The heavens wept light.
From the storm's heart, the Seraph of Silence unfurled its wings fully for the first time in a thousand years. Each feather dripped molten essence, falling like comets upon the land below. Valleys trembled, rivers burned, and the sky sang a note of mourning that echoed across every bond in existence.
Lyn gasped, clutching his chest as his crest pulsed in rhythm with the Seraph's cry. "It's calling to the Seals…"
Umbra's voice trembled through their link. —No. It's calling to you. It remembers.
The Seraph's gaze turned downward, its radiant eyes locking onto Lyn and Umbra. For a heartbeat, time stilled—the world fading to white as ancient memories bled through their bond.
In the silence, Lyn saw flashes—chains of light, a hand reaching through fire, a whisper of a forgotten name.
"Aetheris…" he breathed unconsciously.
Umbra's wings faltered midflight. —You remember that name?
"It's… mine. Or his. I can't tell anymore."
Below them, Rhea's voice broke through the chaos. "Lyn! The rebel lines are collapsing! That thing's aura—it's suppressing all tamer bonds!"
"Fall back to the ridge!" Lyn commanded. "Umbra and I will hold it off!"
"You'll die if you try to face that thing head-on!" she cried.
"Then we'll die standing," Lyn whispered, his voice calm, resolute.
Umbra's form began to darken, veins of shadow threading through its scales. —If we merge now, the backlash could kill us both.
"If we don't, everyone else dies instead."
Umbra's growl turned into a low, sorrowful hum. —Then let us become one, just once more.
The bond flared. The air cracked. Light and shadow intertwined, twisting into a new form.
From within the storm emerged a hybrid—half man, half beast. Lyn's body fused with Umbra's essence, black scales running down his arms, his eyes glowing with gold slits of power. His voice carried both tones when he spoke.
"You remember us, Seraph?"
The Seraph's massive head tilted, its voice echoing like a chorus of dying stars. "You are the shadow that defied the First Light."
"And you are the light that failed to see its chains."
The clash that followed was not a battle—it was a rewriting of heaven itself.
Umbra-Lyn surged forward, fists striking with the force of an eclipse. Each blow shattered pieces of divine reality, sending fragments of the Seal's symbols spinning through the air. The Seraph retaliated with blades of pure luminescence, slicing through layers of mana as if cutting through silk.
Every impact echoed across the world. Cities below knelt in silence as night and day fought for dominance above.
Rhea stared from afar, her hands trembling. "He's… fusing completely."
Behind her, Aris muttered, "If he loses control, there'll be no world left to save."
But Lyn's voice roared through the sky—part human, part something far older. "This bond isn't corruption—it's freedom!"
He extended his hand, summoning the power of the Third and Fourth Seals. Black flame and golden light twisted together, forming a spiral that tore through the Seraph's defenses.
The guardian shrieked, wings folding inward as its form began to fracture. Feathers turned to shards of crystal, scattering like dying stars.
Yet, as it fell, the Seraph smiled. "Then prove it, tamer. Free us all… or doom us forever."
A single feather, still burning, drifted down and embedded itself into Lyn's crest. The world went silent.
Umbra's voice whispered weakly. —You've absorbed its will. The Fifth Seal… is now yours.
Lyn looked down at his hands. They trembled—not from fear, but from what he felt stirring beneath his skin.
"This power…" he murmured. "It's alive."
Umbra's answer was solemn. —All divine power is. But it remembers the last one who bore it. And it does not forgive easily.
Lightning broke once more across the horizon as Lyn hovered, suspended between mortal and divine, his eyes reflecting both dusk and dawn.
The world had changed. And every god watching knew it.