In the highest reaches of the Divine Realm, past the silver-streaked clouds and the celestial stairways carved from moonstone, stood the Hall of Eternity.
Towering columns shimred with condensed starlight, and the very air buzzed with immutable law—unchanging, unbending, eternal.
At its center sat a throne wrought from the bones of dead stars, and upon it, cloaked in radiant armor and crowned with the eternal fla, was the Chief God: Arkenas, the Lawmaker.
Lucia’s arrival was heralded by neither trumpet nor servant.
She pushed the massive double doors open with her own divine force, and they groaned in protest as if even the sacred materials feared the clash that was about to unfold.
Arkenas looked up with cold eyes, a mixture of curiosity and calculation gleaming beneath his calm façade.
"Lucia. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
He said evenly, his voice resonating like a gavel strike in a courtroom.
Lucia didn’t waste ti. She marched forward, her silver eyes flashing with stormlight.
"Enough of your false civility, Arkenas. I want the truth. Was Kyle alive all this ti?"
A pause.
Then the faintest twitch at the corner of Arkenas’ lips.
"I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about."
"Don’t lie to ! I saw him. I felt him. His mana, his strength, his presence! That was Kyle. And you—you knew!"
She snapped, divine wings flaring open behind her.
Arkenas remained seated, fingers calmly intertwined on the armrest.
"And if he were alive, Lucia? Then what?"
Lucia clenched her fists.
"Then why? Why was I told he was lost? Why was his soul erased from the cycle?"
Arkenas’ expression turned icy.
"Because Kyle Armstrong is a threat. A man who dares to defy divine law, rewrite fate, and claim power that belongs to us... should never have been allowed to live in the first place. If he’s back, we correct that mistake. He is to be destroyed."
"You speak of judgnt and law, but your hands are drenched in hypocrisy. You lied. You used . You had no intention of preserving his soul!"
Lucia’s voice shook.
"And you were foolish enough to think we ever would. You defied us once. Your loyalty was always conditional."
Arkenas said.
Lucia’s restraint shattered.
With a cry of fury, she hurled a spear of condensed divine light at Arkenas. The hall quaked as her attack flew—its impact powerful enough to split mountains in the mortal realm.
But Arkenas did not even rise.
He raised a single finger, and the spear disintegrated inches from his chest, turned to ash by a wave of pure, authoritative power. His eyes narrowed now, lips pursed in mild annoyance.
"Lucia. I suggest you calm yourself."
Lucia responded with another blast—this ti twin arcs of celestial fire and death-infused chains.
The attacks scread through the hall, warping the divine air, bending the space.
But again, Arkenas stood still.
A golden ring flared into existence around him. Law incarnate. The very essence of divine hierarchy.
When the attacks reached him, they struck the ring and vanished without even a whisper. The force that protected him wasn’t re energy. It was command. A command that said:
"You shall not harm ."
Lucia scread in frustration, wings spreading to their fullest. She rained attacks down from above—swords of moonlight, storms of frost, roars of silent death.
The Hall of Eternity groaned under the pressure. Columns cracked. Stars dimd in the windows.
Still, Arkenas did not rise.
When her final strike—a bolt forged from the dying breath of a god she once felled—ca screaming toward him, Arkenas sighed.
And then he stood.
The mont he did, everything stopped. The attacks froze mid-air. The wind ceased to blow. Even the light dared not move.
A heavy silence crushed the space. The pressure of divine law beca suffocating.
Then, with a motion so subtle it was almost invisible, Arkenas raised his hand.
Bang.
Lucia was thrown back like a ragdoll, her body crashing into the golden walls of the hall. The divine tal cracked where she hit.
She gasped for breath, blood at the corner of her lips, her body scorched from head to toe.
Arkenas walked toward her, each step echoing like a tolling bell of judgnt.
"I am not Charrin. I am not Tirakos. I do not fall to emotion. Nor do I waver when a traitor loses her way."
Lucia tried to rise, but her knees buckled. Her power was being suppressed with every heartbeat.
"You betrayed us once, Lucia. That alone warranted your erasure. But we allowed you to live. To watch. To see the consequences of siding with a mortal."
He now stood over her, looking down like a god would to a dying fla.
"If Kyle lives, he will not escape judgnt a second ti. And you..."
He said,
He turned his back.
"...are not worth my wrath."
Lucia could only watch as he returned to his throne, her power torn, her pride shattered.
But deep in her bruised heart, sothing sparked.
Fear, yes. But also—defiance. Because for all his power, Arkenas feared Kyle. And that ant Kyle could win.
Lucia’s fingers trembled as she pressed them against the golden floor, her divine blood still staining the cracks beneath her.
Her limbs ached from the relentless suppression, her power crushed under the sheer weight of the Chief God’s will. But even in that state, sothing in her refused to yield.
She gritted her teeth, forcing her broken body upright. Her knees buckled, but she planted her foot firmly, rising inch by painful inch.
"I... won’t stop. Not until I see him... not until I tell him everything."
She whispered.
A flicker of light sparked in her palm—faint, but growing. She poured the last of her divine energy into it, shaping a final, desperate spell.
Her breathing was ragged, and her skin pale, but she raised her hand toward Arkenas, her voice trembling.
"Even if I fall here... I’ll still make my choice."
The Chief God remained seated, his eyes closing for a brief mont in what looked almost like disappointnt.
"You had so much potential, Lucia. You could have risen higher than any of us. But you chose defiance. You chose a mortal."
He said softly.
He raised a hand.
"I will reset you. Perhaps the next ti, you will rember who you are ant to be."
Lucia’s eyes widened.
"No—!"
But before she could release her spell, her vision blurred. The power in her hand dimd, her body suddenly heavy, her knees giving way again.
A searing pressure blanketed her mind, dragging her consciousness into a quiet abyss.
As she collapsed, the last image in her mind wasn’t the throne or the divine hall—it was Kyle. The echo of his voice.
The warmth of his mana. That crooked smile he wore when teasing her.
And then... nothing.
Lucia collapsed to her knees, her final spell flickering out in her trembling hand.
The Chief God stood over her, expression unreadable.
"Such a sha. You could’ve been more."
He murmured.
With a single gesture, her divine core was sealed, and darkness rushed in.
Her vision faded, but one image burned behind her closing eyes—Kyle, smiling with that sa warmth she could never forget.
’I didn’t even get to say anything...’
Her heart ached with the weight of everything unsaid, and her last breath before unconsciousness was a silent plea.
’Please... wait for , just a little longer...’
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