"You can kill the gods—if you remember what they bled for."
---
The skies over Tarvax wept fire.
The world trembled as Kai emerged from the crater, smoke curling from his shoulders like a cloak. His eyes burned gold, but it wasn't rage—it was remembrance.
Selene stood across from him, her hair a curtain of silver flame, the constellation-forged sword humming with ancient grief in her grip. Her voice echoed, layered with another—Sythra's—divine and calm, a lullaby wrapped in vengeance.
> "We are no longer children of prophecy," she said.
"We are its authors."
---
Above them, the Twins of Time hovered—one clad in the armor of rusted futures, the other in robes stitched from memory itself. The older twin, Ithros, spoke first.
> "The flame goddess awakens through her."
"The balance fractures."
His brother, Illan, nodded.
> "Then let judgment begin."
Their scythes gleamed.
---
But Zyroth was not afraid.
He was fire's wrath made flesh. And he had not survived millennia to kneel now.
He hurled a sun into the sky.
The mountain shattered.
The heavens burned.
Selene raised her blade. Kai lunged beside her. The sky split like glass.
And the battle of bloodlines began.
---
Kai clashed first—his fists wrapped in flame, his strikes divine in weight. Zyroth countered, a storm of magma exploding with every movement.
Selene charged, her blade cleaving time itself. Every swing sang with Sythra's sorrow. She wasn't just fighting for power—she was fighting for every lie she'd been fed.
And she was done being fed.
---
Zyroth laughed through the battle, even as Selene's sword carved through his shoulder.
> "You are powerful, girl," he bellowed.
"But you are still mortal."
Sythra's voice replied through Selene:
> "No.
She is both."
---
Meanwhile, the Twins of Time watched.
Ithros closed one eye and whispered a riddle.
> "If one god falls, another must rise.
If one heir lives, the other must die."
Illan turned to Nyra, watching from the shadows with Xarion.
> "And if neither happens…
Time eats the world."
---
Back in the crater, Zyroth roared and slammed his fist into the earth.
A crack opened—a portal to the Ash Vault, where the ancient gods were once buried alive for their sins.
And something answered.
A whisper.
A growl.
A chain being dragged.
> "You can't!" Selene shouted, but Zyroth smiled.
> "I can wake them.
Because I was one of them."
Kai's breath caught.
> "You were sealed?"
Zyroth's grin split his burning face.
> "I was king of the sealed."
---
The Ash Vault exploded.
Bones the size of towers burst upward. Shadows wearing the shape of forgotten gods crawled out, screaming.
> "Return the blood!"
"Return the blood!"
"The heir is not alone!"
Selene's mark blazed.
Sythra screamed inside her.
And in that moment—Selene saw it all.
---
She saw her mother, Sythra, crowned in flame, refusing Zyroth's love.
She saw the gods condemn them both.
She saw herself born not to be worshipped… but to avenge.
To break the wheel.
And she saw Kai's face.
Mortal. Loyal. Hers.
---
"Kai," she whispered.
He turned, panting, blood on his lips. "Yeah?"
Selene walked to him, flame parting before her. She dropped the sword.
And kissed him.
Hard. Fierce. Unapologetic.
The world stopped.
Even the gods paused.
---
Sythra's voice trembled in Selene's soul.
> "You choose love… even now?"
Selene whispered aloud:
> "Especially now."
---
Then she turned to Zyroth.
"You want war?"
Her body began to glow.
The ground cracked beneath her.
Lightning danced between the stars.
And her shadow stretched longer than the sky.
> "Then I'll show you what a goddess' daughter really is."
---
Selene raised her hand.
Every drop of blood she had ever spilled shimmered in the air.
Kai stepped beside her.
> "Let's end him."
Their hands touched.
And a new power ignited.
---
The sky turned white with fire.
The earth screamed.
The sealed gods shrieked and fled.
Zyroth roared—
But he was too late.
Selene and Kai became flame.
Not just gods.
Not just lovers.
But legend.