Zeus nodded. "You will go with Hers. Not to strike—but to observe. Gather intelligence. Speak to Naerida. Speak to Dominic if he lives. And find the Sea Witch."
"Maelora?" Hades asked, materialising at the threshold, shadows curling behind him. "She walks again?"
"She knows more than she lets on," Hera muttered. "And she has never once sworn loyalty to Olympus."
Athena turned to Hers, who was already adjusting his winged sandals. "You ready?"
Hers smirked. "Always."
Zeus raised his sceptre, lightning lashing the heavens. "Then go."
---
Scene II – The Waters Below
In the scarred borders of the inner sea, where the waters turned murky with power and mory, Dominic floated unconscious—his wounds bandaged, his heartbeat echoing like a dying wave.
Naerida stood beside him, her face pale, her war robes still stained from the last clash with Lyrielle’s Choir.
Behind her, her generals murmured, forming strategies that felt feeble in the face of the coming storm.
And then, the divine light pierced the sea.
Athena and Hers descended like stars falling into the ocean, their presence sending ripples of awe through the palace.
Naerida bowed instinctively. "Olympus sends help?"
Hers chuckled. "Help? No. Curiosity, more like. And worry."
Athena’s eyes moved to Dominic’s resting form. "Is he... still him?"
Naerida nodded slowly. "But for how long, I don’t know. The war nearly broke him. There was a mont when the sea itself rejected him. And sothing else... tried to take his place."
Athena stepped closer to him, narrowing her gaze. "Then we’re already too late."
Hers’s grin faded. "Delkarios is back, isn’t he?"
Naerida said nothing.
Instead, she turned to her council chamber. "Co. There’s more you need to see. Including what we found beneath Thalorenn."
---
Scene III – Secrets of the Deep
Inside Naerida’s war chamber, Athena and Hers were shown the artifact retrieved from the abyss—a chunk of obsidian coral, pulsing faintly with abyssal runes. The Sea Priests trembled just being near it.
Hers winced. "That’s not coral. That’s... bone."
Athena examined it. "This belonged to the Warden beneath Thalorenn."
"The sa creature that Delkarios used to command before the gods cast him out," Naerida added grimly. "If it’s waking again, we may not have enough ti to prepare."
Athena looked at her sharply. "Why not destroy it?"
"We tried," Naerida said simply. "The magic of Olympus can’t even scratch it."
There was silence.
Then Athena turned, her voice low.
"Then we must consider... calling back the full force of the Pantheon."
"Zeus won’t allow it," Hers muttered. "Not unless he’s cornered."
Athena nodded. "Then we corner him."
---
Scene IV – A Stirring Above
Back in Olympus, Zeus stood at the edge of the clouds, watching the ocean far below.
Hades approached, silent, until he was beside him.
"You feel it too," the god of the underworld said. "Don’t you?"
Zeus did not reply.
Instead, he closed his eyes.
And in that silence... a sound ca, carried even through the winds of Olympus.
A song.
It was distant.
Alien.
And impossibly ancient.
A song not heard since the dawn of the seas.
Zeus opened his eyes slowly.
"...The Deep Choir sings again."
The ocean floor beneath Thalorenn had never known light, only the slow grind of pressure and silence. But now, Athena and Hers stood upon its cracked surface, guided by Naerida’s elite siren scouts and the shimring paths conjured by the Sea Priests.
Dark spires jutted from the seabed like ribs, forming a circle around a chasm that pulsed faintly with impossible heat. It was not volcanic—it was alive.
"This is where we found the shard," one siren scout said, eyes never eting Athena’s.
"Has anyone gone in?" Hers asked, clutching his staff a little tighter.
The scout shook her head. "Only the dead return from the Warden’s hollow. And even then... they don’t stay dead for long."
Athena stepped to the edge.
The abyss whispered.
It did not scream. It didn’t rage.
It simply called.
And the voice inside it wasn’t male or female. It was deep, old as salt, and layered—like multiple voices echoing at once.
Athena’s eyes narrowed. "This is where the seal was broken."
Hers nodded. "Delkarios was here first. Maybe even reborn here."
Then the chasm trembled.
For a mont, sothing stirred within it—massive, coiled like a serpent, eyes blinking through layers of black water and silt. A single breath from the creature sent spirals of bubbles up toward them, shaking even Athena’s divine footing.
Athena gritted her teeth. "We need to leave."
But Hers didn’t move.
He was staring.
"Do you see that?" he whispered.
Athena turned back—and her heart almost stopped.
Runes.
Ancient god-script, older than Olympus, etched in glowing lines along the chasm’s walls.
But it wasn’t just any language.
It was the original divine tongue—the one even Zeus had outlawed.
Hers looked to Athena. "That’s not Delkarios’s mark. That’s sothing older."
Athena’s face paled. "We need to tell Zeus. Now."
---
Scene II – Dominic Stirs
High above, within the healing sanctum of Naerida’s temple, Dominic stirred.
The war had left deep scars—not just on his flesh, but his soul. The mories were fragnted, broken into flashes of battle, blood, and the terrible voice of the Choir as it sang through the sea.
His hand twitched.
Then his eyes opened.
His breath caught—he wasn’t alone.
Standing at the edge of the temple was a cloaked figure, drenched in kelp and shadows.
Maelora.
The Sea Witch.
Dominic sat up slowly, struggling with pain. "You ca back."
She didn’t smile. "The Vault is no longer safe. The creature beneath Thalorenn is waking. And the gods will not protect you."
"Then who will?"
Maelora stepped forward, placing sothing cold and wet into his hand.
It was a shard of coral, like the one retrieved from the trench. But this one responded to Dominic’s touch—glowing faintly, humming with a strange warmth.
"What is this?" he asked, staring at it.
Maelora t his gaze with ancient eyes.
"Your inheritance."
---
Scene III – Olympus Reacts
Zeus stood frozen as Athena and Hers reappeared within the great hall, drenched in abyssal water, eyes wild.
Athena didn’t bow. She stord forward, slamming the glowing glyph sketch onto the marble floor.
"This is what lies beneath Thalorenn."
Zeus stared at it, his hand tightening on his sceptre.
Hera’s lips parted in horror. "That’s... Primordial."
Hers nodded. "Not just any primordial signature. It’s from Abyssus. The god devoured by the Sea during the First War. The one who vanished beneath the realms."
Ares snarled. "But that god was lost. Even Hades doesn’t rember his tomb."
Hades nodded once. "He was locked where even the Underworld could not reach."
Athena’s voice dropped. "But now he stirs. The creature in the trench isn’t Delkarios reborn. Delkarios... may have been a vessel. A whisper."
Zeus turned to the heavens, thunder forming behind his eyes.
"So then it begins."
---
Scene IV – A Song in the Dark
Far below, where no god dared tread, the Choir stirred once more.
Their voices began to sing.
Not a lody.
Not a scream.
But an invocation.
And within the Warden’s hollow, the coils of a colossal entity shifted—glowing sigils carving across its flesh.
Chains shattered.
The seabed quaked.
And in the shadows, ancient eyes opened—each one older than Olympus, each one hungering.
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