2025-12-04 22:47:28
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CHAPTER 9 — THE SHATTERING
The light struck Maya before Derick could even breathe. “MAYA—NO!” he screamed, voice tearing at his throat.The explosion swallowed her whole. Dust and golden fire erupted skyward. Shockwaves threw Derick backward inside the golden chains, slamming him against the warped sky of the memory realm.He gasped violently, eyes burning, lungs collapsing. “Maya… Maya… Maya…”As the smoke thinned, her silhouette appeared, crumpled on the broken battlefield, motionless. Derick’s blood froze.“No… please… please get up…” His voice cracked. “You promised. You said you wouldn’t leave me again…”A low rumble rolled across the battlefield. The God of War, Derick’s past self, descended through the smoke, each step shaking the ground. His golden armor gleamed like judgment itself.The giant, thunderous voice boomed: “Attachment weakens you.”Derick snarled through gritted teeth, tears streaking down his face. “She cared about me! She believed in me! How is that weakness?!”The armored titan lifted it
CHAPTER 8 — TRIAL OF THE FALLEN
The cavern trembled as the torches guttered out, plunging everything into a suffocating blackness. Only two burning red eyes hovered ahead, cold, ancient, and agonizingly familiar.Derick’s breath came sharp and uneven. “I… I don’t understand. You can’t be me. You can’t.”The Warden’s voice echoed in the darkness, stripped of the mask but no less terrifying. “You have not awakened enough to comprehend it. But yes, I am what you once became. Your former self. Your final evolution.”Derick felt the world tilting under him, his heartbeat hammering painfully in his ears. “You… you’re telling me I turned into this? A Dominion killer? An executioner?”The Warden stepped closer, the air chilling with every footfall. “I became what was needed. What the world demanded. What power demanded.”“Power doesn’t demand anything!” Derick snapped. “People choose what they become!”The Warden paused. “You think so?” he murmured.“You truly believe you’re free?”Derick tried to stand straighter. “I have
CHAPTER 7 — BETWEEN LIFE AND ASH
Darkness. Cold. Silence. Derick floated through nothingness, weightless, as if the world had dropped him into an endless void.He tried to breathe, but there was no air, only the sensation of drowning in shadows. Then a voice whispered through the emptiness: “Derick…”Soft. Familiar. Painful. He twisted toward it, gasping. “M-Maya…?”Light flickered, weak, golden, like fireflies struggling to stay alive.The voice came again, trembling. “Please… wake up.”Derick reached for the light, but his hand passed straight through it. He flinched. “Maya! I can hear you! I’m here, where are you?!”Her voice shuddered, distant. “You’re fading… please hold on…”Derick’s chest tightened. “No! Don’t leave, tell me where you are!”But the golden light dimmed, flickered, and then vanished. Derick screamed into the void, “MAYA!”Silence swallowed his voice whole. A sudden impact slammed him onto a rough stone floor. Derick gasped as his lungs filled with air, cold, sharp air that burned his throat.His
CHAPTER 6 — THE HAND THAT DECIDES THE FUTURE
Rain hammered the alley like a thousand tiny bullets as Derick stood frozen, Kael blazing gold on one side, the Warden radiating cold crimson on the other.His breath came out in sharp, uneven bursts. Kael shouted, voice raw: “Derick! Don’t let him touch you!”The Warden’s voice slid through the rain, calm and patient: “Do not fear me, Warborn. Fear what will happen if you refuse.”Derick’s hands shook violently. “Maya… she… she could really die?”“Yes,” the Warden replied. “Every second you hesitate, her soul fragments further.”Kael snarled, stepping forward. “HE’S LYING!”Derick’s gaze darted between them. “Kael… tell me the truth. Can she die because of me?”Kael flinched, barely, but enough. The Warden noticed. “There,” he murmured. “He hesitates because he knows the binding is real.”Derick’s heart cracked. “Kael…?”Kael swallowed hard. “Listen to me, Derick. Soul-binding is… possible. But Maya wouldn’t use that technique. She would never erase her existence for anyone. She, she
CHAPTER 5 — THE SHADOW OF THE WARDEN
The explosion hurled dust and debris into the night sky, rattling windows along the street. A shockwave slapped across Derick’s back as Kael dragged him into the alley.Derick twisted around. “MAYA!”Kael yanked him harder. “Don’t look back! She made her choice!”Derick stumbled. “We can’t leave her”“You don’t understand what a Warden is!” Kael snapped. “We stay, we die!”The street behind them burned with black fire, warping the air like heat over asphalt. Shadows writhed unnaturally along the ground, reaching, searching.Derick’s heart hammered. “She’s fighting that alone !”“And she wouldn’t last ten seconds if she had to protect you at the same time!” Kael shot back. “MOVE!”They sprinted down the alley, shoes splashing through puddles as the rain hammered harder. A deafening blast erupted behind them, followed by Maya’s voice, fierce and commanding: “STAY DOWN!”Another explosion. The sky flashed white, then purple. Derick’s legs faltered. He gripped the wall, gasping. “I can’t
CHAPTER 4 — THE GIRL ON THE ROOFTOP
Wind howled across the rooftop as the figure stepped fully into the moonlight, dark cloak whipping behind her, boots planted firmly on the concrete edge.Derick stared up at her, chest tightening. “Kael…” he whispered. “Why did you say her name like that? Who is she?”Kael didn’t answer immediately. His eyes were sharp, guarded, an expression Derick hadn’t seen before. Maya’s voice drifted down, calm and unnervingly soft. “Derick Hayford. Rise.”Derick stiffened. “Why do you sound like you know me?”Maya descended in a single leap, landing lightly on the street without a sound. Her dark hair clung to her face in the rain, but her emerald eyes glowed faintly beneath her hood.Kael stepped in front of Derick. “Stay behind me.”“No,” Derick said. “I want answers.”Maya smiled faintly. “Good. You’re learning to speak for yourself.”Kael’s jaw tightened. “Derick, she’s dangerous.”Maya tilted her head. “Dangerous to you, perhaps. Not to him.”Kael narrowed his eyes. “You interfered with th
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