If I ever write an autobiography, I'm definitely naming one chapter after this exact moment:
"Milano Draven and the Night the Sky Forgot the Rules." Because that's exactly what it felt like.
The rooftop trembled and shook beneath us as the Veil ripped wider, shrieking with a sound that definitely wasn't meant for the normal human ears. God! It felt like my skull was being opened with a crowbar. Not just that, the air turned colder, sharper, it was like the atmosphere itself was terrified.
Eliana's grip on my hand tightened.
"This isn't natural," she whispered.
"Yeah, you don't say," I snapped. "Can't you see… the sky looks like it's going through a midlife crisis!"
But then the scream changed. It wasn't the sky anymore. Now, it was something inside it. And not just something, something big.
The clouds twisted, downward, spiraling toward a single point in the fissure. And a massive shadow stirred behind the light cracked opening. It was too large to be a Riftling, yet too defined to be fog. And then…
Something stepped through.
A tall figure, human-like, emerging as if it was walking out of a curtain made of lightning. Every step shook the building — like a concrete whose heart was beating. The air distorted around him, bending light. He had horns that were like obsidian scythes curving back from his head, and his eyes were glowing with a deep crimson that felt like they were looking through my skin—like some supernatural x-ray machine.
"What…" I croaked. "Is that?!"
Eliana inhaled sharply. A sharp, terrified sound. The kind of sound that suggests someone is seeing a nightmare they thought they'd buried.
"An Archon," she whispered.
"An… an what now?"
"Archon. A high-rank Rift entity," she murmured. "Good news, they don't cross over. Actually, they CAN'T cross over. The Veil should kill them before they reach this plane."
"Well, he looks very un-killed to me!"
The Archon turned sharply. The weight of its stare hit me like a sledgehammer, and my knees buckled. For a second there, I forgot how to breathe.
"Milano! Don't let it look into your mind!" Eliana barked.
"Huh… my mind? Oh! Gotcha! But, its eyes are like—like—evil headlights!"
Then the creature opened its mouth. I was expecting it to roar, but no, it didn't roar. Of course not. That would've been too predictable. Instead, a chilling voice, which echoed, stretched across the rooftop:
"Conduit…"
I blanched. "Oh, hell no… is it referring to me?!"
Eliana shoved me behind her. "Stay back."
The Archon held out its palm, and a sphere of dark energy formed in it— a swirling, violent mass like that was like condensed night.
"Eliana, that looks bad," I muttered.
"It is," she said flatly. "Move when I say move."
"Does running away count as moving?"
"Milano!"
"Okay, okay!"
Then the Archon hurled the sphere.
Eliana slammed her palm down, and a glyph of brilliant white cracked across the rooftop.
BOOOOM!
The explosion rocked the building. My ears rang. My ribs vibrated like tuning forks. And smoke rolled across the roof.
Before the cloud even cleared, the Archon appeared behind her — teleporting, phasing, something.
"Eliana!" I shouted.
She spun just in time to block the strike it made with its claw, causing sparks to slice through the air. Next I saw, she flew backward, smashing into the rooftop wall with a bone-crunching sound.
I yelled again, "Eliana!" Stumbling toward her.
"Stay back—!" she said as she coughed, pushing herself up.
Just then, the Archon turned its terrible gaze on me again.
"Conduit. Found."
"Ha great," I muttered. "I'm a collectible now."
The world blurred, and suddenly the monster was right in front of me. I didn't think. Didn't plan. Nothing. I just threw my hands out like an idiot trying to stop a bus, thinking he was superman. Then the mark on my chest erupted.
BOOM—THRWHOOOM
Energy blasted outward. Raw energy, uncontrolled, uselessly dramatic. But the Archon barely staggered.
"Oh come ON!" I shouted. "Thought that worked on the small ones!"
"This is not a small one!" Eliana snapped, as she was already sprinting toward us, with her blade drawn.
