The white light faded slowly.
Pain returned first — sharp, cutting, burning like hot sugar poured into open wounds. Then the sound — low, distant, like thunder rolling underground.
Ayo blinked hard.
His ears rang.
His throat was dry.
Dust swirled around him like fog.
He pushed himself up.
"Banji… Emmanuel…"
A faint groan answered.
Banji staggered up from behind a collapsed metal beam, face bruised, shirt torn.
Emmanuel lay on his side, shaking but conscious, wiping blood from his chin.
Then Ayo's heart dropped.
"Ade…?"
He turned slowly.
The center of the factory — where the great surge had occurred — was now a vast crater.
Glowing white cracks pulsed across the floor like veins of living sugar.
And in the middle—
Two silhouettes lay intertwined.
Adeoluwa and Adun.
Completely still.
Ayo ran first. Emmanuel limped after him. Banji followed, chest tight with dread.
"ADE!" Ayo slid beside him, shaking his shoulders. "ADE PLEASE—!"
Adeoluwa's eyes fluttered open.
Barely.
He was alive… but only just.
His skin glowed with thin white cracks.
Veins pulsed faint-red under his skin.
The Cube in his hand was shattered — split into six pieces — still warm.
"Ayo…" he whispered, voice weak and strained. "She's… here…"
Ayo turned to Adun.
She was breathing.
Shallow.
Fragile.
Barely clinging to life.
Her body glowed faint white — but something was wrong.
Inside her chest, faintly visible, a swirling red light spun like a tiny storm.
"The deity…" Emmanuel choked. "It's still inside her. A fragment. A shard. It didn't leave completely."
Banji's voice cracked.
"So… we failed?"
"No." Adeoluwa shook his head slowly. "It's weak. Broken. But it wants to escape. It wants a new host."
A cold wind swept the factory.
The remaining shadows began to move.
White shapes emerged from behind broken walls, pillars, metal debris.
The White Mask Cult.
Dozens of them.
Robe hems dragging in the dust.
Masks glowing faintly.
Voices whispering.
Ayo stepped back.
"No… not now…"
Banji clenched his fists.
"We're finished."
But Emmanuel shook his head, eyes widening.
"No. They're not here to fight.
They're here to complete the descent."
Across the rubble, one stepped forward.
Taller.
Broader.
More commanding.
His mask bore three red tears.
His robe gleamed silver.
The High Priest of Adun.
In a voice smooth as syrup and sharp as knives, he spoke:
"The Vessel is cracked.
The god bleeds.
We shall finish what the Sugars could not."
Ayo stepped in front of Adun and Adeoluwa.
"You're not touching them."
The priest raised a skeletal hand.
Every cultist lifted their arms.
White and red symbols spun into the air —
⭕ The Sweet-Blood Spiral
❌ The Twin Sugar Cane X
△ The Crystal Crown
All glowing.
All pulsing.
All awakening.
Chants erupted like thunder:
"Adun Oro!
Ẹjẹ Didùn ni!
Gba ara wa!
Jẹ wa tirẹ!"
(Adun of Sweet Blood!
Sweet is your feast!
Take our flesh!
Make us yours!)
Adun's body convulsed.
Her back arched.
Her mouth opened in a silent scream.
The tiny storm in her chest grew larger.
Adeoluwa reached for her, but the force blasted him back.
"ADE!" Ayo caught him before he hit the ground.
He gasped, pain searing through him.
"She can't survive another surge… We have to stop them…"
The ground trembled — sugar-like cracks spreading.
A bright beam shot from Adun's chest to the ceiling, forming a new spiral vortex above the factory.
"No, no, no—" Emmanuel shook his head frantically. "This is the FINAL SUMMONING. If they finish it—"
"A god will descend," Ayo whispered.
Banji turned, desperation turning into anger.
"THEN WE FIGHT."
He charged first.
A cultist swung a white staff — Banji ducked, grabbed it, and snapped it over his knee. He jabbed the sharp end into the cultist's stomach and spun, knocking two more aside.
Ayo leaped onto a broken platform and kicked a mask clean off.
Emmanuel raised his hands — blue lightning burst from his palms like chains snapping through the air.
Adeoluwa stood — shaking but determined — and lifted a shard of the Cube.
It vibrated in his hand, crackling with fading divine power.
The High Priest stepped forward, untouched by the chaos.
"You four cannot fight destiny."
Adeoluwa spat blood.
"WATCH US."
The priest raised both hands.
White fire burst upward.
The ground split.
A giant sugar sculpture rose — the image of Adun, eyes bleeding red, mouth open to swallow the world.
The cult chanted louder:
"ADUN! ADUN! ADUN!"
The vortex above widened.
Red lightning cracked the sky.
Adun screamed — the deity fragment pulling at her soul like a hook inside her ribs.
Adeoluwa roared and charged the High Priest.
The priest flicked his wrist — a wave of white force blasted Adeoluwa backward.
He hit the ground so hard the earth cracked under him.
"ADE!!" Ayo shouted.
Adeoluwa struggled to stand, coughing violently.
The priest looked down at him with cold amusement.
"You, boy… you touched the god and survived.
A rare sweetness.
Your blood alone could open the gateway."
He raised his staff—
Red energy circling the tip like boiling syrup.
Ayo threw himself between them—
"ADE ISN'T DYING TODAY!"
He blocked the strike—
It blasted him off his feet—
But Adeoluwa surged upward, fueled by pure will.
He slammed the Cube shard into the priest's chest.
White fire erupted between them.
The priest screamed and stumbled back, mask cracking.
The chant faltered.
Emmanuel seized the moment.
He raised both arms—
Blue lightning filled the air—
And he screamed:
"BREAK!"
The symbols shattered.
Masks cracked.
Cultists fell to their knees.
Banji rushed, punching through the weakened lines.
Ayo kicked another mask off.
Adeoluwa limped toward Adun.
Her light flickered.
"Ade…" she whispered. "I can't… hold it…"
He fell to his knees beside her.
"Yes you can. Listen to me. Don't give in."
Her eyes glowed red-white.
"It wants… to burn me…"
"It won't."
"How can you be sure…?"
"Because I'm here."
She looked at him — really looked — even through the pain.
And she believed him.
The vortex above roared louder.
The priest, though injured, raised his hands one last time:
"ALL CULTISTS — GIVE YOUR BLOOD!"
White Mask members sliced their palms, lifting bloody hands to the sky.
The vortex pulsed—
The deity fragment inside Adun SURGED—
The giant sugar sculpture cracked open—
And a monstrous voice screamed:
"I
WILL
RISE."
Adeoluwa grabbed Adun's face with both hands.
"No… you won't."
He pressed his forehead to hers.
And whispered:
"Adun… I give you everything I have left."
The Cube shards glowed—
His veins lit—
Her body flared—
The vortex trembled—
The god howled—
And then—
ADEOLUWA SCREAMED.
Not in pain.
In defiance.
White fire exploded outward in a perfect sphere.
Cultists flew backward.
Masks shattered.
The priest evaporated into dust.
The vortex above twisted—
Collapsed—
Imploded—
Then vanished.
Silence.
Just breathing.
Shaking.
Crying.
Weak… but alive.
The deity was gone.
Burned out.
Overloaded.
Destroyed.
Its last scream drifted away like smoke.
The boys stood trembling in the ruins, staring at the rising dawn.
Ayo helped Emmanuel up.
Banji leaned on a broken pillar, panting.
Adeoluwa still held Adun, both glowing faintly.
Her voice was barely a whisper:
"Ade… you saved me…"
He exhaled.
A broken, tired, relieved sound.
"No," he said softly.
"We saved you."