The night sky blanketed Tokyo in deep blue and violet, stars shimmering faintly between drifting clouds. High above the sleeping city, the Celestial Vanguards trained atop a shadowed rooftop their forms illuminated by the soft glow of neon lights below.
Kael moved swiftly, trading strikes with Orion, their impacts echoing through the cool night air. Veyra spun gracefully nearby, her crystalline flames dancing in the dark. Lyra weaved between them, blades flashing like streaks of light.
But in the midst of their motion — Kael abruptly stopped, body tensing.
A cold presence had crept into the night — something unnatural, watching from beyond their sight.
"…Do you feel that?" Kael asked lowly, scanning the distant skyline.
Veyra nodded, her aura flaring. "It's cold… wrong. Like the air itself is watching."
Just then, Zevak's voice cut sharply through the comms:
"GUYS — there's another being. But this one… this one's different. He doesn't look engineered like Hammerstrike. He looks like trouble. Serious trouble."
Orion cracked his knuckles. "Where is he?"
"I'm trying — he's cloaked somehow. My scanners can't lock on — it's like he's… slipping between layers of reality."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "Stay sharp. We'll find him."
Far above — perched atop a skeletal broadcast tower under the pale moon — Ecliphaze — The Moonveil Sovereign — watched.
The silver crescent of the moon shimmered in his eyes as his cloaked form phased between light and shadow, as though he barely existed in the physical world.
"Fascinating," Ecliphaze whispered. "Such resolve… but how easily sight can be stolen. How fragile… the mind."
Without a sound — he moved.
Back on the rooftop, the air seemed heavier — a cold veil settling over them. Even the stars dimmed, as if the moon itself pressed down.
Kael's gaze sharpened. "He's close."
Suddenly, space itself split — silver crescent-shaped rifts slicing open the night. From the tears stepped a cloaked figure — shifting between presence and illusion.
Ecliphaze had arrived.
His voice, layered with unsettling calm, echoed into their minds:
"I bring you no warning… only endings."
Kael and the others spread out ready to face this new threat beneath the watchful moon.
The battle for the night… had begun.
END CHAPTER 8