Another gush of wind howled through the ruins of the old cathedral carrying with it the scent of damp stone, brimstone, sulfur and something darker, something that made Elias's skin prickle.
He tightened his grip on the worn hilt of his dagger, the silver runes along its blade faintly glowing in the dim light. Shadows danced along the broken arches, twisting into shapes that almost looked human. *Almost.*
*They're here.*
A whisper slithered through the air, too soft for any normal man to hear, but Elias had long since ceased being just a man. He turned slowly, his breath steady despite the cold dread coiling in his gut.
"Show yourselves," he demanded, voice low but carrying. "You fear this guardian, do you?"
Voices of laughter echoed they were hollow and mocking, that came from every direction at once. Then, like smoke given form, three figures materialized before him.
Their wings was once radiant but now tattered, blackened and twitches with restless energy. The tallest of them stepped forward, his golden eyes gleaming with amusement.
"Fear?" The fallen angel's voice was silk over steel. "We do not fear you Elias. We pity you." Elias didn't flinch he shots back. "Pity is wasted on the dead."
The angel's smile sharpened. "Is that what you think we are? You really think we are dead?" He spread his arms, the remnants of his wings casting jagged shadows. "We are more alive than you've ever been. We remember the weight of heaven and the taste of divinity. You?...You are just a man, a man who is playing with forces he cannot comprehend."
Elias exhaled through his nose, forcing his pulse to steady. He had heard these taunts many times before, they were meant to unsettle him and to make him full of doubt.
He knows doubt was a luxury he couldn't afford. Not now not ever. Not when the Veil between worlds was thinning, and the past was bleeding into the present as the future bleeds into the past and the present.
"You're trespassing," he said flatly. "This city is under my protection."
The second angel, a woman with hair like spilled ink, tilted her head. "Your protection?" She laughed with song that sound like shattering glass.
"The mortals here don't even know you exist. They go about their lives, blind to the war being waged in their streets. What does it matter if we walk among them?"
Elias's jaw tightened. "Because I made a promise." *Angrily* Because you don't belong here, further more you wasn't created to be here in the first place,!"
The memory and the voice of his mentor surfaces weak but unwavering, as his life faded from his eyes. He last words "please guard the Veil, Elias... Keep them out... No matter the cost."*
He remembersed what he had sworn. And he knows that he would keep the oath, even if it killed him.
The third angel the smallest of them had remained silent until now. With his eyes as pale as the moonlight he locked onto Elias with an unsettling intensity. "You're running out of time," he murmured. "The threads are unraveling. Can't you feel it? I know you can!"
Elias didn't answer. He didn't need to. The air itself thrummed with wrongness, a pressure building at the edges of his awareness.
The past was seeping through, moments and memories that didn't belong and shouldn't belong, He had seen them all glimpses of battles long forgotten and battles that didn't even happened, faces of people who had died centuries ago walking the streets as if they had never left also people and animals that shouldn't exist at all.
The first angel took a step closer, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Join us, Elias. You don't have to fight this anymore. ...alone! We can teach you how to wield the threads, how to shape time itself. You could undo every single mistake, you can save every life you've ever lost."
For a heartbeat Elias wavered. The offer was tempting. So damn tempting he thought of Liora and Kael as her laughter faded into screams. Of Kael her son, who got swallowed by the shadows before Elias could reach him.
But then he remembered the cost. "No," he said, the word leaving his lips like a vow. "I won't play your games. This timeline and all the timelines stays intact."
The angel's expression darkened. "Then you will die with all of them."
The attack came faster than Elias expected. One moment the angels stood before him, the next, the air split with the sound of wings, a pain exploded across his ribs as a blade grazed his side. He twisted his own dagger flashing as he parried the next strike. The runes along its length flared brighter, searing the angel's flesh where it made contact.
The creature hissed and recoiled, but the others were already moving. Elias ducked beneath a swipe of claws and rolled to his feet just in time to block another strike. His muscles were burned and his breath was coming in sharp gasps. He was outnumbered, outmatched but he wasn't defenseless.
With a snarl, Elias slammed his palm against the cracked stone floor. The runes carved into his skin ignited, a web of golden light spreading outward. The angels shrieked as the magic lashed out at them tha made their forms flickered like candle flames in a storm.
The smallest one screamed first, his body unraveling into smoke. The woman followed, her curses dissolving into the wind. The last angel the one who had spoken first lingered the longest with his golden eyes burning with hatred.
"This isn't over," he spat. "The Veil will fall, Elias... humanity will die. And when it does, you'll wish you had taken my offer." Then he to was gone.
Silence descended, broken only by the distant sound of church bells tolling the hour. Elias sagged, his knees hitting the ground as the adrenaline drained from his body. His side throbbed where the blade had cut him, but the wound wasn't deep. He'd live, For now.
He forced himself to stand then he wiprd the blood from his dagger before sheathing it. The runes on his arms still glowed faintly with a reminder of the power he carried and the burden.
The angels were right about one thing, time was unraveling. And if he didn't find a way to stop it soon and fast, the past, the present and the future would collide and everything everyone he had ever fought for would be lost.
Elias turned his face toward the city, where the lights of countless lives flickered like stars. Somewhere out there, the threads of fate were twisting. And he was the only one who could cut them before it was too late.
He took a step forward, then another. The night was far from over, the little girl have to survive, she gots to grow up, she has an important part to play in getting rid of the a fallen angels, Elias resited.