The night after the sky cracked was silent.
Too silent.
The stars no longer twinkled — they watched.
Their light was the echo of the Divine Annihilator's gaze, stretching across realms, searching for the one who had defied Heaven.
Arhaan sat by the dying campfire, his face lit by embers. Kael was asleep nearby, armor cracked and wings half-burnt. Around them, mortals and angels slept side by side — their breaths uneven, their dreams haunted by the golden fire that had almost consumed the world.
Arhaan stared into the flames, and the flames stared back.
Then… they spoke.
> "You've awakened it," a deep, ancient voice said.
"The First Flame remembers you."
Arhaan didn't flinch. "Azrakar. Show yourself."
A silhouette rose from the fire — vast, horned, cloaked in smoke and memory. The air shimmered with divine heat as Azrakar, the Bound Jinn of Truth, emerged fully.
His eyes were like molten gold. "Do you even know what that weapon is, boy?"
Arhaan clenched his fist. "A tool of Heaven. One that must be stopped."
Azrakar's laughter rumbled like an earthquake.
"No. It's older than Heaven. Older than angels. It was the first will — the First Flame that birthed creation. Heaven merely chained it… just as they chained me."
Arhaan's expression hardened. "You were part of it."
The jinn's form flickered. Behind him, visions unfolded in the air — the birth of the cosmos, the first light tearing through endless darkness, and a vast presence descending upon it — the Arbiter, cloaked in divine radiance, sealing the First Flame within the armor of the Annihilator.
> "We were born from that fire," Azrakar said softly. "You, me, even the gods. It was pure will — creation unfiltered. But Heaven feared it. They sealed it away, calling it 'order.' And when I rebelled, they chained me for remembering the truth."
Arhaan's eyes glowed faintly red in the firelight.
"So when the Annihilator wakes—"
"It doesn't just destroy," Azrakar interrupted. "It resets. It burns away lies, laws, souls — until nothing remains but the flame."
Arhaan rose to his feet, the Oathbreaker pulsing in his hand.
"Then I'll use it to burn away the lies… but I'll stop it before it devours the truth."
Azrakar chuckled. "You speak like a god."
Arhaan met his gaze. "Maybe I was meant to be one."
---
The flames dimmed.
When dawn came, Kael awoke to find Arhaan standing on a cliff, watching the horizon.
"Couldn't sleep?" Kael asked.
"Can't," Arhaan replied. "Not while the First Flame burns inside me."
Kael frowned. "Inside you?"
Arhaan turned slightly. His eyes glimmered faintly — not red, but gold and white now.
"The Oathbreaker didn't just resist the Annihilator's power. It absorbed part of it."
Kael's voice lowered. "Then… that means—"
Arhaan nodded.
"Yes. I'm becoming what Heaven feared most."
---
In the heavens, the High Arbiter gazed into the divine mirror.
Within it, he saw Arhaan's reflection — eyes glowing with the light of creation.
> "So the First Flame chooses a vessel," the Arbiter whispered.
"Then I shall extinguish both."
Behind him, the Annihilator stirred again. Its heart beat once, shaking Heaven's pillars.
The war was no longer about faith.
It was about who would control the soul of existence itself.