Chapter 2649: Story 2650: The Mouth Beneath

The black sun fell.

Kael and Azael watched the sphere slowly descend through crimson sky.

“Move!” Isabella shouted.

The army scattered.

Kael pulled Azael away as the black sun struck the fortress.

Silence swallowed the world.

Then the ground opened.

A gigantic mouth appeared beneath the fortress, wider than the mountains surrounding them. Black teeth pushed through the earth.

Something was waking.

Lena screamed.

“Kael!”

Her crimson eyes glowed brighter.

Elias stood beside her, his K-28 symbol burning across his chest.

“It is calling us,” Elias said.

Elias pointed toward the mouth.

“Blood.”

A deep breath came from below.

The dead world moved with it.

Mountains bent inward.

Millions of undead dropped to their knees.

The six-eyed First Enemy lowered its head.

Azael stared.

“I have heard that breathing before.”

“Where?” Kael asked.

“In the fortress.”

“Every night they tortured me, something beneath the floor breathed.”

The shadow mother stepped forward.

“I thought it was sleeping.”

The forgotten king appeared.

“No.”

“It was waiting.”

The mouth opened wider.

A voice rose from beneath the world.

“AZRAEL.”

Kael froze.

Then another voice followed.

“AZAEL.”

Their symbols burned.

Lena grabbed Kael’s arm.

“Do not answer it.”

“Why?” Kael asked.

The shadow mother said,

“Because it does not want your blood.”

The mouth spoke.

“IT WANTS YOUR NAMES.”

Azael stepped backward.

“My name?”

The creature laughed.

The laughter shook the world.

“YOUR NAMES WERE NEVER YOURS.”

Memories tore through Kael’s mind.

He saw himself as an infant.

Then Azael.

Two children beneath a crimson sky.

Behind them stood something older than the King Before Kings and the Witness.

A faceless black figure held both infants.

A voice whispered.

“You were divided because one name could not contain you.”

Kael dropped to one knee.

Their blood symbols merged.

AZRAEL.

AZAEL.

The letters twisted into a single ancient mark.

Seraphine stared.

“That symbol...”

Adrian approached.

“You recognize it?”

Seraphine nodded.

“It appears once in the oldest records.”

“What does it mean?” Isabella demanded.

Seraphine looked toward Kael.

“The name of the first soul.”

The mouth opened.

Black fire erupted upward.

The shadow mother raised her blade, but the fire passed through.

Kael stood.

His sword changed.

The black blade became crimson.

Azael’s sword became white.

Lena’s eyes turned silver.

Elias’s veins glowed gold.

Four powers surrounded them.

The creature spoke again.

“RETURN.”

Kael stepped forward.

“No.”

The battlefield shook.

Azael stood beside him.

“We were separated once.”

Lena joined them.

“Never again.”

Elias raised his weapon.

“Whatever you are...”

Kael lifted his sword.

“...you will face all four of us.”

The mouth stopped laughing.

For the first time, the creature sounded afraid.

“FOUR?”

The black sky cracked.

Three gigantic eyes opened beneath the mouth.

Seraphine whispered,

“There was never supposed to be a fourth.”

Kael and Azael looked at each other and understood.

It had not awakened because of their blood.

It had awakened because they had become whole.

And beneath the fortress, the oldest enemy finally began to rise.