The battlefield burned with the color of Heaven's fury.
Silver beams lanced across the sky, fired from ancient Vatican cannons powered by angelic fragments. The earth quaked beneath the boots of soldiers — both Ministry defenders and Vatican enforcers.
But amidst all the chaos, one figure stood like a monument.
Saint Evalyn.
She was once a healer. A voice of peace. The youngest to ever receive the divine title of Sanctified by both the Ministry and Vatican alike.
Her robes were torn, her staff cracked, but she stood atop the western wall, surrounded by wounded children she had refused to abandon.
"You must flee!" a priest begged her. "They've sent the Red Cleaver! He'll break through soon!"
Evalyn simply smiled, placing a glowing hand on a boy with a severed leg. Flesh re-knit beneath her palm. "Let the Cleaver come. Even wrath has a master."
The Red Cleaver Descends
The earth split open as a man-shaped inferno dropped into the courtyard — flaming armor, a blood-red greatsword taller than a man strapped to his back.
Inquisitor Varn, the Red Cleaver.
He was a butcher of cities. The Vatican's enforcer of absolutes. He did not ask. He did not warn. He only cut, and burned, and razed.
He stepped toward Evalyn.
"You're out of time, Saint," Varn growled. "You stand between me and God's will."
She didn't flinch. "If this is God's will… then perhaps we should speak to God again."
She raised her cracked staff.
Varn raised his blade.
They clashed.
The Boys Arrive Too Late
Ren and Kaito landed beside the wall, their powers barely holding back the onslaught of Templar troops.
"Where's Evalyn!?" Ren shouted.
Daiki broke through the rubble moments later, lifting his earthen shield with a grunt. "She's still up there—!"
They turned just in time to see a crimson explosion tear through the roof of the chapel.
Smoke.
Silence.
Then Evalyn fell.
She plummeted like an angel torn from Heaven, body limp, cloak aflame.
Kaito leapt, catching her before she struck the ground.
Her breath was shallow.
Her eyes opened, barely.
"I saw you… in a vision… Kaito…"
He froze. "What?"
"You'll have to choose…" she whispered. "Not just who to save… but who to let die."
And with a smile of tragic calm…
She died.
The First Saint had fallen.
The Chains React
Icarus arrived last.
And when he saw Evalyn's body — saw her burned robe, the quiet stillness of someone who had always lived to protect — something broke inside him.
His chains screamed.
Not metaphorically. Literally. They shrieked through the air like tortured angels.
All around him, Vatican soldiers suddenly dropped to their knees, blood leaking from their eyes. The sound was attacking their very souls.
Kaito reached for him. "Icarus—! You have to stop—!"
But Icarus didn't hear him.
He walked through the air now, each step leaving a glowing symbol behind.
Above him, the Black Halo formed — a manifestation of cursed divinity.
The Red Cleaver turned.
"What in God's name are you?" he muttered.
Icarus raised his hand.
The chains shot forward.
They wrapped around the Cleaver's blade, around his limbs, around his very spirit — anchoring him to the pain of every innocent he'd ever slain.
Then Icarus said a single word.
"Repent."
And the Red Cleaver screamed.
In the Vatican
Far away, across the sea in the golden halls of the Vatican's inner sanctum, alarms blared.
A council of cardinals knelt before a towering sealed sarcophagus — etched with runes, floating mid-air, surrounded by rings of sacred tech.
"What is that surge of power!?" one cardinal cried.
Another priest examined the glowing readings. "It's the Chainbearer. He's resonating with the Forbidden One."
The High Cardinal stood, his voice iron.
"It is time to wake the second Archangel Project."
A switch was pulled.
The sarcophagus hissed.
The second Archangel… opened his eyes.
The Boys Retreat – But the War Has Begun
With Evalyn's body in their arms, and the Cleaver broken behind them, the boys fled the collapsing western wall.
The battle had turned — the Ministry forces now rallied, inspired by Icarus' wrath and Evalyn's sacrifice.
But the cost was grave.
Daiki walked in silence, his stone armor cracked and bloodied.
Ren fired two more shots behind them, just to clear their path, fury behind every bullet.
And Haru…
Haru looked at Evalyn's body and didn't say a word.
Later that night, as they reached the edge of a broken sanctuary beneath a forgotten city, they lit a small fire and laid her to rest.
"I don't know if I believe in saints," Ren said.
"But she believed in us," Daiki replied quietly.
Kaito looked up at the stars. "She saw the end coming. She knew we weren't ready. But she still gave her life for time we needed."
Icarus said nothing.
He only stared at his own hands.
For a moment… they didn't look like his hands at all.
They looked like something else's.