The battlefield no longer burned that was what unsettled Marcus the most.Ash lay thick across the valley where divine fire had once torn the earth open, but the flames themselves were gone, as if the war had exhaled and decided it was finished for now. The silence pressed in heavy and unnatural, broken only by the distant groan of shifting stone and the slow, uneven breathing of the wounded.Marcus stood at the center of it all, his spear planted into the ground, blood drying along the grooves of his armor. Gods did not tire easily, but this war had found a way to exhaust even him. Not in body alone—but in spirit.Behind him, Diana knelt beside a fallen human soldier, pressing her hands to his chest as faint light pulsed beneath her palms. Her face was streaked with dirt and tears she hadn’t noticed falling. The seal bound to her and Marcus glimmered softly at her wrist, responding to her desperation, her will.“Stay,” she whispered to the man. “Just stay with me.”The light flared o

The world did not end when the Gate finally shattered.That was the cruel truth Marcus understood the moment the sky stopped screaming.Fragments of light and shadow drifted like ash across the battlefield, settling into the broken earth as if the realm itself were trying to pretend nothing irreversible had happened. The Celestial Gate no longer stood. Where it once towered, proud and ancient, there was now only a widening scar in reality a wound that breathed.Marcus stood at the edge of it, spear lowered but not released. His armor was cracked along the shoulder, darkened with blood that was not entirely his. He did not feel the pain yet. Gods rarely did until the battle allowed it.Behind him, Diana struggled to her feet, her knees buckled, and Xavier caught her before she fell, his grip firm but gentle. “Easy,” he murmured. “You pushed too far.”“I had to,” she said, breathless. Her voice shook, but her eyes remained locked on the rift. “You all felt it. That wasn’t just another

The silence after the storm was worse than the battle itself.It settled over the ruined plateau like a held breath, thick and heavy, pressing against the ears until even the sound of one’s own heartbeat felt too loud. The Celestial Gate was no longer roaring, no longer tearing at the sky but it was not healed either. The裂 remained, thin as a scar that refused to close, glowing faintly with an exhausted, wounded light.Diana stood at the edge of the broken stone ring, her fingers trembling at her sides.The seal was complete she could feel it.Not like magic humming beneath her skin, not like power roaring through her veins but like something quieter, deeper. A presence, a bond, a weight that had not been there before, now resting permanently against her soul.Marcus knelt a few paces away not in defeat. Not in pain, but as if the world had finally forced him to stop moving.His spear lay beside him, abandoned for the first time since she had known him. One hand was braced against the

When the Heavens Took NoticeThe silence came first not the peaceful kind, but the kind that pressed against the ears and made every breath feel too loud. Across the Shattered Expanse, where battle had raged for days without pause, the wind stopped moving. Ash that had been falling endlessly from the torn sky now drifted downward slowly, almost gently, as if the world itself was unsure whether it was allowed to continue.Diana stood at the center of the broken courtyard, her hand still entwined with Marcus’s. The stone beneath her boots was fractured and scorched, bearing the marks of divine fire and shadow, but she barely felt it. Her entire awareness was focused inward—on the strange, steady warmth in her chest that had not been there before.It did not burn and it did not overwhelm but it anchored her.Marcus felt it too. He said nothing at first, only tightened his grip slightly, as if confirming that what he felt was real. The mark on his arm, once angry and volatile, now glowed

The summons came without fire, without thunder, without warning.It arrived as certainty.Diana felt it first a pressure behind her eyes, a quiet pull in her chest that was neither pain nor fear but something far worse: inevitability. The seal between her and Marcus reacted instantly, flaring with a low hum that vibrated through her bones. It was not alarmed. It was alert.Marcus stopped mid-step.“Now,” he said.The word was flat, final.The courtyard they had barely finished stabilizing shimmered at the edges. The repaired wards groaned as though offended, light bending inward instead of outward. Xavier swore under his breath and reached instinctively for his sword.“We’re not ready,” he said.“No,” Marcus agreed. “But they are.”The world folded and there was no sensation of falling, no rush of air or displacement. One moment Diana was standing among broken stone and familiar faces, the next she stood on a floor that reflected nothing not light, not shadow, not even her own form c