, the stench of singed hair filling her nose.
The house took the full brunt. Flames burst across walls with a thunderous whoosh, devouring paint and wood in greedy fury. Smoke billowed thick and acrid, clawing down throats and stinging eyes.
"Run!" Aurora screamed, her voice breaking against the fire's roar.
Jack and Elisa bolted for the back back exit, lungs burning from the thickening smoke. They burst into the rear hallway—and froze.
The child stood there, small frame shaking, eyes huge with fear as he reached out with trembling arms.
"Dad… Dad…" he cried, voice breaking with desperate trust.
Jack's heart wrenched. Without hesitation, he scooped the boy up, holding him close, the child's sobs muffled against his shoulder.
Elisa ran beside them, a sharp pang twisting through her fear at hearing the boy claim Jack again—the word landing like a quiet accusation in the chaos. She bit back the bitterness rising in her throat, smoke and regret burning her eyes.
Jack shot her a fierce glance over the child's head.
"Not now, Elisa!" he snapped, voice rough with urgency. "Kill it—or it kills us."
Behind them, the house groaned as flames consumed it.
From the darkness beyond the shattered door came silence.
Then, a single sound.
Not laughter.
A whisper—soft, intimate, carried on the hot wind.
"Soon."
The creature stepped from the shadows, its stolen face twisting into a grotesque smile, the air growing heavier with its killing intent. Jack and Elisa spun, hearts seizing in terror as the whisper echoed in their ears like a death knell.
"Soon," it rasped again, voice smooth and mocking, "I will fulfill your wish."
Elisa's fear ignited into rage. Creation crest flared in her hands, channeling into a plasma blaster that crackled with blue energy. She fired—a searing bolt streaking toward the monster, the recoil jarring her arms.
It dodged, body blurring sideways, the plasma scorching the wall behind it with a hiss of ozone.
Elisa charged, fury overriding thought, tears streaking her smoke-stained face. She closed the distance, void fubuki erupting from her palm—a whirlwind of shards whipping through the air like a storm of glass.
The monster twisted fast, but not fast enough. The attack clipped one wing, feathers shredding with a wet rip, black ichor spraying across the floor. It crashed into the opposite wall, plaster crumbling in a cloud of dust.
Aurora burst in, breath ragged, skin stinging from burns, eyes wild with the knowledge that they were still losing. "We need a plan—now!"
Jack clutched the child tighter, the boy's sobs muffled against his neck. His mind raced—the fire, the steel wings, the speed. Close range. Trap it.
"Elisa—prism! Your crest energy—make the prism! Aurora, buy us seconds!"
Aurora's nod was grim, her burned hands trembling as void crest surged again. She unleashed divine departure—a radiant slash of light and shadow hurtling forward, the air screaming with its passage.
The monster rose from the rubble, one wing hanging damaged, ichor dripping in thick rivulets. It countered with flaming steel wings, feathers igniting mid-swing, clashing against Aurora's attack in a burst of sparks and heat that scorched the air and forced her back.
Jack hurled the prism Elisa had barely managed to form—her hands shaking violently, crest energy flickering from exhaustion. The crystalline cage shimmered into existence, expanding in a desperate flash of light.
It caught the monster mid-lunge.
The creature thrashed inside, wings battering the shimmering walls with deafening cracks. Fractures spiderwebbed across the prism like ice about to shatter. Black ichor hissed where it touched the energy, and the structure groaned, already weakening.
It held—for now.
But the monster's stolen eyes locked on them through the barrier, burning with promise, unblinking and utterly calm.
The prism would not last.
And in that gaze, they all felt it—the cold, certain truth.
Death was still coming.