The Archon raised its arm to strike me, and Eliana slammed into it from the side with her blade cutting deep across its chest. The creature let out a distorted bellow and backhanded her with enough force to send her skidding across the rooftop.
She hit the ground hard.
"Eliana!" I shouted, as I stumbled toward her, but the Archon's claw closed around my throat and lifted me into the air. My feet dangled.
I clawed at its grip, kicking uselessly.
Air—gone.
Vision—blurring.
Brain—screaming.
"Conduit," the Archon rumbled. Its voice vibrating through my skull. "You belong to the one-who-waits-below."
"The what-who—who—what?!" I choked.
It tightened its grip, and dark spots flickered across my vision. My lungs were burning, I was dying… again.
"Eliana…" I mouthed, although no sound came.
Her voice answered anyway. It was hoarse, furious:
"PUT. HIM. DOWN."
She blurred forward. Faster than human. Faster than anything. All I saw was a streak of light, until she appeared behind the Archon and drove her blade into its spine.
The creature screamed. It was a sharp, metallic shriek, and the impact threw me from its grip. I tumbled across the roof, coughing violently, as my throat was on fire.
"Eliana!" I rasped. "Behind—!"
But she already saw it. Already spinning. Already slashing.
She was fighting like I'd never seen. It was not calm, not controlled, not ancient and definitely not wise. She was feral. Desperate. Terrified for me in a way I couldn't understand.
The Archon backhanded her again, but this time, she caught its arm mid-swing, her eyes flashing gold.
And suddenly, the air vibrated. Like the atmosphere itself recognized her power and bowed.
"Eliana…?" I choked out.
But she didn't hear me.
She whispered something in a language full of sharp consonants and soft vowels. Something ancient, weighty, dangerous. And the Archon stumbled back.
Then she raised her blade. The glyphs along the rooftop flared to life again as if they were responding to her voice — fueling her, or being fueled by her.
"Eliana, wait! Your body—you're burning through too much energy!"
She flicked a glance at me. Just one look. And for a moment — a terrifying, beautiful moment — I could see it:
Eliana Voss wasn't just strong. She wasn't just immortal. She wasn't just some mysterious supernatural silver-haired woman who acted like she'd lived a thousand lifetimes. She was something else.
She was something the Archon feared.
"Stay down, Milano," she said softly. "Please."
As she said that, the ground shook. The Archon snarled. And Eliana moved. Fast. Too fast.
She vaulted forward, her blade arcing, and glyphs blazing underfoot. She struck again and again. Every blow was a flash of light. The Archon staggered. Actually staggered, under the flurry.
"Eliana, Behind you!" I yelled.
The Archon summoned a second sphere of dark energy and hurled it point-blank.
She crossed her arms and braced—
BOOOOOOOM
The explosion swallowed her whole. Smoke, heat, and a shockwave that knocked me flat.
"Eliana!!"
For a second there, a horrible second… I thought she was gone. Then the smoke shifted. And she stepped out, limping, bleeding, but alive. Barely. Her blade dropped from her hand.
The Archon growled, looming over her. She was out of energy, out of strength, out of time, and for the first time in my entire pathetic, useless life, I moved without thinking.
"HEY! HORN-FACE!"
The Archon turned.
I didn't have a plan, neither did I have a weapon. I didn't even have a brain cell firing properly. But what I did have, was the glowing mark. So I sprinted toward Eliana and threw myself in front of her just as the Archon swung its clawed hand.
The mark detonated.
Not outward, not a shockwave. Inward, into me. A surge of light burned through my veins and exploded upward like a pillar.
As it exploded, the rooftop split, and the Archon reeled. The entire sky flickered white. Just then, Eliana shouted my name. It was distant, echoing, and panicked.
And just right before consciousness snapped away like a cord that was pulled, I heard the Archon roar:
"THE CONDUIT AWAKENS!"
Then, it all went—
Black.