Chapter 335: We Hunt.
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Exousia rose through the morning sky, her form weaving with mist and fading moonlight. The city fell away beneath her, becoming a blur of glass towers and thin streets. Higher she drifted, until the clouds swallowed her, damp and cold against her silent body.
She emerged beyond the cloud cover into the pale gold dawn above. For a moment she hovered there, feeling the warmth of the hidden sun brush against her face. Then she turned, folding herself into the thinness between worlds, vanishing like a shadow at noon.
When she stepped out again, she was back on the rooftop with her siblings.
Michael stood where she’d left him, arms folded, eyes staring into the city below without seeing it. Raphael sat on the ledge, head bowed, silent prayer slipping through his lips. Uriel stood at the far end of the roof, her back to them, watching the sunrise bleed faint colours across the horizon.
They felt her return before they heard her footsteps.
Michael turned, his black eyes empty but searching. "Well?"
Exousia walked closer, mist drifting off her clothes like dew under morning light. "He won’t come."
Raphael exhaled softly. "Did he say why?"
She shook her head. "He doesn’t need to."
Uriel turned to face them, her gaze calm but heavy. "Then it’s just us."
Exousia nodded.
Silence settled between them. The breeze rustled faintly, carrying the smell of damp stone and city smoke across the rooftop. Below, traffic had thickened. Horns blared in the distance, mixing with the barking of a stray dog echoing through narrow streets.
Michael clenched his fists, feeling the leather of his gloves strain against his skin. "Then we move."
Raphael slid off the ledge, his boots crunching lightly against the gravel. "We need to find it before it anchors fully."
Uriel stepped closer, brushing stray hair from her eyes. "It’s already searching."
Michael tilted his head slightly, eyes narrowing. "You feel it too?"
Uriel nodded. "It’s testing. Probing minds. Memories. Dreams."
Exousia closed her eyes, feeling the faint tremor ripple through the air. It was like an echo of something that didn’t belong here. A note played in a scale this reality couldn’t hold.
"It’s close," she said softly.
Raphael drew a slow breath. "Direction?"
They all fell silent, eyes closed, listening with senses older than light itself.
Then Michael raised his head.
"East," he murmured. "Abandoned rail yard."
Uriel flicked her gaze to him. "You’re sure?"
He nodded once. "It’s drawn to empty spaces. Less interference."
Raphael glanced at Exousia. "Will you come with us?"
She hesitated. Her eyes flicked skyward for a moment, seeing far beyond clouds and sun. She saw the Celestial Myriad Realm, felt the distant pulse of the God Plane beyond it. She thought of the first wife, waiting for her return. Waiting for answers.
"I’ll come," she said quietly. "For now."
Michael nodded once. "Let’s move."
They didn’t need words after that.
Wings unfurled silently from their backs—black for Michael, white-gold for Raphael, faint silver for Uriel, and for Exousia... wings of pale mist, curling and fading at the edges like smoke in wind.
They stepped off the rooftop as one, dropping through the morning air. The city blurred past them, windows flashing gold under the rising sun. Traffic rumbled far below, unaware of four figures cutting through the sky above them.
They landed at the rail yard minutes later.
It was silent. Rusted tracks stretched out in twisted lines, half-buried under weeds and gravel. Empty train cars sat forgotten, their metal sides streaked with old rain and graffiti scrawled by bored hands. The breeze carried the sharp smell of rust and wet earth.
Uriel walked forward first, boots crunching against broken glass scattered across the cracked concrete.
"It’s here," she said softly.
Raphael nodded, his eyes scanning the shifting shadows between train cars. "It’s hiding."
Michael stepped up beside him. "No. It’s watching."
Exousia stood slightly apart from them, her gaze unfocused. She felt it. The presence. Like a tear in reality itself. No shape. No sound. Just... wrongness.
She shivered softly, though the morning air was warm.
Then something moved.
Between two rusted cars, the shadows deepened. They twisted together, curling and folding inward until a shape began to form.
It wasn’t human. Not yet.
Just an outline of darkness, flickering and unstable, like static on an old television screen. Inside it burned faint colours that didn’t exist here—blues too deep, reds too bright, yellows so thin they made her eyes ache.
Uriel drew her blade slowly, the metal whispering as it slid free. "It’s manifesting."
Michael spread his wings slightly, feathers brushing the ground. "We hold it here. Seal it before it stabilises."
Raphael began to murmur quiet incantations under his breath, symbols flickering around his hands in pale gold light.
Exousia watched them all, silent and still.
The shape in the shadows flickered again. It pulsed once, sending a ripple of nausea through the air. Birds scattered from nearby power lines, their wings flapping in frantic bursts. A dog in the distance began to bark and whine, then fell silent.
"Ready," Raphael said, his voice low.
Uriel nodded. "On your mark."
Michael clenched his fists, his wings flaring out behind him. Black feathers drifted to the cracked concrete, dissolving into ash before they landed.
"Now."
They moved as one.
Uriel lunged forward, her blade slashing through the flickering darkness. Raphael raised his hands, golden chains erupting from his palms to wrap around the creature’s shifting outline. Michael stepped in last, his fist glowing with searing black light as he drove it forward into the centre of the mass.
The creature screamed.
It wasn’t a sound. It wasn’t anything this world could hear. But their bones felt it. Their souls felt it. Exousia staggered back, clutching her chest as the wrongness of the noise burned through her.
"Hold it!" Michael shouted.
Uriel stabbed again, pinning one flickering limb to the gravel. Raphael whispered louder, the symbols around his arms blazing like tiny suns.
Exousia raised her hand. Mist poured from her skin, curling around the creature, weaving through the golden chains and wrapping it in pale smoke. She felt it struggle against her grip, felt its rage and its confusion and its endless, hungry curiosity.
"It’s not enough," Raphael gasped, his eyes wide with strain.
Michael gritted his teeth. "We have to finish this!"
But the shadows pulsed again, brighter this time. The colours inside it burned sharper, flickering through impossible hues. The chains cracked. The mist split apart. Uriel stumbled back as her blade was thrown from her hands.
Raphael fell to his knees, coughing blood into the gravel.
Michael raised his fist to strike again—
—but the creature vanished.
Gone. As if it had never been there.
Silence slammed down around them, heavy and ringing. Only their ragged breaths filled the air.
Exousia fell to her knees, staring at the empty space where it had been. The breeze rustled through her damp hair, carrying the faint scent of rust and dust and old weeds.
"It escaped," she whispered.
Michael clenched his fists, his wings trembling with rage. "Yes. And It learned."
Uriel picked up her blade with shaking hands, wiping blood from her lips. "Then what now?"
Michael closed his eyes, feeling the storm gather behind his ribs.
"Now," he said quietly, "we hunt."