The moment that ancient name echoed inside her, the world changed.
Not slowly.
Not subtly.
Instantly.
The air thickened.The lights of the courtyard dimmed.The city—alive with its usual chaos—fell unnaturally silent.
No traffic.No voices.No wind.
It was as if the entire city had stopped breathing.
Kael stepped in front of Amelia, sword drawn—not out of confidence, but instinct.Pure, protective instinct.
"Xuan," he said tightly, "tell me this isn't what I think it is."
Master Xuan didn't answer immediately.
He was staring at Amelia.
No—through Amelia.
As if seeing something layered beneath her skin. Something older than her bones.
"It's worse," he finally said."The name triggered a lock inside her awakening."
The lead celestial lowered his head.
"It has begun…"
A fissure ran through the courtyard stones.
Then another.
Then another.
All spreading outward from her feet.
Amelia staggered backward, horrified.
"I'm not doing this— I swear I'm not doing this!"
But the ground disagreed.
Cracks widened like hungry mouths.
Master Xuan slashed sigils into the air, forming a large containment barrier around her.
Golden threads rose like a dome.
And shattered.
Amelia gasped.
Xuan looked genuinely afraid for the first time.
"That… should not be possible."
Kael grabbed Amelia's hands.
"Look at me. Focus on my face," he said, gently but urgently. "Stay present. Don't let whatever's inside pull you under."
He brought her knuckles to his chest, over his heartbeat.
"Feel that? Stay here. With me."
For a second—just one—her breathing steadied.
Then the Devourer's voice curled up from the crack:
"Let her remember…Let her be reborn…"
The courtyard erupted.
A shockwave burst outward from Amelia, flinging dust, leaves, even lanterns across the stone.
Kael shielded her with his body, eyes burning with determination not even the heavens could match.
The celestials spread their wings, stabilizing the air.
Master Xuan braced himself, robes fluttering violently.
"Amelia!" he shouted over the rising storm. "Listen to me! The name resonated because it belongs to your first cycle—your original form!"
Kael's eyes snapped to him.
"Her what?!"
But Amelia barely heard.
Because something inside her—something sealed for lifetimes—was stirring.
Grinding against the lock in her soul.
Trying to rise.
A blinding pulse of light flashed behind her eyes.
Suddenly she wasn't standing in the courtyard.
She wasn't anywhere physical.
She was inside a memory that didn't belong to this world.
A throne room made of starlight and broken halos.
A battlefield of dead angels.
A voice—her own, but not her own—crying out in fury.
And a towering shadow smiling back at her.
"Welcome back," it whispered.
The Devourer's laughter snapped her out of the vision.
Pain speared down her spine.
She screamed, collapsing—but Kael caught her before she hit the ground.
Her whole body trembled uncontrollably.
Kael held her against him, voice breaking:
"Amelia—stay with me. Don't fade. Not like this."
Tears streamed down her face.
"I don't… I don't want this—"
The lead celestial lifted his staff, summoning a column of descending light.
"We must take her to the Sanctuary—NOW. If we delay even minutes, the lock may break completely."
But before anyone could move her—
A deep, metallic clang echoed beneath the city.
The sound of a chain snapping.
Amelia froze.
Master Xuan went pale.
The Devourer whispered, almost lovingly:
"One chain down…"
And far beneath the earth—
something enormousshifted.
Stirred.
Smiled.