The sky split.
Not with lightning—no, something worse. A silent rupture, a gash torn across the heavens like the universe itself blinked in pain. A second moon hovered behind the clouds, but it was wrong—dark, fractured, dripping starlight like black ichor.
And beneath it stood Uno, or what remained of him.
He stepped forward from the temple's ruin, violet chains trailing from his wrists like broken puppet strings. His skin glowed faintly with rune-light. His eyes no longer held recognition—only the endless depths of space, the gaze of something ancient and hungry.
Thal'Zir had awakened.
Azire's heart clenched before the figure even stepped into view. The moment the air warped, he already knew.
"He's coming," Maya whispered, her voice barely audible.
From the shattered temple doors, the god-possessed vessel emerged.
Belial drew in a breath, his gauntlet pulsing faintly. "...That's not Uno anymore."
The figure tilted its head.
Azire stepped forward.
"I don't know what you are," he said, voice steady. "But Uno's still in there. I can feel it."
The god in Uno's body smiled, slow and eerie.
"You feel a memory," he said. His voice was layered—Uno's tone drowned beneath something vast, echoing, and starless. "And memories are only fuel."
He lifted his hand.
Reality cracked.
A gravitational wave exploded outward, unseen but deeply felt. The ground around the group twisted—Maya was the first to react, casting "Celestial Reversal" with a sharp cry. The pull of gravity flipped upward, countering the collapse just in time.
Azire surged forward, Voidshard Visage materializing at his side. The mask's whisper coiled into his thoughts.
"This is beyond your current strength, Azire."
"I know," he muttered, summoning a ripple of dimensional distortion around him. "But we stall him now—or everything burns."
From Thal'Zir's fingers came threads of light—then darkness.
He wasn't just attacking.
He was scanning them.
Testing them like a scholar dissects a page.
Belial lunged in first, gauntlet flaring. "ECLIPSE COUNTER!"
The beam he absorbed, he fired back—twice as strong.
But Thal'Zir's body tilted, as if time itself bent slightly to the left. The blast passed through nothing.
Belial's smirk faded.
"Twilight Shift."
The air shimmered—and Thal'Zir's hand speared toward him, grabbing the edge of the Eclipse Gauntlet.
Belial screamed as his own energy surged back into his arm—but twisted.
"A gauntlet of counterforce," Thal'Zir murmured, amused. "Elegant. Predictable."
Belial crashed into a crumbled wall, coughing blood.
Maya shouted, "Twin Moon Synchronization!"
Blue and violet flared around her, twin crescents glowing at full strength.
Illusions sprang forth—Crescent Phantasms dancing between rubble and smoke. Gravity bent, pulled, flipped—but Thal'Zir didn't resist. He simply watched.
And then, he mirrored her.
A dozen shadows formed around him. Moonlight, corrupted and dark, bent the battlefield.
Her illusions shattered instantly.
Azire stepped into the fray.
The Voidshard Visage glowed brightly, its runes humming with unstable light. A dimensional rift opened behind him, and he struck with a lance made of shattered realms.
"You wield my echo," Thal'Zir said quietly.
"Then you already know how this ends," Azire growled.
Their powers collided—Void against Void.
Azire's strike grazed the god's cheek.
Blood spilled—silver, burning, divine.
And Thal'Zir smiled.
"Yes," he said. "You'll do nicely… once you break."
The blast that followed leveled the canyon. Stone turned to ash. Trees vaporized. Time paused for a blink.
When the dust settled, the god was gone.
But he'd left behind a message—burned into the earth in ancient celestial script