The cult came at night.
Not shouting.
Not charging.
They walked.
Hundreds of them, silent, carrying candles made of bone.
At the front Mother Cain.
White dress clean.
Feet bare on broken glass.
Juvy felt her before she saw her.
"My chest hurts," she whispered.
Maxruell stepped forward. "She's here."
Varkos raised his rifle. "Everyone hide. Now."
Refugees scattered into ruins.
Cain stopped ten meters away.
She smiled at Juvy.
"You learned to kill."
Juvy shouted, "Stay back!"
Cain tilted her head.
"Why? You belong with me."
Cultists rushed.
Maxruell's shadows surged.
Dark hands ripped men apart.
Spines snapped.
Heads rolled.
Juvy lifted her arms.
The street exploded into crystal spikes.
Cultists were impaled mid-run.
Blood sprayed across gem walls.
Cain walked through it untouched.
She raised one finger.
A cultist's soul tore out of his body glowing, screaming and flew into her hand.
Juvy gasped. "She's stealing them!"
Cain crushed the soul like glass.
Red light flowed into her skin.
"You waste yours," Cain said.
"I harvest mine."
She waved her hand.
Dead cultists stood up again.
Broken bodies walking.
Juvy screamed.
Maxruell charged.
Shadows wrapped around Cain.
For the first time, She bled.
Black blood ran down her cheek.
She laughed.
"Oh good," she whispered.
"You can hurt me."
She stabbed her hand into the ground.
The street cracked open.
Hands made of bone grabbed Maxruell's legs and pulled him down.
Juvy ran to him.
Cain flicked her wrist.
Varkos was lifted off the ground.
Invisible force crushed him into a wall.
Bones snapped.
Juvy screamed, "NO!"
She unleashed everything.
Lightning, fire, crystal, wind all at once.
The world turned white.
When the smoke cleared, Half the cult was gone.
Cain knelt.
Breathing.
Bleeding.
But smiling.
"You see?" she said.
"You are gods pretending to be children."
She snapped her fingers.
A cultist grabbed a refugee boy and slit his throat.
Juvy froze.
Cain leaned close to her.
"This is your fault."
Maxruell roared.
Darkness swallowed the street.
For a moment, even Cain vanished.
Then Silence.
When the shadows faded, Cain was gone.
So were most of the cult.
But the boy's body remained.
Blood pooling under him.
Juvy collapsed.
Varkos slid down the wall, coughing blood.
Maxruell stood shaking.
He looked at his hands.
"I couldn't stop her."
Juvy whispered, "She wanted that."
Varkos coughed. "She wanted… to show you… what ruling costs."
He spat blood.
"Run," he said. "She'll come again. Stronger."
Juvy grabbed him. "You're dying."
He smiled weakly.
"I promised your parents I'd keep you alive."
He pulled something from his jacket.
A metal tag.
Engraved with their parents' names.
"Don't trust… the voice."
His eyes closed.
Varkos died.
Juvy screamed until her throat tore.
Maxruell didn't cry.
He stood in the blood and looked toward the dark horizon.
Inside his chest, the crimson stone burned hotter than ever.
You lost a soldier,
the voice whispered.
Become a king.
And for the first time Maxruell didn't answer no.