The Portal Gate ripped open with a sound like cracking stars.
Nina burst through, wings blazing with blue-gold fire, Zyla clutched tightly in her arms. Snow and shadow clung to her feathers as she flew high above the earthly sky, trailing smoke and divine flame behind her.
Below, the Temple of Heaven rose from the mountainside — a massive structure of white stone, gold spires, and ancient inscriptions that pulsed with living light. Its bells were silent, its halls asleep.
But the moment Nina crossed into Earth's realm—
The Temple woke.
Light flared across every archway.
Runes burned alive.
The air shivered.
Nina landed hard at the entrance, her breath uneven, her arms trembling from both battle and heartbreak. Zyla cried softly against her chest, tiny fingers gripping Nina's armor.
"Shh… I know," Nina whispered, pressing her forehead to the baby's. "I know, little flame. You've lost too much already."
But before she could take another step—
A deep, rumbling voice spoke from above.
"WHO enters My sacred halls with a child wrapped in shadow?"
The air crackled.
A beam of gold shot downward.
And from it descended Elyon.
The true God of Heaven.
His presence was overwhelming.
Not gentle like Jesus…
Not fierce like Nina…
But absolute.
His form was tall, radiant, cloaked in celestial fire. Light poured from His skin in molten streams. His eyes were ancient — galaxies swirling in every reflection.
Nina bowed instantly, wings lowered, though her heart hammered in her chest.
"My Lord," she whispered. "Forgive the intrusion. I had no choice."
Elyon's gaze fell on the infant in her arms.
The ground trembled.
The stone beneath Nina cracked, bowing under His authority.
"Child…" Elyon murmured. "What have you brought into My realm?"
Nina swallowed hard.
"The first ever… Demonic Angel."
Silence.
A dangerous, world-stopping silence.
Lightning flashed across the sky.
Winds screamed.
The Temple itself let out a long, low moan like an animal waking from slumber.
Elyon stepped closer.
"Let Me see her."
Nina hesitated — every instinct screaming to protect the baby. But slowly, she lowered her wings and revealed Zyla.
The infant's eyes opened.
They were not white.
They were not gold.
They were red, glowing like ancient embers.
Elyon's expression shifted — not anger, not fear, but something colder. Something deeper.
Recognition.
"It cannot be…" He whispered. "The prophecy was broken. She was never meant to exist."
Nina tightened her hold.
"My Lord, the Queen—she transformed. She became… a demon. Something corrupted her during the birth. She begged me to protect Zyla. Jesus is still fighting the darkness that came for her."
Elyon's jaw tensed.
The Temple lights flickered violently.
"All of Heaven shook at her birth. I felt the rip in creation," Elyon said. "A darkness older than time moved today… and it sought her."
Nina nodded.
"They wanted her. The shadows. They knew she was born."
Elyon placed a hand over the child.
Light gathered in his palm—
—but the glow recoiled.
The light refused to touch Zyla.
Elyon's eyes widened.
"She carries two forces within her. Light… and a darkness even I do not command."
Nina held the baby closer.
"Then what do we do?"
Elyon looked toward the sky, where storms still churned unnaturally.
"We hide her. We separate her from that which seeks her."
His voice lowered to a whisper.
"Before the darkness finds her again."
But even as he spoke—
Zyla's eyes glowed brighter.
A faint shadow curled from her tiny fingers, reaching toward Elyon like it recognized him.
Elyon stepped back.
Nina froze.
Zyla giggled softly.
The God of Heaven whispered:
"…she knows me."
And the world trembled again.
Zyla's tiny fingers curled, and the shadow reaching toward Elyon rippled like smoke pulled by an unseen wind. The God of Heaven stepped back instinctively — not from fear, but from a force that did not belong to His creation.
Before He could speak—
The mountain groaned.
A pulse of raw energy burst from the baby's chest, invisible to mortal eyes but blinding to celestial senses.
Far from the Temple, deep in the forest—
Shadow felt it first. He froze mid-stride, claws digging into the earth. His monstrous wolf form lifted its head sharply, ears twitching.
"That light…" he growled, voice echoing from the void between dimensions.
"And that darkness… together?"
His eyes burned with black flame.
"Impossible."
But then came the second surge — stronger, deeper, older.
Shadow's pupils narrowed to slits.
"That's her.
The forbidden child."
A low rumble shook the trees around him.
"She's waking."
He gasped, clutching his chest as if the energy had punched straight through him. His eyes turned hollow gold, glowing faintly in their sockets.
"No… no, no," he whispered.
"That isn't Elisha… that isn't even Blood Reaper…"
The leaves around him turned to ash as the soul-wave passed through the forest.
"That's a new one."
He looked to the sky nervously.
"Why does the universe keep making more problems?"
But beneath his humor, fear trembled in his voice.
"I felt her heart beat… and it nearly stopped mine."
Ghost and Shadow turned their gazes toward the Temple at the exact Josephe moment.
Something was being born there.
Something dangerous.
Something ancient.
Something they would have no choice but to protect… or destroy.
Back at the Temple Nina held Zyla tightly as the baby's power flared again. Shadows spiraled from her small hands, while bursts of divine light flickered randomly across her body like tiny stars trying to contain themselves.
"She's losing control—!" Nina choked, tightening her grip.
Zyla's eyes flashed red.
The Temple floor cracked violently beneath them.
Every stained-glass window shattered at once.
Columns trembled.
The air thickened.
Light bent around her.
Elyon raised a hand, voice booming:
"ARCHANGELS!"
His summons rolled across Earth like thunder.
