Kael's POV
The note hit me like a physical blow.
One pure sound—Lyria's true voice, not Void's corruption—and suddenly I could move again. The possession loosened its grip just enough for me to think clearly.
She's fighting back.
Through the connection Void had forced between us, I felt her consciousness blazing like a star. She'd been empty moments ago, hollowed out by the Old Magic. But now she was full of something stronger than memory, more powerful than magic.
She was full of choice.
"Impossible!" Void's voice cracked with genuine shock. "You have no memories! No emotions! Nothing to fight with!"
Lyria's lips moved, but this time the voice was hers: "I don't need memories to know what's right."
She sang again, and the note shattered something inside me. The chains Void had wrapped around my consciousness broke apart. I gasped, suddenly back in control of my own body.
We both collapsed to our knees, free but barely holding on.
Void's form flickered with rage. "You foolish children! Do you have any idea what you've just done? I was offering you ultimate power! I was going to remake creation itself!"
"We didn't ask for that," I said, my voice raw. Every part of me hurt. The possession had torn through my being like broken glass.
"You don't understand!" Void's shape expanded, becoming massive and terrible. "The gods have corrupted everything! The First Beings will wake and destroy countless innocents! I was going to FIX it! Create a new reality where no one suffered, where no one was enslaved, where—"
"Where nothing existed at all," Lyria finished, her voice still weak but steady. "That's what you really want. To return everything to the Nothing. To the perfect emptiness before creation ruined it."
Void went silent.
"You're not trying to save anyone," Lyria continued, standing on shaking legs. "You just want existence to stop existing. Because it hurts too much to watch."
"You know nothing," Void whispered.
"I know loneliness," Lyria said softly. "I know what it's like to feel so broken you want everything to just... stop. To go back to before the pain started." She looked at me, and even though she didn't remember me, her eyes were full of understanding. "But making everything disappear doesn't fix anything. It just makes you more alone."
For the first time since I'd known Void, the primordial being looked... small. Uncertain.
"I've been alone for ten thousand years," Void said quietly. "Watching you all make the same mistakes over and over. Building civilizations on lies. Creating beauty just to destroy it. I thought... if I could just reset everything, start over, maybe this time it would be different."
"Or maybe," I said, "you'd just be alone again. Forever. Is that really what you want?"
Void didn't answer.
The Supreme Deity, still kneeling, looked between us with something like hope. "Void. Please. If you ever cared about creation, even a little, don't destroy it. Let us try to fix our mistakes."
"You've had ten thousand years," Void said bitterly. "You've only made things worse."
"Then let US try," Lyria said. She gestured to me, to herself. "We're something new. Not fully god, not fully First Being, not fully human. We're... in between. Maybe that's what creation needs. Not rulers, but bridges."
I stared at her. Even without her memories, even after losing everything, she was still trying to save everyone. Including the being that had just tried to possess her.
That was the Lyria I'd fallen for.
Void was quiet for a long moment. Then, slowly, it began to shrink. The terrible presence faded until it was just a shadow again, small and tired.
"You're right," Void said. "I am lonely. And making everything disappear wouldn't change that." It looked at us with something that might have been respect. "Very well. I won't destroy creation. But I won't save it either. That task... I leave to you."
Before we could respond, Void dissolved completely, leaving only empty darkness behind.
The Supreme Deity slowly stood, looking at us with wary respect. "What you just did... talking down the Primordial Void... that's impossible."
"We've been doing a lot of impossible things today," I said dryly.
"Indeed." The Supreme Deity studied us. "The question now is: what do I do with you? You broke the sacred seals. You released the First Beings. You nearly destroyed reality itself."
"But we also stopped Void from actually destroying it," Lyria pointed out.
"True." The Supreme Deity seemed to be thinking hard. Finally, he said, "I'm going to make you an offer. Help us. Help us prepare for when the First Beings fully awaken. Help us find a way to make peace instead of war. In exchange, I'll grant you both amnesty. Your crimes forgiven."
