Smoke drifted through the broken sanctum like mist from an old battlefield. The scorch marks on the stone still glowed faintly, dark-red cracks running through the ground where the Executioner commander had detonated.
Riven's pulse had barely begun to slow when the shadows at the far end of the chamber shifted.
Not like before—
not the soft curl of darkness responding to his presence.
This was different.
Heavier.
Colder.
Older.
Azael moved instantly, stepping in front of Riven with a speed that blurred.
His shadows snapped into place like a living shield.
"Stay behind me," Azael murmured, voice dropping into that tone Riven had learned meant something deadly was coming.
Riven swallowed. "Executioners again?"
Azael shook his head once. "No. Something far worse."
The darkness gathered, thickened…
Then stepped forward.
A massive figure emerged — easily seven feet tall, wrapped in armor blacker than night. Not bone, not metal… but something that looked forged from shadow itself. Its helmet had no eyes, only a slit where a faint, ghostly blue light glowed.
The air around it dropped to freezing.
Riven's breath misted.
Azael's hand flexed; shadows coiled around him like serpents ready to strike.
"Hunter-class."
Riven had never heard the term before. "What does that mean?"
Azael's jaw tightened.
"It hunts beings like you. Not to kill them."
The Hunter's aura spread through the sanctum like suffocating frost.
Azael's shadows recoiled. Even the remaining torch flames guttered.
Riven shivered. "Then what does it want?"
Azael exhaled slowly.
"To erase you from existence."
The Hunter moved with a silence that shouldn't have been possible for something so enormous. The floor sank under its steps, shadows stretching unnaturally toward it as if eager to serve.
Riven felt the pressure of its gaze—
not on his body, but on his soul.
His mark burned violently under his skin.
A voice echoed in his head.
Not spoken aloud — but carved into thought:
"ETERNAL ONE."
"THE WORLD REMEMBERS YOU. AND SO DO WE."
Riven staggered backward. "It's talking—inside my head—"
Azael grabbed his arm, grounding him.
"Don't let it in. It speaks to your essence, not your mind."
The Hunter raised its hand.
The shadows beneath Riven's feet twisted like collapsing gravity.
He gasped as the floor buckled sharply—
Azael yanked him away just in time, and a massive black spike erupted from the ground where he had been standing.
Riven's heart pounded. "It's controlling the shadows—your shadows—"
"Not mine," Azael snapped. "Mine obey only me."
The Hunter tilted its head, the cold blue glow flickering.
Another spike shot toward them.
Azael intercepted it with a wall of darkness, the two forces colliding with a thunderous crack that shook dust loose from the ceiling.
Riven barely regained his balance when the Hunter moved—
one step—
a blur—
then suddenly it was behind Azael.
Riven's breath caught.
"AZAEL!"
Azael spun, shadows forming a blade along his arm just in time to block a crushing strike.
Sparks of black and blue exploded on impact.
The force sent Azael flying across the chamber, slamming into the far wall with a sound that made Riven's stomach drop.
"Azael!" Riven ran toward him—
but stopped when the Hunter turned its faceless helmet toward him.
The blue light pulsed.
"YOU AWAKEN TOO FAST. YOU DO NOT YET HAVE THE RIGHT TO RISE."
Riven's mark blazed so hot it felt like fire under his ribs.
He clenched his fists.
"This world keeps telling me what I am. But I don't know any of it!"
The Hunter's voice grew colder.
"THEN I WILL REMIND YOU."
Shadows wrapped around Riven's legs, arms, neck—
binding him in place.
Panic surged.
He pulled—
the shadows tightened.
He struggled—
his mark flared but flickered, still unstable.
The Hunter lifted its arm, gathering a sphere of twisted energy — black at the edges, blue at the core, the kind of energy that felt like deletion.
Not killing.
Not destroying.
Unmaking.
Riven felt the terror hit him deep.
"Azael—!"
Before the sphere launched, a voice cut through the chamber with furious force:
"Don't touch him."
Riven had never heard Azael sound like that.
It wasn't rage.
It wasn't fear.
It was something deeper—
older—
something that made the shadows tremble.
Azael rose from the debris, wings unfurled in full, vast and terrifying, pure shadow scraping the air like blades.
His eyes were no longer silver.
They burned white-hot.
The Hunter paused.
Azael spoke again, voice layered, as if two tones overlapped.
"He is mine."
The shadows binding Riven shattered as if afraid.
Azael stepped forward, each movement heavier with power, darker with an authority Riven had never witnessed.
Riven stared—breath stolen.
This wasn't the Azael who had trained him.
Not the protector.
Not the ally.
This was the being Riven saw in flashes of memory—
standing beside him in fire, in ruin, in ancient nights.
This was the Azael who once walked with the Eternal One.
The Hunter's blue eyes flared.
"YOU STAND AGAINST US, AZAEL OF THE VOID?"
Azael's shadows lashed outward, cracking the floor.
"I always have," he hissed.
The Hunter launched forward.
Azael met it with a roar of darkness.
The collision detonated like a star dying — light and shadow clashing, stone shattering, air ripping apart.
Riven stumbled back, shielding his face from the blast.
A voice rumbled inside his head again, not the Hunter's:
Remember.
Remember who you were beside him.
Remember what wakes inside you.
Riven's knees buckled—
visions flooded him:
Fire.
A battlefield of broken worlds.
A winged figure beside him—Azael—sworn to him.
And himself—
eyes glowing black-gold—
power tearing reality open.
Riven gasped, gripping his head.
"Azael— I— I think I'm—"
The chamber trembled.
Azael and the Hunter clashed again—
a violent dance of raw, ancient force.
Riven's mark blazed brighter than ever—
blinding light spilling across the floor.
Azael saw it—
—and his expression changed.
Not fear.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
"Riven," he shouted over the roar of the battle, "don't fight it— let it in!"
Riven's heart hammered.
His power surged.
The light inside him tore open like a star awakening.
The Hunter lifted its spear toward Riven—
but Azael slammed into it with a snarl, driving both of them into a collapsing wall.
Riven felt everything snap into place at once:
His past.
His identity.
His power.
His bond with Azael.
And it was overwhelming.
The shadows bent toward him.
The light coiled around him.
Reality wavered.
Riven lifted his head, eyes glowing black and gold—
And the chamber itself seemed to hold its breath.