The mist parted, but it didn't fade—it thickened, swirling around the emerging figure like a living shroud. The presence before her was vast, yet formless. It resembled the dragon in its impossibility—no flesh, no bone, only essence. A silhouette of shadow, pulsing with ancient energy.
Lilith's breath caught. Her sword trembled in her grip, its tip aimed at the entity, though her hands betrayed her fear.
"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice cold, brittle.
The being didn't move, but its presence pressed closer, like gravity bending toward her.
"There is no need for fear, Lilith," it said, voice smooth and echoing from every direction. "I bring no harm… unless you seek it. Hah."
Lilith's eyes narrowed. "Enough riddles. Answer me."
Her voice cracked through the silence like a blade.
The shadows rippled.
"I am Azazel," the being said at last. "A name buried in forgotten tongues. I watched the stars burn out. I've seen realms rise and fall. And now—I watch you."
Lilith's heart pounded. The name echoed in her mind, stirring something deep, something old.
"Why?" she asked, her voice quieter now. "Why me?"
Azazel's form shifted, growing taller, darker, more defined—but never solid.
"Because you are the fracture," it said. "The storm that breaks the pattern. And the pattern… must break."
Azazel remained still—or rather, he simply *was*. His form didn't move in any conventional sense, but the shadows around him pulsed, shifting with a rhythm that felt older than time.
"Azazel?" Lilith whispered, the name striking a chord deep within her. "The fallen angel of destruction?"
She remembered it now. A passage in one of the ancient books she'd skimmed in the celestial archives. A name she hadn't given weight to. A myth, she thought. A warning. But now, standing before this presence, it felt far too real.
Azazel didn't respond immediately. The mist around him stirred, as if amused.
"Fracture?" Lilith continued, her voice sharp with disbelief. "What are you talking about? You expect me to believe the words of something I don't even understand?"
Her tone was laced with disdain, but her eyes betrayed her uncertainty.
"You wouldn't understand," Azazel replied, his voice calm, almost distant. "Not yet. You don't see the scope of what you are. The power you carry. The echo you've become."
Lilith stepped forward, her sword still raised, though her grip had steadied.
"I didn't ask for any of this."
Azazel's eyes—those burning voids—watched her with something unreadable. Not pity. Not admiration. Just awareness.
"None of us do," he said. "But the pattern has already shifted. You are own a big responsability now, whether you accept it or not."
------
**At the castle**
Azareon paced the throne hall, the silence of the night pressing in around him. Lilith had been gone for hours. Lucio had said she was in the city, spending time with friends—but that was earlier. Too much time had passed.
He was growing impatient.
No—he was growing *worried*.
She had promised not to go near the mountain. He had made that clear. Not just as her father, but as someone who had seen what slept beneath it.
His thoughts drifted—unbidden—back to the war.
Lilith had been just a baby then. The sky reign was under siege, and Azareon had fought with everything he had. What haunted him wasn't the battle itself, but what came after.
The moment the demons vanished… Lilith changed.
She didn't cry. She didn't speak. But ancient marks appeared on her skin—glowing, vivid, pulsing with a rhythm that didn't belong to any known magic. Not celestial. Not infernal.
Something *else*.
Azareon had searched every archive, every forbidden tome. The marks matched only one thing—a force older than gods, older than the war itself. A presence that defied classification.
He didn't want to believe it.
How could his daughter be tied to *that*?
How could she carry something so vast, so unknowable?
He stopped.
Mid-thought.
A pressure gripped his chest, sudden and unnatural. The air thickened. Time faltered.
Azareon staggered, one hand gripping the edge of a column.
He felt it.
A ripple from the mountain.
Something had awakened.
And Lilith was there.