"And what about the soul harvesting?" Lyria's voice turned sharp. "What about the millions of mortals you've killed to sustain yourselves?"
The Supreme Deity's expression darkened. "How did you—"
"I know everything," Lyria said. "My voice contains all the evidence. And if you don't agree to stop, to face justice for what you've done, I'll sing it to every realm. Every mortal will know the truth."
The ancient god's jaw clenched. Around us, his remaining soldiers tensed, ready to attack.
I moved closer to Lyria, ready to defend her. We'd just faced down the Primordial Void. We could handle one angry god.
But the Supreme Deity surprised me. He bowed his head.
"You're right. We've committed atrocities. We've justified terrible things for our own survival." He looked up, and there were actually tears in his ancient eyes. "I'm tired, children. So very tired of the lies. If you want to expose us, I won't stop you. We deserve whatever judgment comes."
Lyria hesitated. "You... you're not going to fight?"
"What's the point?" He smiled sadly. "You've already won. The moment you survived Void's possession, the moment you chose compassion over power, you proved you're better than us. Better than we ever were."
He raised his hand, and golden light surrounded us. "I'm sending you back to the mortal realm. Rest. Recover. And when you're ready... come find us. Help us be better. Help us face what's coming."
"Wait!" I grabbed Lyria's hand. "She doesn't have her memories back. The Old Magic took them!"
"Then she'll have to remake them," the Supreme Deity said gently. "Some things can't be restored. They can only be rebuilt. Perhaps... that's not such a bad thing. A fresh start."
The light grew brighter, pulling us away.
"One more thing," the Supreme Deity called out. "The First Beings will fully wake in seven days. Seven days to find a solution. Seven days to save everyone. Don't waste them."
The light consumed us completely.
When I opened my eyes, we were lying in a field of flowers under a normal blue sky. Birds sang. A warm breeze blew. After the darkness of the Void, it felt like a dream.
Lyria sat up beside me, looking around in wonder. "Where are we?"
"The mortal realm. Somewhere safe." I stood and offered her my hand. "Come on. We should find shelter before—"
She didn't take my hand. Instead, she stared at me with an expression I couldn't read.
"Who are you?" she asked. "Really. Not just your name. Who ARE you to me?"
My chest tightened. "I'm... I was someone who cared about you. Someone you trusted. Someone who—"
"Someone I loved?" she finished.
I froze. "I... I don't know. Maybe. We didn't have time to figure that out before everything went wrong."
She stood on her own, brushing flower petals from her dress. "Then I guess we'll have to figure it out now. From the beginning." She looked at me with clear, bright eyes. "Hi. I'm Lyria. I apparently used to be a goddess, I accidentally almost destroyed the universe, and I have no idea who I am anymore. Want to help me find out?"
Despite everything—the pain, the exhaustion, the world ending in seven days—I laughed.
"I'm Kael. I'm a terrible god with a dark past, I fall for complicated women, and I have no idea how to save the world." I held out my hand again. "But I'd like to try. With you."
This time, she took it.
Her hand was warm in mine. Not cold like it used to be. Whatever the Old Magic had done to her, it had changed something fundamental.
"So," she said. "We have seven days to prevent an apocalypse. Where do we start?"
"I have no idea," I admitted.
"Good." She smiled—bright and genuine and nothing like the broken goddess I'd first met. "Neither do I. That makes us even."
We started walking through the flower field, hand in hand, two broken beings who'd been remade into something new.
Behind us, the sky flickered. Just for a moment, I saw cracks forming again. Saw shapes moving behind reality.
The First Beings were waking up faster than the Supreme Deity thought.
We didn't have seven days.
We had maybe three.
And I still had no idea how to tell Lyria that the biggest threat wasn't the First Beings or the gods.
It was her.
Her voice—the Voice of Truth that had broken all the seals—was still active, still resonating through creation. And every time she spoke, every time she sang, she made the cracks wider.
She was going to destroy the universe just by existing.
And she had no idea.