Chapter 2663: Story 2664: The Name Beyond Time

The kingdom vanished beneath the explosion of white light.

Kael felt himself falling.

Only darkness.

Then a heartbeat echoed.

Boom.

Kael opened his eyes.

Lena stood beside him.

Azael was kneeling nearby.

Elias’s golden veins burned across his arms.

The fifth and sixth children stood together.

Something was missing.

“The First Soul,” Lena whispered.

“It’s gone.”

A voice answered from the darkness.

“No.”

The white eyes appeared again.

“It has hidden.”

Kael raised his sword.

Black fire still covered the blade.

“Show yourself.”

The Nameless Beginning laughed.

“You carry the seventh mark.”

Kael stared at his sword.

“What does it want?”

“It wants you to remember.”

Azael stepped forward.

“I remember enough.”

The white eyes turned toward him.

“You remember what I allowed.”

Azael froze.

Kael moved beside his brother.

“You will not control him.”

Silence followed.

Then a massive white hand appeared behind Azael.

Kael struck.

His black-flaming sword sliced through the hand.

White blood exploded across the darkness.

The hand vanished.

The Nameless Beginning screamed.

Lena stared at Kael.

“You hurt it.”

Kael looked at the sword.

“No.”

The seventh mark pulsed.

“It remembers me.”

The darkness cracked.

An ancient city appeared beyond the fracture.

Its towers floated upside down.

At its center stood a temple.

The sixth child trembled.

“I know that place.”

The fifth child looked at him.

“How?”

“I was there before my name disappeared.”

They entered.

Inside the temple were seven enormous statues.

Each statue had Kael’s face.

But the seventh statue was broken.

Kael approached it.

A hidden inscription appeared.

AZRAEL — THE SOUL THAT REMEMBERS.

Beneath it were six names.

AZAEL.

LENA.

ELIAS.

And three names they had never seen.

Kael stepped backward.

“There are three more.”

Azael stared at the inscription.

“Then we were never seven.”

The temple shook.

A voice whispered behind them.

“Eight.”

Everyone turned.

A tall figure stood beneath the broken statue.

It wore white armor covered in ancient cracks.

Its face was hidden beneath a smooth mask.

Kael raised his sword.

“Who are you?”

The figure removed the mask.

Kael froze.

The face beneath it was his own.

But older.

Scarred.

With one white eye.

The stranger smiled.

“I am Azrael.”

Kael tightened his grip.

“That is my name.”

“No.”

The stranger stepped closer.

“That is the name you inherited.”

Azael looked confused.

“What does that mean?”

The stranger pointed at Kael.

“Before you became Azrael, another carried that name.”

The doors slammed shut.

The Nameless Beginning spoke.

“DO NOT LISTEN.”

The stranger laughed.

“It fears the truth.”

Kael stepped forward.

“Tell me.”

The stranger’s white eye opened wider.

“You were not born first.”

Kael’s heart stopped.

“You were born last.”

Lena whispered,

“Then who came before him?”

The stranger looked toward the darkness.

“Something that was erased from existence.”

The seventh mark on Kael’s sword suddenly turned white.

The stranger smiled.

“And it has just remembered your name.”

A final heartbeat shook the temple.

Boom.

Then every statue opened its eyes.

And all eight voices whispered together:

“AZRAEL... COME HOME.”