Voom—
An obsidian cocoon of shadow coalesced atop a nameless skyscraper. From its depths, Step— a figure emerged, eyes fixed on the sky. Above him, an entity hovered, its skeletal, gargantuan wings beating rhythmically. A heavy thrum followed every stroke, birthing violent gusts that howled across the rooftop. Their eyes met—twin orbs of predator crimson, reflecting a hunger and stakes that defied human comprehension.
"My, my," Veer's voice cut through the howling wind, dripping with a lethal, theatrical grace. "Did you really jump from the building just to save me? I am sooo touched!!" His voice was filled with exaggerated delight and mockery.
"Cut the crap, Veer," Karan's voice was a low, resonant growl that seemed to vibrate in the very air. "Tell me where that mole is hiding while I'm still asking nicely."
"Tsk, tsk! Always in such a rush, Karan." Veer tilted his head, a playful smirk dancing on his lips. "We haven't seen each other in ages, and the night is still so young. Why don't we enjoy this reunion? Maybe get some dinner while we are at it? A small date, perhaps?"
Karan's eyes narrowed dangerously. "...You sure you can handle the consequences of testing my patience?"
A sanguine haze bled into the air, turning the moonlight a bruised purple. Veer's eyes flared with a predatory light before his form dissolved into a mist of red static. A heartbeat later, he was standing directly in front of Karan.
His muscular yet elegantly proportioned, lethally sculpted frame, exposed through the tattered remains of his suit, radiated a criminally charismatic presence—the kind of raw, dangerous charisma that could make a heart stop.
Stretching his powerful wings with feline grace, Veer leaned in, his presence seemingly swallowing Karan whole. The heat of his breath brushed against Karan's ear. "Any doubt?" Veer whispered, answering a question with a challenge.
Their eyes locked, faces inches apart, hot breath mingling in the narrow space. The moon's silver light brushed against the thin, leathery membrane of Veer's folded wings, illuminating the veins and the tension between them.
But before the moment could tip into something softer, reddish-orange embers—flickering like dying fireflies—swirled around Karan. The heat rose instantly, incinerating the expectations of any onlookers hoping for a romantic turn in this lethal atmosphere.
Veer chuckled softly even as his body began to char like parchment caught in a furnace, consumed by dark orange flames that smelled of sulfur and the deep reaches of hell. Yet, even as he burned, the maddening smile remained etched on his face as his body turned to ash and blew away into the dark.
"Tsk…" A sharp sneer hissed near Karan's ear.
He whipped around, but the space was empty. The reddish haze was thickening, turning the surrounding space into a soup of blood-colored mist.
"You know? This is why I hate you," Veer's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere. "Always so serious. Playing the 'Sigma' all day long."
Karan's hand shot out with blurred speed, his fingers clamping like iron around a throat that hadn't been there a millisecond before. He hauled Veer close, tightening his grip until the vertebrae groaned. "You seem to have plenty of time to waste," Karan hissed, his aura darkening. "Unfortunately, I don't."
As he prepared to crush the life from the throat in his hand, Veer's form dissolved again, leaving only a lingering image.
"Ugh! Your words are like poisoned daggers to my… precarious heart," Veer's voice resonated through the air. "I'm a busy man too, you know."
He reappeared high in the dusky sky, a silhouette against the moon that appeared like a celestial halo behind him. "I was merely being a polite host, trying to entertain my guest." Suddenly, the atmosphere shifted. Veer's aura spiked, turning the air frigid. His fangs elongated, gleaming white as he snapped his neck from side to side, his playful mask finally slipping.
"But the guest clearly doesn't appreciate the effort." The haze turned viscous, choking the light. "In fact, I'm in a much bigger hurry than you are."
"Believe whatever helps you sleep at night," Karan replied dismissively, his eyes narrowing. "Just give me what I want and get out of my sight."
"Fine, fine. Whatever." Veer began to fade once more. "But let's play one last game of tag before the sun comes up." His voice was a ghostly whisper directly in Karan's ear. "If you catch me, I promise to personally escort you to the destination you so desperately desire."
Veer's grin widened, his sharp fangs no longer hiding his intentions.
"And why should I play along with your antics," Karan growled, "when I can just crack open that melon of a skull and pluck the information from the pulp?"
