The old Eclipse Tower rooftop, 127 floors above a city that had already started to fear the night.
Kael waited beneath two bleeding moons.
No mask.
No weapons visible.
Only the black ring, the Void Crown System, and twelve folded shadow wings hidden beneath a simple black coat.
9:00 p.m. sharp.
Reality tore open like black silk.
Liora stepped through the rift.
Silver hair whipping in an impossible wind.
Void combat dress clinging to every lethal curve.
Amethyst eyes glowing with killing intent.
In her right hand: a seven-foot spear forged from pure nothingness, edges flickering between existence and oblivion.
She stopped ten metres away.
The air temperature dropped hard enough to frost the broken glass under their feet.
Kael smiled, small, warm, and absolutely unafraid.
"Hi, wife."
The spear crossed the distance faster than light.
Kael did not move.
Twelve shadow wings exploded from his back, blacker than the space between stars, each feather a blade that devoured light.
One wing unfolded lazily and caught the spear by the shaft.
Crack.
The entire rooftop split in a perfect circle, concrete crumbling into dust.
Kael closed his bare hand around the weapon that could erase cities.
He pulled.
Liora was dragged forward one unwilling step.
Her eyes widened, just a fraction.
No one had ever stopped her spear with skin.
Kael met her stare.
"I paid twenty billion for the fragment that belongs to you," he said, voice calm.
"Dinner is the least you can give me in return."
Liora's voice was winter given sound.
"You stole what is mine by blood."
"I reclaimed what was always ours by soul."
The spear dissolved into smoke and reformed instantly in her grip.
She attacked again, no hesitation, no mercy.
The rooftop became a storm of void and shadow.
Spear met wing.
Wing met spear.
Every clash erased matter, concrete turned to nothing, steel screamed and vanished.
Thirty seconds of perfect, beautiful violence.
Neither bled.
Neither blinked.
Then Kael stepped inside her reach.
One hand caught her spear-wrist.
The other slid to the small of her back, fingers spreading possessively.
The twelve wings folded forward, wrapping them both in a cocoon of living darkness.
The world went silent.
Only their breathing.
Night-blooming cereus and cosmic frost flooded his lungs.
Her scent.
His soul remembered before his mind could stop it.
Liora's pupils dilated.
The spear slipped from her fingers and shattered into black snow.
Kael spoke against her lips.
"Ten billion years ago you sealed a universe inside your heart to save me.
I'm here to return the favour."
Her heartbeat hammered against his chest, wild, terrified, alive.
She tried to pull away.
His arms were gentle steel.
"Let go," she ordered, voice cracking for the first time in this lifetime.
"Not again," he whispered.
"Never again."
The black ring ignited white-hot.
A shared memory hit them like a supernova.
A throne of dying stars.
Her naked back against his wings.
Galaxies exploding as they made love.
Her teeth on his throat.
His name on her tongue: "My Eternal Night."
Half a second.
Eternity compressed into a heartbeat.
Liora gasped.
Kael's eyes bled crimson-gold light.
The wings tightened protectively.
She stared at him, really looked.
Recognition.
Fear.
A softness older than time.
"Who…" she breathed.
"Who are you to me?"
Kael rested his forehead against hers.
"The man who never stopped searching, even when every memory was stolen."
The VOID CROWN SYSTEM spoke aloud for the first time, voice echoing across the entire city.
<< Resonance: 7.4% >>
<< Primary seal weakened >>
<< Narrative Devourers have detected anomaly >>
<< First puppet activated early >>
Golden light tore the sky open.
A teenage boy in radiant white armour descended, holy sword blazing, plot armor glowing like a cheap halo.
The first "chosen hero" of this cycle, two months ahead of schedule.
He pointed and screamed the line every puppet knows by heart.
"Villains! Your evil ends tonight!"
Kael's temperature dropped to absolute zero.
He pressed one soft kiss to Liora's forehead.
"Stay behind me."
Then he stepped forward.
Twelve wings spread wide, blocking the moons.
The Void Whisper Pistol formed in his right hand, small, elegant, silent.
His voice rolled across the city like judgment.
"No."
One trigger pull.
No sound.
No flash.
The hero, his holy sword, his plot armor, and five city blocks behind him simply ceased to exist.
A perfect black tunnel straight through reality, edges smooth as glass.
Message delivered.
Kael turned back.
Liora stood exactly where he left her, silver hair dancing in the shockwave, amethyst eyes wide.
He offered his hand, palm up.
"Dinner is getting cold."
After ten billion years of separation, she placed her hand in his.
Her fingers fit perfectly, like they had never been apart.
The black ring cooled, satisfied.
The hidden counter ticked.
9,999,995
Far beyond the sky, something ancient and hungry screamed in rage.
Kael closed his wings around her, gentle this time.
"Let's go home, Liora."
She didn't ask where home was.
She already knew.
To be continued…