80 Chapter 80
The world slowed to a halt.
The noise of the street — the chatter, wind, footsteps — was replaced by something else. Silence.
Utter, absolute silence.
She blinked. The air thickened. Her breath fogged, and then—
Time stopped.
A man halfway through a sentence froze mid-laugh. A passing car hung in place, its wheels suspended above the ground, lights frozen like amber. Serenia turned, panic rising, her heartbeat the only sound that still existed.
And then the first scream erupted — not from a throat, but from fire.
The people around her ignited. One by one, the frozen figures burned — no smoke, no ash, just searing, divine light. They vanished into pure gold flames, bodies unraveling into motes of radiance, until the street was littered with glowing remnants falling like embers.
Serenia stumbled back, her voice trembling, "What—what the hell…"
The light intensified. The sky above split open in a blinding cascade, and through it, a figure descended — not falling, but commanding the heavens to bear him down.
A man in radiant white and gold armor, his very presence warping the air. His aura shimmered like sunlight refracted through glass — beautiful, yet unbearable. His golden hair moved as if alive, light gathering around him as though the world itself bowed in recognition.
He wasn't human.
Serenia's breath caught in her throat. Her knees nearly buckled under the pressure, her body screaming at her to kneel — to avert her eyes. But she didn't. She just stared up at him, frozen in disbelief.
"…Who—are you?" she managed to whisper.
Caelith didn't answer.
He merely looked at her — his gaze sharp and divine, his presence so vast it felt like her mind was fracturing trying to comprehend it. Around them, the last of the burning figures disintegrated completely, their light drifting upward like offerings to the sun.
Serenia's vision flickered white at the edges.
Whatever this was, whoever he was, this wasn't a man. It was something far beyond her understanding.
"So… you are the first-born of Ryū."
The voice wasn't loud — it didn't need to be. It carried through the still world like a command from the heavens, the kind of tone that made every nerve in Serenia's body lock in place.
She looked up. The figure floated above the burning street, his white and gold armor shimmering with a divinity that felt alive. Golden light bled from his eyes, trailing through the sky like threads of sunlight.
"I wondered when I'd find you," he continued. "The daughter of drac who once defied the light."
Serenia could barely breathe. Her voice cracked. "What… are you talking about?"
Caelith's head tilted slightly — not in curiosity, but in judgment. His presence pressed down harder, the air vibrating around her.
"You carry his blood. Ryū's defiance runs through your soul. And so, I came to confirm something."
He extended one hand toward the sky. Above them, the sun flared — and every ember from the burning civilians rose toward it, absorbed like a divine offering.
"Your friend."
"Hikari is dead," he said simply. "I killed her myself."
The words hit Serenia like a spear through the chest. She stumbled back, shaking her head.
"W–What? Hikari?! No… no, you're lying…"
But the way he looked at her — calm, unshaken, as if stating a fact of nature — told her he wasn't.
"I know who you are, Serenia. You walk unaware in a world that's already condemned." His voice softened, yet the weight of it felt endless. "Tell me… will you follow your brother's shadow, or will you vanish like the rest?"
Before she could respond, the sound of air splitting filled the street.
A red blur, a flash of steel, a ripple of mana — and suddenly Ko, Yoru, and Rin appeared at her side, weapons drawn, eyes wide at the divine inferno before them.
The pressure in the air made Ko's grin vanish instantly. His instincts screamed. "This presence…"
Yoru's eyes narrowed, golden aura flickering around her. "It's the same… as that day. The one from Ash made us kneel."
Rin didn't speak. Her entire body was rigid, her hand trembling at his side. The last time she'd felt something like this, something that devoured light and air at once — people had died by the hundreds.
Serenia's voice shook as she turned toward them, barely managing to whisper..
"He said he… killed Hikari."
Caelith's gaze shifted downward — his attention now fixed on the trio that dared interrupt.
The air around them dimmed, the sunlight itself bending away from him.