"Ah, don't worry. This is the last game I'll play with you for the night," Veer spoke with a sudden, feigned air of boredom. "I have to get back to Father anyway. An unfailing son should be by his side when he's… unwell."
The change in Karan was instantaneous. His coldness evaporated, replaced by a raw, bellicose fury. "…What happened to the Old Man?"
"Hmm?" Veer's smile stretched to a grotesque length. Karan had taken the bait. "Why do you care? After all, he's just an 'Old Man' to you—even if he isn't actually that old." He continued swirling the hook, enjoying Karan's every twitch.
"Answer me!" Karan roared, his aura intensifying violently.
Veer laughed softly. "Any guesses? Let me offer a clue: before he ended our call today, he expressed his deepest regrets... amidst bouts of heavy coughing." Veer's eyes danced with mischief.
That was the final nail in the coffin. Karan's aura exploded with such magnitude that the concrete beneath his boots began to liquefy, bubbling from the sheer pressure of his rage. The mist was blown back, forced away by the raw power radiating from him as the moon reclaimed its rightful position as the sole witness to this otherworldly reunion.
Veer materialized silently behind Karan, leaning in to savor the raw, trembling fury of the fish now firmly caught on his hook. Sensing the predatory presence, Karan didn't hesitate; he spun on his heel with a snarl, sending a fist hurtling toward the other's face.
With a delicate twist, Veer smoothly avoided the strike. The sheer force of the missed punch tore through the cloud layer, creating a vacuum that unleashed a series of deafening sonic booms.
Gently tapping at Karan's tightly shut fist, "Your turn," Veer taunted, pivoting and propelling himself into the sky with a mighty beat of his wings and taking off into the cold sky.
Karan's eyes ignited fiercely. From the shadows on the roof, an obsidian essence rose, coalescing into a pair of void-black wings that resembled a raven's, yet felt infinitely more ancient. "You skanky bastard!"
With a thunderous flap, Karan launched himself skyward. His back muscles flexed with tectonic strength as he tore through the air in pursuit, a dark streak of fury aiming for Veer's heels.
Glancing back, Veer saw the black trail closing in. He laughed, a wild, echoing sound, and angled himself toward the radiant glow of the moon.
Boom— Boom— Boom—
They were no longer flying; they were projectiles. Traveling at hypersonic velocities, they pushed toward Mach 65—nearly twice the speed of any human-made craft. The sky groaned under the weight of their passage, trailing a continuous chain of sonic booms that shattered the silence of the night.
Ascending through the troposphere, they tore through the stratosphere, appearing to any observer on the ground as twin streaks of light bound for the stars. The friction of the air, the thinning oxygen, and the bone-chilling cold of the mesosphere meant nothing to them; their tangible auras acted as atmospheric shields, cutting through the elements like heated blades through wax.
Nearing the edge of the exosphere, Veer abruptly pivoted. With the grace of a falling angel, he folded his wings and dived. He plummeted back toward Earth at terminal velocity, Karan a relentless shadow right behind him.
Like twin meteors, they re-entered the lower atmosphere, lighting up the sky in vibrant shades of violet and crimson.
"Mom, look! Shooting stars!" a child cried out on the street, tugging at his mother's sleeve and pointing skyward.
"Where, honey?" she inquired, shielding her eyes as she followed the child's gaze. Captivated by the sight, she gasped, "Wow. How beautiful," awestruck by the spectacle against the tranquil, dimly lit sky.
Around them, the city paused. Tourists stopped to point, capturing the celestial display on their phones.
"Please, make me super rich!!"
"Let me win the biggest lottery!"
"I wish the school blasts away in the morning!!"
"Please make my grandmother healthy again..."
"I wish to know her name!!"
Some wished.
"Wait… aren't those getting a bit too close?" another voice rose above the murmurs.
"Now that you mention it, they do seem to—"
The realization dawned on the crowd like a physical blow. The two brilliant objects weren't fading; they were growing larger, hurtling directly toward the neon-lit heart of the city.
"Shit! Move! They are heading towards us!"
The awe turned to agony and screams erupted.
"Ahhh!"
"RUNNN!"
"We are going to die!"
"The second mass extinction is here!!!"
"Does that mean I won't be going to school anymore?"
