The forest never truly slept.
Not even with gods hiding beneath its branches.
Lena stirred at the faintest sound — not of wind, but of breath being held too long. Something unnatural, something watching.
She rose silently, her eyes burning softly in the darkness. Lucien was already standing near the cave mouth, unmoving, hands clenched, eyes narrowed.
"They're close," he said. "Five, maybe six. No heartbeats."
"Constructs?" she asked.
"No. Worse."
Aria sat up abruptly. "They're here. The ones in white."
Lena turned toward her. "Stay behind me. Don't run. No matter what you see."
The girl nodded, trembling.
Then, from the shadows between the trees, they emerged.
Six figures, robed and masked in bone-white porcelain. No voices, no footsteps. Just presence — suffocating and cold.
One stepped forward, tilting his head at Lucien.
"You've changed, God of the Void."
Lucien's breath caught.
That voice.
It wasn't possible.
"Or should I say... Ezekiel?"
Lena's head snapped toward him.
"Ezekiel?" she echoed. "What is he talking about?"
But Lucien wasn't looking at her.
He was staring at the masked figure as if he'd seen a ghost.
"You were dead," he whispered.
The man removed his mask.
And beneath it was a face Lena had never seen… but Lucien had.
A face from before the stars. Before the Fall. Before even her.
"Aren," Lucien said.
Lena felt it in the way Lucien's soul flickered — not with fear, but with grief.
And guilt.
Aren was calm, even smiling.
"I told you, Lucien. One day you'd forget. But I didn't. I remembered everything."
Lena stepped between them. "If you're from the void… then you're the reason he—"
"No," Aren interrupted. "I am the void."
Lena froze.
"I was the first born of the dark. Lucien was meant to inherit me. But he turned away. He… fell in love."
Lucien's fists clenched.
"I didn't betray you, Aren."
"You betrayed yourself!" Aren shouted now. "You were supposed to be the end of light. The echo of silence. But she made you soft."
Lena's flames flared instinctively, protecting Lucien.
"And what do you want now?" she asked.
Aren's smile returned.
"The girl. The Riftborn. We've seen the future she creates. The child she will bear. A bridge between gods and mortals."
Lucien stepped forward. "You're not touching her."
Aren's expression darkened.
"She doesn't belong to you."
"She belongs to herself," Lena growled.
And then the clearing ignited.
Lena's power surged like a tidal wave of flame and memory.
Aren's masked soldiers moved, swift as shadows, but Lucien caught them mid-leap, warping the space around them into a stasis field.
But Aren—
He blinked through reality, reappearing inches from Lena.
"Do you really think love will save him again?" he whispered.
Lena didn't flinch.
"No. But I know what it can destroy."
Her hand shot forward — not with fire, but with light.
Not divine. Not void.
Something new.
Aren screamed — the light struck him directly in the chest, and for a moment, he flickered between forms. A man. A monster. A memory.
He fell to one knee.
But he didn't burn.
Instead, he laughed.
"Oh, Lena," he gasped. "You still don't understand. I am part of him."
Lucien froze.
"What?"
Aren stood, his smile twisted.
"You never escaped, Lucien. I'm the shard they left inside you. The piece that never healed. I am your darkness."
Lena turned to Lucien.
His eyes were wide, lost — the edges of his irises now stained with black stars.
Aren reached into his own chest.
And pulled something out.
A tiny, writhing fragment of light and void, bound in a silver cage.
Lucien collapsed instantly, clutching his chest, gasping.
"You feel it, don't you?" Aren murmured. "That's your heart. The real one. The one they stole and locked away. I kept it safe for you."
Lena's flame surged. "Give it back!"
"I will," Aren said. "If he chooses."
Lucien looked up, breathing ragged. "Chooses what?"
"Come with me. Embrace who you are. Remember everything."
Lena moved to stop him, but Lucien held up a trembling hand.
"Wait."
"Lucien—"
He looked at her with pain so deep it made the night tremble.
"I've always protected you. Always chosen you. But I can't keep being half a god. Half a man. Half of me."
Lena's voice cracked. "So what, you go with him and lose yourself?"
"No," Lucien said. "I find myself."
He turned to Aren.
"I'll come."
Aren's smile widened.
"But—" Lucien continued, eyes locking with Lena's, "only if she comes too."
"What?" Aren blinked.
Lucien rose, taller now, shadows and light dancing along his spine.
"She is my balance. My anchor. If I face the void… she faces it with me."
Lena's breath caught — then she nodded, stepping beside him.
Aren looked between them, jaw tightening.
"So be it."
He tossed the caged heart to Lucien, who caught it mid-air.
And then the world cracked.
Reality bent around them.
They were no longer in the forest.
They were falling — diving — through a storm of stars and forgotten screams.
Into a place not meant for gods or mortals.
The heart of the void.