The heavens tore open.
From the gash of golden light, seven figures descended their wings woven from constellations, their voices a harmony that shattered the clouds. The Archons had come, embodiments of celestial law and forgotten divinity.
Their radiance drowned the city below in white fire. Towers cracked. The air thickened, vibrating with pure frequency not sound, but command.
Every being who heard it fell to their knees.
Every being but one.
Arka stood beneath the falling light, his coat whipping in the divine wind, his eyes burning with twin hues silver and black. The sigil of Balance glowed across his chest, interlocked with the old mark of the Abyss.
Kael shouted over the roar. "Arka! They're rewriting gravity itself the city's coming apart!"
He didn't answer. His gaze was locked on the lead Archon a colossal figure with hair of burning starlight and a blade forged from a dying sun.
The Archon's voice rolled across the world, deep and resonant. "Child of contradiction. You were warned never to merge the two paths. Yet you carry both Abyss and Heaven within your flesh."
Arka's voice was steady, but carried the weight of lifetimes. "Because both abandoned the world they claimed to protect."
The Archon descended lower, his wings spreading wide. "Then you stand against creation itself?"
"I stand against control."
For a moment, silence fell.
Then the Archon smiled. "Then let Balance judge you."
He raised his blade. The sky exploded.
A beam of divine light shot downward, pure annihilation. It struck Arka full on yet when the dust cleared, he was still standing. His blade, now glowing with molten runes, had split the beam clean in two.
Kael gasped. "That… wasn't human."
"No," Arka whispered, lifting his gaze. "It wasn't meant to be."
Behind him, the spectral outline of a massive wolf unfurled silver fur streaked with shadow, eyes glowing like dying stars. The Star Wolf, reborn from the Balance within him.
Its roar shook the heavens.
The Archon staggered backward, divine feathers scattering like ash. "Impossible. The Star Wolf's essence was erased!"
Arka stepped forward, the ground fracturing beneath each stride. "You erased the body. But you forgot the soul."
The wolf moved as he moved two entities, one pulse. Together they leapt upward, silver light spiraling like a storm. The Archon swung his blade again, but Arka caught it midair, sparks erupting from the collision.
For an instant, Heaven and Abyss collided.
Lightning carved through the clouds. The sea below rose in waves of glass. Across the world, sleeping ley lines flared to life, as if the earth itself remembered its creator.
Kael shielded her eyes. "Arka if you keep this up, you'll destroy the balance!"
His voice echoed across the storm. "Then I'll rebuild it with my own hands."
He twisted his blade. The runes ignited. The Archon's weapon shattered, fragments dissolving into motes of golden flame. The being screamed not in pain, but disbelief as his form unraveled into starlight.
The heavens went silent.
The remaining six Archons hesitated. For the first time in eons, divine beings feared.
Arka hovered above the city, cloak whipping around him, the wolf's silhouette fading slowly into his shadow. The light in his eyes dimmed to a steady silver glow.
He lowered his blade. "Tell your Creator this"
He pointed toward the sky, where the fissure still pulsed faintly. "Balance belongs to the living now."
The Archons vanished one by one, dissolving into streams of light returning to the breach. The fissure began to close, though the heavens still wept silver rain.
Kael ran to him, breathless. "It's over?"
Arka looked up. "No. That was only the first descent."
From somewhere deep in the sky, a second voice whispered softer, more human, yet infinite.
"You've defied both Heaven and Abyss. Now let's see what kind of god you become."
Arka's expression didn't change. But the wolf's reflection behind him bared its fangs.
"Then let the next descent come."
And above the collapsing clouds, a single new star was born black at its core, ringed by a halo of silver fire.
The mark of the new Balance.