The last sound Zane remembered was the bell.
Three tolls, each heavier than the last, each one cracking the sky itself.
The first shook the battlefield.
The second made the world hold its breath.
The third... ended everything.
He’d felt the angelic figure rise from within him, its light tearing through the darkness only to devour it again.
He’d seen the blue infinity sigil burn across his vision, hovering on the edge of eternity.
When his eyes opened, he was not lying in ash, nor beneath a blood-red sky.
He was standing in a boundless, white expanse.
There was no ground, yet he felt the sensation of standing.
No horizon, yet a distant glow seemed to breathe.
A figure emerged from the brightness — a woman, impossibly tall, robed in flowing threads of silver and starlight. Her hair cascaded like a waterfall of constellations, and her eyes... they were the night sky itself.
She reached for him, her hand cool yet warm, like holding the wind and the sun at the same time.
"Well done," she said, her voice carrying the weight of aeons. "But it is not your time yet."
Before Zane could speak, she smiled faintly, and with a casual snap of her fingers—
Darkness swallowed everything.
When the light returned, it wasn’t white.
A small, sterile room. The scent of antiseptic. A rhythmic beeping somewhere nearby.
A newborn’s cry split the air.
A tall man, broad-shouldered, with wind-tossed black hair and sharp green eyes, stood by a bed. His jawline was strong, but softened by the smile he wore as he leaned closer.
On the bed lay a woman, sweat clinging to strands of her chestnut hair, her blue eyes brimming with tears. She cradled a swaddled baby in trembling arms.
"He’s so cute..." she whispered, her voice breaking with joy. "Welcome to the world... Zane."
Outside, the faint cawing of crows broke the moment.
One. Then dozens. Then hundreds.
They swept across the sky in a black tide, blotting out the sun. For a fleeting moment, the hospital room dimmed as if night had fallen in an instant.
And somewhere, deep within the newborn’s unfocused eyes... a flicker of blue light formed — an infinity symbol, gone in the blink of an eye.