Instantly, beams of light fell from the sky as Michael, Gabriel, and Uriel materialized inside the Temple, wings unfurled, power crackling around them.
Michael planted his spear into the floor.
"We felt the disturbance—"
Gabriel's eyes widened at the sight of Zyla.
"Lord… she's only a newborn. How can she produce this much power?"
Uriel stepped back, wings folding protectively.
"That aura—light and shadow intertwined—My Lord, that should be impossible."
Elyon's face hardened.
"It is impossible. And yet here she is."
Light gathered in his palm again — a gentle attempt, not an attack — but the glow recoiled once more.
Zyla shrieked.
A wave of black-gold force shot outward, blasting Gabriel backward, cracking Michael's spear, and splitting Uriel's armor down the center.
"NINA!" Elyon shouted.
Nina threw herself around the child, wings wrapping tight like a shield.
"I've got her! It's okay — Zyla, breathe, baby, breathe—"
But Zyla's eyes glowed brighter and brighter.
The shadows behind her twisted into claw-shaped tendrils.
The light above her collapsed into a swirling halo of broken sparks.
She screamed.
And every archangel fell to one knee.
Elyon stared in disbelief.
"She is no ordinary hybrid…
She is the embodiment of a prophecy we buried."
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"A demonic angel capable of breaking Heaven."
Zyla's scream split the air.
The power erupting from her tiny body twisted the light around her into spirals — dark one moment, divine the next. The Temple walls groaned, cracks spreading upward like lightning frozen in stone.
Nina braced herself—
But the explosion came too fast.
BOOM!
A burst of black-gold energy blasted outward.
Nina was thrown across the Temple, wings scraping against the marble pillars before slamming into a wall. The archangels crashed beside her — Michael's spear shattered, Gabriel half-buried in stone, Uriel coughing blood light.
Zyla floated in the center of the storm, her little arms reaching out to the air.
The space around her bent.
A rift began to form.
A swirling, rippling tear in reality — glowing like broken glass and screaming like wind inside a grave.
"She's opening a portal!" Gabriel shouted, struggling to stand.
Elyon stepped forward, raising one hand, voice shaking with authority.
"ENOUGH!"
But the crack widened.
The rift reached up and tore through the heavens.
Reality shook.
Stars flickered.
Dimensions split like cloth under a blade.
Three lights shot out of Zyla's body — fast as falling stars, bright as newborn suns.
Elyon's eyes widened.
"No… NO!"
He reached upward, voice thunderous:
"RETURN TO YOUR REALMS!"
The lights resisted — spiraling, darting, fighting to stay near Zyla — but Elyon forced them apart, ripping each one from her essence.
"You must not unite!" Elyon roared.
"You must not awaken together!"
With one sweep of His hand:
He sent the three lights each to different universes.
They streaked through the rift, vanishing into the void.
The portal snapped shut—
—only to flicker open again.
A second power twisted it.
A darker one.
Morvath.
Hidden in the unseen folds of the cosmos, he reached outward with a single clawed hand.
"Oh, brother…" Morvath purred.
"You scatter them far—
but I will gather them near."
With deliberate cruelty, he pulled the three lights from their separate paths…
and redirected them.
All three streaking downward—
toward one world.
Earth.
"Let her pieces fall where she can rise," Morvath whispered, smiling in the darkness.
"Let her awaken whole."
The lights vanished into Earth's atmosphere.
And everything changed.
The shockwave from Morvath's interference slammed through Heaven's Temple.
Angels stumbled.
The floor split open.
Columns shattered.
Nina shielded Zyla with her wings as debris fell, dust glowing like embers around them.
The blast hit harder than before — throwing archangels across the hall like feathers. Elyon himself staggered, gripping the altar as power tore through the foundations of Heaven's earthly sanctuary.
Outside, angels screamed and ran.
Mothers clutched their babies.
"Protect the children!" someone shouted.
"Get them out!"
Zyla cried, power vibrating from her tiny chest.
Elyon turned to the terrified angels and raised His hand.
He blessed each child.
One by one, glowing sigils burned onto their foreheads — small sparks of His own authority.
A fraction of Godhood.
"They will need protection," Elyon said heavily. "For the day she rises, these sons may be the only ones who can stand against her."
Michael looked up, stunned.
"You want us to train them? As… warriors?"
"Yes," Elyon commanded.
"Train them. Prepare them. If the Demonic Angel awakens fully… those boys may save all realms."
A rumble tore through the sky.
The Temple ceiling cracked open as a new portal ripped free.
Black flame poured out.
Demons fell through — dozens, then hundreds — shrieking, lunging, tearing at stone and light.
Nina stood, Zyla clutched to her chest, wings blazing.
Michael drew a new spear from light.
Gabriel lifted a damaged blade.
Uriel readied a shield of burning gold.
Elyon spread His arms—
But a figure descended first.
Jesus.
Covered in scorch marks, bleeding light, eyes blazing with divine fury. He inhaled deeply — pulling God's radiant power into Himself.
A united blaze of Heaven's core.
He looked at Elyon.
"I will carry you," Jesus said softly.
"It's time."
Elyon nodded.
Their light fused — swirling into Jesus's form.
But before He could take Zyla to safety—
A shadow dropped in front of Him.
Tall.
Smiling.
Eyes burning like black suns.
Morvath.
Jesus froze.
Nina choked out a gasp.
The archangels raised their weapons.
Morvath stepped forward, cracking the ground beneath His heel.
"Going somewhere, brother?"
His smile widened.
"You're not taking her from me."
And the Temple of Heaven fell silent.