The night air was sharp, filled with the quiet hum of magic sensors as Zian Kael crept beyond the Academy's perimeter. Her golden eyes glinted in the moonlight, reflecting the ruins where overgrown moss clung to the statues of long-forgotten warriors.
She wasn't sure what pulled her there—only that the dreams had returned. Dreams of shadows kneeling. Of blood. Of wings that once soared.
Standing at the center of the crumbled arena, she raised her hand on instinct.
Darkness surged.
From her shadow, a soldier rose. Then another. Then a dozen more. Each forged from the void itself, clad in flickering black armor, their faces blank, their loyalty absolute.
"I don't know who I am," Zian whispered, her voice unsteady. "But I know I once led you."
A wind stirred the field. The shadow soldiers bowed.
In flashes, she saw it—fragments she couldn't place. Her blade clashing with silver spears. Her scream echoing across a battlefield. Her shadow army falling one by one, and then…
A blinding light. Silence. Rebirth.
"I won't fail again," she vowed.
From the trees above, Kaen watched silently. The way the shadows responded to her… it wasn't human. She had once made a pact with him, long ago. But she didn't remember. Not yet.
"She's awakening," Kaen murmured, licking his ice cream.
Back in the academy, scanners flickered. Alarms buzzed faintly before failing.
The darkness Zian was tapping into was far older than this world. And in her soul, something ancient stirred—a silent scream returning to a voice.
The angel who once failed to save her god had returned to reclaim her shadowed throne.
And this time, she would not lose.