I stood slowly, my voice distant. "How did you enter here?"
He held sothing in his hand—glowing faintly. "I made a deal. One I probably shouldn’t have."
The gods bristled.
Lucas kept his gaze on . "I had to see you. To warn you. There’s sothing else coming. Sothing worse than Caelum. I saw it in the breach. It’s already begun."
My spine stiffened. "What is it?"
"I don’t know. But it knew you. It called your na like a curse and a prayer."
The gods murmured.
Lucas stepped closer.
But I didn’t move.
"I don’t rember you," I said softly. "Not the way I want to. The way I did."
"I know," he whispered. "But I’m not here for that."
A beat of silence.
"I’m here to fight. Beside you. Even if you don’t rember us. Even if you never love again."
I stared at him, the throne pulsing behind .
He was real.
And so was the storm coming.
I turned to the gods. "Then send us where we’re needed. If the realms are cracking, we won’t wait for the pieces to fall."
The throne flared once more. The sky fractured.
The war had only just begun.
The throne room of the gods’ realm still trembled with residual power. The breach behind Lucas had begun to seal, but the mory of it pulsed in my chest like a fractured heartbeat. The other gods watched us, silent and still. No god or goddess dared move. All their patience and vigilance cracked in that mont.
But I was compelled forward.
The throne’s light dimd but remained warm beneath . The seal upon the air high above flickered in raw energies that spelled imbalance.
A voice echoed rom mortal mory.
Athena.
So soft it could have been a dream.
I rose, fist clenching.
"Show ," I said.
A ripple in the realm’s fabric pulsed, and the floor faded like water evaporating. I found myself walking through shifting clouds of reality, toward sothing ancient at the start of ti.
It first showed a vision of fire
I stood on charred earth. The ground beneath cracked and smoldered. Giants of smoke rose into skies the color of hurt.
A city in ruin sprawled before —spires toppled, streets swallowed, wolves howling among the rubble.
Among the ruins, n and wolves fought intertwined. I watched as one wolf-mage struck a colossal shadow serpentine creature with blasts of moonlight—and it shattered, only to reform and strike again. The creature fanged into her chest. The wolf fell.
Beyond them, armies of wolves clashed with impossible beasts: moon-eaters shaped like molten steel, horned creatures pulsing with dark lightning, skeletal dragons wreathed in violet fire.
A banner flew above twisted stone fortresses. The sigil: a crescent moon—but etched with deep cracks and black veins.
It pulsed with a ssage: It is your turn.
I whispered my na—and the beasts paused. Thousands of eyes turned toward . Then, with a scream, they surged.
I didn’t run. I lifted my hand, and a pulse of cold night broke through the battleground. Steel and shadow t moonfire. Light cut darkness, and beasts dissolved like ink in water.
Then ca the vision’s end—not with triumph, but with loss.
I saw Lucas fall among them. I heard his roar of agony. Ash drifted down from the silver sky.
And a laugh rang out.
Athena.
The realm flickered again, and I stood before an endless throne, carved from obsidian ripping into silver light. Seated upon it—not seated, but woven into it—was a monstrous silhouette.
It had no face. Only shape. A body carved of rivers of starlight and void, blades where arms should be, teeth of whitened bone. Wings made of cracked reality.
A voice burned in my mind: Welco back.
I whispered my na.
The creature rose. Wings snapped reality. Blades slashed the air. A laugh that shattered all laws of ti cut from the void.
You called .
It’s my turn now.
A wave of anti-magic erupted. The laws of the realm bent. The gods’ seats cracked. Flashes of everything unraveled.
I felt both powerless and all-powerful—like the universe saw , recognized as its balance point, and laughed at for thinking I could choose.
The thing lunged.
Reality distorted. The throne crumbled. But I stood with both shadow and moonfire in my arms.
And I breathed.
The vision shifted again.
Now I stood alone in a tomb of stars, a corridor of dust and forgotten gods. The walls shimred with carved faces—ancient deities who had fallen in wars before this one began.
They spoke.
Their voices threaded into mine.
She has the power of balance. You fear her strength. But she fears more what she can destroy.
She must destroy it first — or be destroyed.
We tried to whisper the way, but she was born deaf after what Caelum taught her.
Another voice, cracked by ti, said—
Beware the mory you gave up. There lies the tether.
I lunged for the nearest wall—etched with the ancient sigil of the original Moon Goddess. My fingers brushed it. It glowed hot like molten silver.
And then it exploded into fractals. Reality cracked behind .
I stood before Kieran and Lucas in the real world—though "real" felt distant. The mory faded behind .
Lucas’s voice was torn: What did you see?
I heard him, but I couldn’t speak.
Within , the thing that called my na from the future—a primal echo—woke again.
It whispered: Either you will lead ... or I will finish you.
I stumbled. The floor beneath cracked.
I staggered toward the old throne platform I had vacated, still projecting power through the seal that existed only because I allowed it.
I lifted a hand to hold it together.
I opened my mouth. Words ca.
I am both the key and the lock.
Lucas looked down at . Fist clenched.
I breathed.
I will lead this new war.
A laugh echoed behind —not cruel. Sad.
We always thought there would be a war. But none thought you would lead it.
I turned then to them.
But I still don’t know if that makes Athena... or what I fear.
The final vision struck a mont later:
A dark-robed figure, face veiled, walking through a corridor of bone-white webbing. In her hand: a blade of cracked moonstone.
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