The chamber of the Celestial Court was unlike any place Raizen had ever set foot in — a cathedral of starlight suspended in the void above the world. There were no walls, only shifting horizons. Planets moved like embers beyond translucent arches, and the throne at the center — forged of prismatic metal and obsidian bone — pulsed with a heartbeat that echoed through the soul.
This was the God King's Throne — the source of divine sovereignty, untouched by mortals for millennia.
Raizen stepped forward alone. Behind him, the gateway to the mortal world shimmered, flickering between storms and silence. His crew was not allowed past the veil. This was his trial — and his burden.
The thirteen members of the Celestial Court formed a semicircle behind the throne, their mirrored masks reflecting every possible version of Raizen: king, tyrant, child, monster. They spoke in perfect harmony, their voices neither male nor female — but all things at once.
"Raizen, son of the lost line. Last seed of the Hollow Blood. You stand before the throne of the Divine Compact. Do you seek to sit upon it?"
Raizen's voice was hoarse. "I don't seek power. I seek freedom. For the world. For myself."
The masks tilted. "Freedom is an illusion created by the unworthy to mask their fear of command."
Raizen took a breath. "Then let me shatter that illusion."
Suddenly, the floor fell away — or perhaps it was the universe itself folding inward. Raizen was thrown into a cascade of memories that weren't his — visions of ancient wars between gods, the forging of the Crown of Shadows as a control mechanism, the splitting of the divine bloodlines to prevent one soul from claiming too much.
He saw his ancestor, the first thronebearer, wielding the Crown not as a symbol, but as a weapon — a tool of rebellion against a god who sought to chain mortality.
"You were not born to rule," the Court whispered. "You were born as a failsafe. The Hollow Throne was made empty for a reason."
Raizen clenched his fists. "And yet here it stands."
They offered him the seat — but not as a gift. As a trial.
"Sit, and prove your will. But know this: the throne amplifies all that you are. Every rage, every wound, every doubt. The gods it was meant to bind… are already within you."
And with that, the throne called to him.
As he stepped toward it, images assaulted him. Zuri falling in battle. Kaito turning to dust. Kael betraying him again. Cities burning. Oceans swallowing islands. The price of power was clear — to rule as a god, he must become something not quite human.
He hesitated.
A voice rang out — softer, not from the Court. From within.
"You are not your bloodline. You are your choice."
He placed a hand on the armrest.
Pain shot through his body, searing down his spine like liquid fire. The throne rejected him — or perhaps tested him — pulling apart his very soul, laying bare his fears. His failures. The part of him that still blamed himself for every comrade lost.
And still, he held on.
"I won't be your puppet," he snarled, kneeling now, but not broken. "I'll be better than what you want me to become."
The throne flared.
Raizen's body levitated, limbs trembling, eyes blazing with light — not divine, not demonic, but purely his own. The Crown of Shadows, once shattered, appeared above him — reforging itself, shaped now not by gods, but by will.
He did not sit.
He stood before the throne — unbending.
The Celestial Court recoiled.
"You refuse your seat?"
"I refuse your leash."
Lightning cracked across the stars. The chamber began to collapse — or ascend — no one could tell. One by one, the masks of the Celestial Court cracked, revealing faces that were human, godlike, monstrous — each representing an ideal: Order, Ambition, Preservation, War, Deceit…
And they fell silent.
Raizen walked away from the throne, leaving it unclaimed — but changed. It no longer glowed with divine dominance. It pulsed with something new.
Hope.
He returned to the veil, scarred but whole.
His crew awaited him — eyes wide with fear, awe… and belief.
"What happened?" Zuri asked.
Raizen looked at his hands. They shimmered with residual energy — not divine, but earned.
"I turned my back on godhood," he said. "Because no throne decides who I am."
And somewhere, across the stars, something ancient stirred — something the Court feared even more than Raizen:
A free soul with the power to choose.
END OF THE CHAPTER8