The battlefield had gone disturbingly silent.
Melody's body remained suspended above the cracked earth, her wings flickering with unstable arcs of violet. The corruption inside her pulsed like a heartbeat, loud, heavy, and wrong. Eleanor felt the pressure of it against her own ribs, like something trying to push her back.
She stood her ground.
Lucy moved beside her, moonlit feathers trembling. Silvia kept her bow drawn but her hands shook. Peter and Robert were a few paces behind, both breathing hard, both bleeding from places they hadn't noticed yet.
But Melody. She looked nothing like the girl they grew up with.
Eleanor swallowed, forcing down the ache rising in her throat.
"Melody, how far did you fall?"
For a moment, Melody didn't answer. Her head twitched, her mismatched eyes fighting between clarity and madness. A faint smile cracked across her lips, not joy, not relief, but something empty.
Then the river beside them rippled.
Not from wind.
From the pressure leaking off Melody's body.
Lucy whispered, "Her aura's shifting again. This is going to be bad."
Eleanor didn't move. She couldn't. Something inside her, something old and instinctive, told her running would only make things worse.
Melody's voice finally broke through the air, soft, but splintering at the edges.
"You're all so bright."
Eleanor stiffened.
"And it hurts."
The last word left Melody like a confession torn out of her soul. Eleanor felt her chest tighten. She remembered the Melody who always hid behind others during training, who whispered that sunlight made her dizzy, who envied angels with stable cores.
She remembered a friend who tried to smile even when she couldn't keep up.
"Melody," Eleanor said quietly, "we didn't abandon you. And we're not here to hurt you."
A laugh, brittle and jagged, echoed across the riverbed.
"You already did."
Violet flames snapped outward and the ground beneath Melody shattered. The shockwave forced Silvia back. Peter shielded her with his arm, grunting as stones tore across his jacket. Robert nearly lost his footing.
Eleanor dug her heels in, refusing to step back even an inch.
Melody's wings flared, warped and trembling.
"Eleanor, you always shined too much."
A whisper. A wound. A truth Melody had carried alone.
Eleanor's throat burned. "If my light ever hurt you, then I'll fix it. I'll share it. I'll..."
The air snapped like thunder.
Melody tilted her head, eyes hollow.
"Can you still say that, when you see what I am now?"
Her body twitched violently, like something inside her was trying to tear its way out. Shadow-veins spread across her arms.
Lucy stepped forward. "Eleanor, get behind me. Her output's rising too fast."
"No." Eleanor raised her hand, stopping her. "She's my friend. My responsibility. If someone's going to reach her, it has to be me."
Lucy bit her tongue and stayed silent.
The ground vibrated again.
Melody's voice dropped into a whisper that sent needles up Eleanor's spine.
"…don't come closer."
Eleanor took a single step forward anyway.
"Melody. Look at me."
Melody's entire body jerked. Her breath hitched. Her eyes flickered, violet, then blue, then violet again, like two memories fighting for space.
For one heartbeat.
There was clarity.
Her lips trembled. "…E-Eleanor? I... I don't feel right…"
Eleanor almost reached out.
Almost.
But then.
Something snapped.
Melody screamed.
Not a human scream. Not an angel's scream. Something deeper, a howl of a soul being torn in half.
Violet erupted. Shadows exploded outward in a spiraling arc. Lucy threw up a moon barrier. Silvia dove behind Robert. Peter wrapped his arm around his sister, shielding her with the full weight of his body.
But Eleanor stayed still.
The darkness rushed toward her like a tidal wave.
And for the first time since the battle began, Eleanor felt fear.
Not of Melody.
But of losing her.
The corrupted wings snapped open. Melody shot forward with impossible speed, closing the distance, claws raised, eyes blazing with a fractured madness.
Eleanor braced herself.
Right before impact.
Melody paused.
Her hand trembled inches from Eleanor's throat. Her breath hitched. Her lips formed a single, broken word.
"…help…"
Then the corruption dragged her under again.
And Melody vanished into the air, teleporting away with a thunderclap of shadow.
Eleanor's voice cracked.
"Melody!"
Violet afterglow lingered where she disappeared, twisting, unstable, like smoke that refused to settle.
Lucy ran up to Eleanor. "She didn't run. That was involuntary. Something inside her pulled her out of the fight."
Silvia nodded shakily. "She's losing control of her movements. Like she's not even steering herself anymore."
Peter wiped blood from his lip. "Whatever's corrupting her, it's accelerating."
Eleanor stared at the fading violet particles.
Her hands trembled.
Not from fear.
From anger. From helplessness. From the burning determination twisting inside her chest like a second heartbeat.
"Melody, I'm not letting you disappear into the dark. Not again."
The sunlight gathering around her wings flickered, not bright, not destructive, but warm. Steady.
Lucy placed a hand on her shoulder. "We'll get her back. But Eleanor. You saw her. This won't end without a fight."
Eleanor closed her eyes.
"I know."
She turned toward the direction Melody vanished, her pulse steadying.
"Then I'll fight her, only enough to reach her."
"And I'll bring her home."
The clearing felt wrong the moment they stepped into it, too quiet, too still, like the entire Realm held its breath.
Katya stood in the center, shoulders tight, eyes dim with a crimson sheen that wasn't hers. Her fingers twitched like she was fighting invisible strings.
Zak moved first. He always did when it came to her.
"Katya, hey. Look at me." His voice cracked despite the steady steps. "It's us. You don't gotta be scared. We're right here."
Katya didn't blink. Didn't breathe.
A tremor ran up her arm.
Theo stepped beside Zak, lower voice steady but tense. "We shouldn't get too close until."
Katya's head twitched. Her eyes snapped open wider, too wide.
The red drowned the green.
