[Ash – Throne of Silence, Palace of Eternity]
The void around Ash pulsed as the first glyph ignited.
A thousand silver runes—ancient, divine, and sealed since the beginning of time—lit up one by one in the air above the palace, each representing a continent, a nation, or a race in the mortal realm.
Ash stood in the heart of a shifting, cosmic circle—the Judgment Spiral.
He raised a hand, and a red-black flame surged into the sky, touching the outer ring of the Spiral. A tremor rippled through dimensions.
Far away, in the mortal world, a massive black sun appeared in the sky—hovering over the human capital of Surajgarh.
The humans panicked.
Birds fell from the skies. Oceans trembled. Magic faltered.
Ash had activated the First Seal.
Behind him, the Demon Lord knelt.
"My lord… is this truly what you wish?"
Ash did not look back. His voice echoed with thunder.
"The plan begins now. One year. Not a moment longer."
The Demon Lord, Mahishira, once a creature of darkness and fear, now wore robes laced with starlight and void threads. She hesitated.
"My Lord… I fear the world may not be ready. And your… sons—they walk among them."
Ash's eyes flickered.
"They were not meant to be more than echoes. Yet they chose to stand against me."
He turned to her, his eyes no longer human.
"If they stand in my way—they will burn too."
---
[Human Capital – Surajgarh]
Chaos ruled the city.
The black sun froze the skies. Farmers reported fields dying in hours. Rivers reversed flow. Elemental balance broke.
The King summoned every mage, priest, and scholar. But no spell could dispel the curse.
And in the ancient temples, the statues of gods cracked.
One by one.
A priestess screamed as the statue of Goddess Varnika crumbled, revealing within it a glowing shard of flame—Ash's mark.
A message appeared in the air, written in divine script:
"One Year. Repentance or Ruin."
---
[The Goddesses' Sanctuary – Hidden Realm]
The goddesses stood around the Mirror of Ashes.
Goddess Agnisha cursed. "He's begun the countdown. Once all Seven Seals are broken—humanity will be unmade. Not killed. Unwritten."
Varnika turned to the five students—Akarshan, Shivam, Shiv, Anuj, Monish—now clad in divine armor, their bodies marked by the gods.
"You must reach the Spire of Dawn—the only place where mortal power can still touch divine fate."
Shiv looked up. "How far?"
Jalita answered, "A journey across three realms. Through forgotten ruins, trials of the Old Gods, and rivers of memory. No one but Ash has walked that road."
Akarshan took a breath. "Then we'll carve a new path."
Before they left, Varnika gave them one last gift—a small, silver pendant etched with the Supreme Glyph of Ash's soul.
"If he sees this," she said, "and remembers who gave it to him… it might awaken the last piece of who he once was."
But no one was sure if there was anything left to awaken.
---
[Ash – Alone]
In the silence of his palace, Ash walked to a chamber few dared enter.
Inside, a crystal coffin floated above the void.
Within it… a mortal body.
His.
Ash looked at it quietly.
The version of him who once laughed. Who once cried. Who once called people friends.
The version that lived as Ash, not Asuryan.
He closed his eyes.
"I buried you to become what the world needed."
And then he turned to the wall.
Where the image of his five friends now glowed in warning.
"They will come."
---