Light roared.Shadow screamed.The Duskfall Realm buckled beneath the force of her splitting soul.
And Amelia—trembling, burning, breaking—made her choice.
But not in the way either man expected.
Her hand didn't reach toward light—nor toward shadow.
Instead, both arms shot outward at once.
She grabbed both.
Kael's hand in her right.Raeth's hand in her left.
The realm shattered.
A shockwave ripped across the sky, tearing dawn from dusk, night from day.The cracked sun split in half.The black moon bled.The ground screamed like something alive.
Kael's eyes widened in horror.
"Amelia—NO! You can't hold both—your soul isn't built—"
Raeth's expression changed completely.Not triumph.Not malice.
Recognition.Pain.And something terrifyingly close to hope.
"She can," he whispered.
And the world broke open.
Her True Form Awakens
Amelia's body lifted from the ground—hair whipping wildly,eyes blazing gold and black in equal measure.
The wings tearing from her back merged—one luminous,one shadow-wrapped—forming wings made of duskfire, glowing with both creation and ruin.
Her voice layered:
Amelia.Serael.Solyn.
"I won't choose between myself anymore."
Kael staggered back, wings trembling.
"You're not ready—Amelia, your soul will tear—"
But she wasn't tearing.
She was rewriting.
Raeth watched her with reverence and grief.
"The prophecy," he murmured. "You've finally taken the path that should never have existed."
The sky cracked open—
not in destruction,but in recognition.
Something ancient awakened.
Not in the world.
In her.
Kael Breaks
"Amelia…" Kael whispered, falling to his knees.
His voice was a shattered thing—a man watching every fear he'd buried claw its way to the surface.
"You don't understand what you've done. Light and shadow can't coexist in one vessel. They destroy each other. They destroy the host."
Amelia descended slowly, the air bending around her.
"They destroy each other when forced apart," she said."But when they're allowed to merge—"
Her hand hovered inches from his cheek.
"—they become whole."
Kael flinched as if struck.
"You sound like him."
Her gaze flicked to Raeth.
"Because he knew the truth."
Kael rose, fury trembling in every line of his body.
"He's twisted your memories—your past—"
Amelia shook her head.
"No. He's twisted plenty of things. But not this."
Kael stepped forward, desperate.
"You don't know what Raeth is. What he'll become. What he's doomed to do."
Raeth's eyes darkened.
"And you don't know what she is."
Raeth's Warning
Raeth approached her—slowly, reverently, as though she were something sacred.
"You took both our hands," he said."That means the seal on your dusk name is fully broken."
Amelia swallowed.
"And what does that mean?"
Raeth's voice dropped to a low, dangerous whisper.
"It means the Council will come for you.And when they do, they will not show mercy.They will tear out your dusk half to 'purify' you—"
He met Kael's gaze.
"—and they will use him to do it."
Kael's jaw locked.
"That's not true."
Raeth tilted his head.
"Isn't it?"
Amelia's breath hitched.
Because she remembered—
Kael's hands glowing with lighther own shadow bleeding awaypainscreaminghis voice breaking as he whispered, "I'm sorry, Serael."
She stumbled back.
"Kael…?"
Kael paled.
"That was the Council's order. I didn't want—Amelia, I tried to save you—"
Raeth stepped between them.
"She deserves the whole truth. Not the half you've given her."
Kael snapped.
"You don't get to decide what she deserves!"
Raeth's smile was cold.
"I don't have to. She already decided."
His gaze shifted to Amelia.
"By taking both our hands."
The Realm Responds
The ground rumbled.Light and darkness twisted upward, spiraling into a massive vortex.
Amelia staggered.
"What's happening—?"
Raeth's eyes gleamed.
"The Duskfall Realm is realigning to you."
Kael's wings flared in alarm.
"No—it's collapsing! You're destabilizing it! Amelia, you can't stay here—your aura will pull the entire realm into you—"
The vortex widened—gold and black fire whipping around them.
Her power was too much for this place.
Too ancient.Too forbidden.Too whole.
Amelia clutched her chest.
"It hurts—"
Kael rushed toward her—
Raeth too—
Both calling her name—
"Amelia!""Little light!"
She reached for them—
But the vortex erupted—
swallowing her whole.