"Before gods ruled, before wolves howled… there was only fire, and it had a name."
---
Selene opened her eyes.
But there was no ground. No sky. No body.
Only fire. Endless, roaring, whispering fire.
And a voice that broke everything it touched.
> "Selene. My chosen. My exile. My vengeance."
She turned—no, her soul turned.
Zyroth stood before her, not as a man or a beast—but a god forged of flame and fury. His body was made of scorched starlight, his horns carved from the bones of dead suns. His eyes? Twin moons, bleeding.
---
Kai floated behind her, wrapped in a cage of silver lightning. The mark on his ribs glowed as if being rewritten by something older than time.
He screamed.
Selene ran—no, willed—toward him.
But Zyroth raised a hand.
The fire obeyed.
Kai vanished.
> "He is not the one I want," Zyroth said.
"He is the cost."
---
Selene clenched her fists.
"I didn't ask to be born of your flame."
Zyroth's voice cracked the flame-realm itself.
> "But you were.
You are the last remnant of my breath, Selene.
The blood you carry can burn the heavens.
But you squander it."
Selene trembled, her voice shaking with defiance.
"I used it to survive."
Zyroth stepped closer.
"Then use it to reclaim."
---
In Tarvax's ruins, Xarion dragged himself toward the edge of the chasm.
He stared down into the inferno with a look of horror and worship.
"She's speaking to him."
Nyra growled, "And what will he demand?"
Xarion's voice cracked.
"Sacrifice. Always."
---
In the flame realm, Zyroth extended his burning hand.
> "Give me your vow, Selene.
Become my heir.
My fire reborn.
My wrath incarnate.
In exchange, I will give you vengeance so vast the gods will tremble."
Selene asked, "And Kai?"
Zyroth's moons flickered.
> "If he bows, he lives.
If not…
Love will burn."
---
Selene stared at her own hands. Fire licked her wrists.
The mark on her neck flared. Her heart pounded.
"Kai doesn't bow."
Zyroth tilted his head.
"Then he dies."
Selene met his eyes.
"Then I'll make you bleed."
---
The flame exploded.
Zyroth roared in rage, the realm shaking with godly fury.
> "YOU DARE DEFY A GOD?"
Selene's soul split open.
And something older than Zyroth whispered from within her blood.
A second voice.
A woman's voice.
A mother's voice.
> "She is mine too, Zyroth.
You do not burn what you did not birth."
---
Back in the mortal realm, Kai jolted upright—free from the cage.
His eyes were golden now.
His veins glowed with flame.
Selene's flame.
But something else pulsed inside him: a goddess's blessing.
---
Back in the flame realm, Zyroth stepped back as a silhouette stepped from Selene's spirit.
A moonlight goddess cloaked in mourning veils and crowned in stardust.
> "I am Sythra.
The one he cursed.
The one who loved you.
The one who gave Selene her choice."
Selene stood between god and goddess, trembling.
Zyroth snarled. "You corrupted her!"
Sythra's voice was calm.
> "I freed her."
---
Zyroth raised his hand.
The coffin of the flame realm shattered.
A sword fell from the sky—longer than a man, shaped from broken constellations.
> "If you will not be my heir," Zyroth growled,
"Then you will be my enemy."
Selene caught the sword.
And it didn't burn her.
It wept.
---
Back in Tarvax, the sky split open.
A divine scar.
From it, stepped two figures:
The Twins of Time—the gods who judge past and future.
They looked at Xarion.
And whispered:
> "She has awakened.
And so has the End."
---
Back in the flame realm, Zyroth and Selene circled one another, divine power rippling between them.
This was no longer about prophecy.
This was bloodline war.
As Kai rose from the ashes, sword in hand, flame on his skin…
He whispered Selene's name.
And the goddess within her answered.