The Dominion's skies bled crimson.
High above the obsidian spires of the capital, the sky itself fractured, like a mirror struck by divine wrath. A thousand rifts pulsed in the clouds, raining down sparks of distorted mana. Citizens screamed, mystics wept, and the city's shields groaned under the unnatural pressure.
In the center of it all, a woman hovered.
White fire curled around her body like a halo. Wings—more flame than flesh—extended behind her, each feather a shard of magic made manifest. Her molten sapphire eyes scanned the skyline with the poise of a god.
She was the First Seraphim.
And she had awakened.
---
Back at the Academy, Zero sat in a quiet chamber known only to faculty—a place once meant for contemplation. Now, it was his interrogation room. Marina sat across from him, arms crossed, while Ravaryn paced.
"You're not under arrest," the Headmaster said, "but you are under watch. Until we understand what you've become."
"What I've become?" Zero repeated. "I didn't ask for any of this."
"No one ever does," Marina said softly. "That doesn't change the cost."
Ravaryn interjected, "You need to understand how dangerous this situation is. Your connection to the Crown of Ash triggered the reawakening of a Relic Thread long believed extinct. And now..."
He conjured a magical hologram—a projection of the sky above the Dominion.
"…this."
Zero's eyes widened.
"A celestial rupture?" he asked.
"Worse," Ravaryn said. "A Thread Cascade. When a thread-bearing relic awakens too forcefully, it distorts the weave of magic around it. Now, the Seraphim Relic—sealed for five hundred years—has awakened in tandem."
"And whoever holds that…"
"...is the most dangerous entity alive," Marina finished.
---
In the city of Aetherhold, beneath the Glass Citadel, the Seraphim walked barefoot through a hall of chained angels. They bowed—not in reverence, but in fear. They remembered.
The woman moved with silence and certainty. Her name was Cerys. The angels knew her as the Flame of Judgment.
Each step she took scorched the white marble beneath her. The air around her shimmered with heat and power. Her voice echoed in every mind nearby.
The world forgot the will of the divine. It must remember.
Behind her, a man knelt—masked, clad in mirrored armor.
"Command me, First Seraphim."
"Find the one who bears the Shadow Crown. His ruin is prologue."
---
At the Academy, Zero walked the inner courtyard. Students whispered and parted as he passed. Some stared in awe, others in fear. He hated it.
Cassian joined him with a smirk. "Look at you. Our local myth reborn."
"I'm not a myth."
Cassian arched an eyebrow. "You literally summoned a crown older than the recorded calendar. Don't pretend to be normal."
Zero stopped. "I didn't ask for any of it."
"I know," Cassian said, suddenly serious. "But people don't care what you want. They'll either fear you or try to use you. Maybe both."
Cassian tossed him something. A pendant—etched with the sigil of the Elite Division.
"Come to the Trials," he said. "Prove you're more than a walking apocalypse."
---
Later that night, Marina found Zero standing before a sealed vault.
"You're going, aren't you?" she asked.
"I need to understand the rest of what's inside me. What I saw during the relic awakening—there was more. Something calling from deeper beneath."
"Then let me come with you."
Zero glanced at her. "You don't have to."
"I know," she said. "I want to."
The vault's sigils dimmed as the Crown of Ash pulsed. The doors groaned and parted.
Inside, the air was thick with ancient magic. Hallways twisted in impossible geometry—non-Euclidean spaces linked by broken time. It was the Vault of Threads.
---
Deep within the Vault, Zero's steps slowed. Marina stayed close. Symbols shifted on the walls, whispering in dead languages. At the heart of the vault, they found a single crystal coffin.
Inside lay a boy.
He looked no older than Zero—same hair, same golden eyes. But he had no heartbeat. Only a faint thread of energy tethered his body to a black ring hovering above his chest.
> THREAD ANOMALY DETECTED ENTITY: NULL CROWN HEIR STATUS: SUSPENDED
Zero reached out—
—and the world shattered.
---
He was not in the vault.
He stood in a battlefield of ash. Skies blackened. Towers burned. Relics clashed across the heavens like comets. And at the center stood two figures:
One wore the Crown of Ash. The other bore the Halo of Ruin.
They screamed each other's names.
"ZERO!"
"CERYS!"
And the world ended.
---
Zero collapsed backward, gasping. Marina caught him.
"What did you see?" she asked.
"The future," he whispered. "Or maybe the past. Maybe both."
Behind them, the coffin cracked open.
The boy inside opened his eyes.
Golden. Identical.
"Who are you?" Zero asked.
The boy sat up, voice emotionless. "I am what remains of who you were. I am the lost thread."
And the ring floated from his chest into Zero's hand, pulsing dark.
> RELIC ACQUIRED: NULL RING THREAD MERGE: INITIATED
---
Far beyond the Academy, Cerys gazed into a pool of starlight.
"He has awakened the Null Crown," she murmured. "The paradox lives again."
She turned to her knight.
"Prepare the Seraphic Host."
The knight bowed. "As you command, O Flame Eternal."
Thunder cracked.
And across the sky, war began to whisper.