Theo swallowed. "…Okay. Never mind. She's definitely not fine."
Behind them, Lyra lifted her hand, divine threads flickering between her fingers. "Her energy field is twisted. Something expanded it far past her natural limit." Her tone sharpened. "Onyx forced an enhancement into her soul."
Meredith exhaled harshly. "A forced expansion? That'll tear her apart from the inside."
Zak rounded on her instantly. "Then we get it off her! You said she's half corrupted, half means she can still come back!"
Before Meredith could answer, Katya moved.
Not a step, a jerk.
Like her body was yanked by someone standing behind her.
She shot forward with impossible speed.
Zak barely raised his arms before she slammed into him, her knee driving into his stomach. He flew back, crashing into a trunk hard enough to split bark.
"Zak!" Theo rushed to him, then stopped mid-stride when Katya appeared in front of him, head tilted, expression blank.
"Katya, please don't."
Her fist hit his guard like a hammer.
Theo skidded through leaves, dug his heels in, then gasped, "Okay, yep, she's definitely enhanced, this is cheating."
Meredith stepped in with a strike of her spear, aiming to knock her off balance. Katya twisted unnaturally, dodging with movements that didn't belong to a trained angel, they were too sharp, too jagged, too possessed.
Lyra wove a web of shimmering light between two trees. "Meredith, drive her into the thread!"
Meredith kicked off the ground, swept her spear low.
Katya leapt over it like a puppet pulled by strings.
Her heel crashed toward Meredith's skull.
Theo intercepted, arms crossed, teeth gritted as the impact rattled through him. "Katya, I swear, if you knock my sister's mentor unconscious I'm dragging you home myself!"
Katya didn't react. Didn't hear him.
She spun, landing lightly, body bending at the wrong angle, flexibility not blessed but forced.
Lyra muttered under her breath, "This isn't corruption. This is puppetry."
A shadow vibrated through the air behind Katya, brief, thin, almost invisible, but enough for Lyra's eyes to widen.
"Everyone MOVE!"
The shadow struck like a lash, black energy snapping across the clearing. Meredith dashed aside. Theo ducked. Zak, still catching his breath, rolled just as it sliced the ground behind him.
Then a voice drifted from the treeline, smooth. Cold. Detached.
"You struggle against the inevitable."
Onyx didn't fully emerge, only his silhouette, his wings spread in a murky outline behind Katya like a puppet master's shadow. His presence felt like someone dropped a stone into their lungs.
Zak's lip curled, anger finally overriding fear. "Get out here and fight us yourself!"
"Why?" Onyx answered. "She is stronger than any of you now. She will serve until she breaks."
Something snapped inside Zak.
"Over my dead."
Katya blurred toward him again, fist ready to strike.
But Theo was faster this time.
He slammed into her from the side, locking her arms. "Katya, stop, stop, please! Fight him! Just look at me for one damn second!"
Her head jerked toward him.
Eyes flickering, red, then green, then red again.
A whisper escaped her lips, faint and strained:
"T-Theo, run."
Then she screamed, not a cry of pain, but like something clawed its way out through her throat. Her body convulsed, divine marks burning up her arms like molten chains.
Theo's grip slipped.
Lyra gasped. "He's pushing more power through her! If he keeps forcing that expansion, her soul will tear!"
Meredith planted her spear in the ground. "We don't have long. We bring her down without killing her. Aim for joints but avoid lethal points."
Zak wiped blood from his lip, eyes blazing.
"This is Katya. My sister. My family. I'm not putting a blade through her, no matter what."
Meredith didn't soften. "If you hesitate, she will kill us, yourself included."
Zak set his stance again. "Then I'll take the hits. I'm not losing her."
Theo stepped forward beside him. "Not again. Not this one."
Lyra opened her hands, divine strings spiraling outward. "I can restrain her for a moment, but once she breaks free, you have one chance to stun her."
Katya suddenly went still.
Too still.
Her eyes locked on Theo and Zak, the brothers she grew up with. The family she swore she'd protect.
Her voice came out small. Fragile.
"I don't want to hurt you."
Theo smiled weakly, voice shaking. "Then don't. Come back. Just breathe. You can."
Her body jerked violently.
The corruption flared like wildfire, red swallowing green completely.
Onyx's voice cut through the clearing, low and merciless:
"If she will not obey willingly, her body will."
Katya lunged.
Not like a soldier.
Like a weapon.
Lyra's threads snapped around her wrists, light wrapped tight, but Katya tore through them with raw, explosive force, scattering divine sparks across the forest floor.
Theo's eyes widened. "She broke Lyra's restraint."
Zak drew his blade, not to kill but to redirect her path. "Come on, Katya. Aim for me. I can take it!"
She hit him like a meteor.
Zak rolled, dragged her momentum sideways just enough so she missed his throat, but her elbow slammed into his ribs and something cracked.
He coughed, spitting red.
Still smiling through it. "Told you, I'm stubborn."
Theo caught him before he fell fully, then looked at Katya with a mix of heartbreak and fury.
"You're coming home with us whether you like it or not."
Meredith joined them, planting her spear ahead. "Form up! She's losing control by the second!"
Katya staggered, clutching her head as red veins of corrupted divine energy crawled up her neck.
Her voice trembled.
"I can't stop."
Lyra whispered, horrified, "He's overriding her entire nervous system."
Katya screamed again, this time raw, desperate, and when her head snapped back up.
She wasn't there anymore.
What stood in her place was a corrupted angel with burning veins, cracked wings, and eyes glowing with a mind not her own.
She stepped forward.
The ground withered beneath her feet.
Onyx materialized fully behind her, wings unfurling in cold black radiance.
"Now," he said softly.
"Let us begin."