Chaos gripped all as the two figures hurtled ever closer towards the glistening skyline.
Shooom—
Boommm—!!
Veer, mere inches from obliterating himself against the asphalt, snapped his wings open. The leathery membranes catching the wind as he veered sharply, leveling out parallel to the ground. His passage was a hurricane of destruction—shattering glass, uprooting palm trees, and snapping utility poles like toothpicks. To the terrified onlookers, he was nothing more than a blur of bluish-purple light, a ghost of devastation.
Karan, however, didn't turn. Lacking Veer's surgical precision in flight, he hit the street head-on. Amidst a roar of thunder and a shroud of rising debris, he vanished into the asphalt like a stone dropped into a dark pond, the impact sending ripples of buckled stone surging through the street.
"Hmm?" Veer slowed, scanning the wreckage behind him. "!!!"
A spike of lethal intent pricked the back of his neck. He maneuvered to his right just as a blade of pure shadow erupted from the ground, aiming for his heart.
A slithering darkness moved across the street with terrifying speed, spawning a forest of obsidian spikes that lunged for Veer's vitals.
"Whoa!" Veer narrowly evaded a lunge that would have disemboweled him. "Easy now, boy. You aren't even trying to hide the killing intent anymore." He was grinning. He was loving this reunion more than Karan.
Within seconds, they had cleared the city limits, leaving a trail of ruined luxury and shattered neon in their wake.
'Just a bit more.' Veer's leathery wings beat with renewed fervor. Up ahead, on the desolate outskirts of the desert, a dilapidated church loomed—a skeletal ruin of stone and rotted wood.
He pushed his speed one last time. 'Finally.' With a savage smile, he disappeared into the darkened maw of the ruins.
The pursuing shadow skidded to a halt at the entrance. It rose from the dirt, a viscous mass of darkness solidifying into a human figure, reforming into Karan. He paused, surveying the area. Silence. No sign of life for miles. The church stood alone, a tomb in the desert.
Karan stepped inside. His boots crunched on stone and debris. The nave was a graveyard of broken benches and mold-infested timber. Broken pillars, fallen transept, and the roof gone in sections allowed the moonlight to spill inside like a spotlight on a stage of decay.
Everything was in ruins.
Amidst the wreckage, a stone cross stood remarkably intact. A marble effigy of the Son of God oversaw the sanctuary beside the shattered altar.
As Karan moved deeper into the gloom to search for Veer, a sound tore through the air.
"AAAAHHHHHH!!!"
A piercing, jagged scream erupted from the direction of the cross.
It was a sound of pure, unadulterated agony. For a split second, Karan wondered if the marble figure itself was screaming from the hellish pain of crucifixion, but the thought seemed far-fetched.
He rushed toward the source, searching every shadow, every inch and crack in the floor.
Nothing. Only the ringing in his ears.
Then, it happened again. "AAAHHHHHH—" The cry was cut off mid-shout, leaving a silence so heavy it felt physical.
This time, Karan was certain that the cries of agony originated from the cross—to be more precise—from beneath the crucified effigy. And more than one soul seemed to be present, considering how the scream was cut off mid-shout. He searched for any hidden mechanism, a latch—anything that might reveal the source of the agonizing screams.
He reached out to touch the cold stone. His fingertips came away wet. He looked closer. Atmospheric moisture had gathered in the eyes of the marble statue, glistening like tears in the moonlight. It looked as though the divine figure was weeping, pleading with Karan to shepherd the lost lamb who was desperately crying out for salvation, suffering beneath its feet.
Finding no physical entrance, Karan's eyes ignited with a fierce, cold light. He ceased his search for a latch or a lever; he didn't need a key to enter a grave.
His own shadow began to detach itself from the floor, rising like a viscous tide of ink that climbed his legs and enveloped his chest. He surrendered to the darkness, his physical form dissolving into the void as he sank through the solid stone of the church floor, vanishing without a trace.
Silence returned to the ruins. But they weren't empty.
From the high rafters, two crimson eyes pierced the dark. Veer was suspended upside down from a precarious wooden beam, his massive wings wrapped around him like a cloak. He watched the spot where Karan had vanished, grinning widely, his long fangs glinting in the dark—a predator reveling in the success of his objective of meeting Karan in the Sin City.