The forest stopped whispering after the assassins died.What came next wasn't silence.
It was listening.
Something ancient in the roots…Something that once belonged to the age when the gods were still terrified of the things they created—was waking up because of me.
I felt it under my boots.A heartbeat.Not mine.Not human.
The world itself was reacting to my return.
THE PATH OF AFTERMATH
The bodies of the divine assassins were still cooling behind me—their divine essence rising like smoke, spiraling upward toward the sky that pretended it didn't see me.
Cowardly heavens.
I wiped the blood from my knuckles using one of their cloaks, but the crimson stain didn't go.It turned darker, soaked deeper.
Divine blood sticks to you differently.Like it doesn't want to let you go.
"Pathetic," I muttered, tossing the cloth aside.
A whisper responded from within:
Consume it.
I froze.
That voice wasn't human.
Wasn't mine.
And it wasn't the gods.
It was the sealed divinity.
It was waking up—and it was hungry.
THE SHADOW IN THE LAKE
The forest ended at a wide moonlit lake.Still water.Perfectly still.
Too still.
I crouched near the surface, letting my reflection show.
Except… it didn't.
The reflection looking back at me wasn't my face.
Its eyes glowed gold—not soft, warm gold like celestial priests—but molten gold, sharp and predatory, dripping with remembrance.
The reflection smirked.
"You killed three pawns," it said without sound."And the heavens already panic."
I felt my pulse spike.Not from fear.
From recognition.
"You…" I whispered."You're the sealed version of me."
It tilted its head, amused.
"You think your power was merely sealed? You think they simply caged it? No, Hiro… the gods didn't just imprison your divinity."
The reflection leaned closer.
"They ripped it out. Split it. Buried it across realms."
My breath grew heavy.
"This—" I gestured to the reflection "—is just one fragment?"
It nodded.
"And every fragment is growing impatient."
The lake rippled.Not from wind.
From something rising beneath.
THE STARFALL BEAST EMERGES
Water exploded upward.
Something massive clawed out of the lake—a creature of bone and celestial marrow, shaped like a wolf but far larger, its ribs glowing like constellations.
A Starfall Beast.
Creatures born from dying stars, rare even in divine realms.
It growled low, shaking the water off its fractured bones.
These beasts only respond to…
To what?
To me?
The reflection spoke again:
"It remembers you. Serve it, or kill it. But choose quickly."
The beast lunged.
BRUTALITY IN DIVINE FORM
I didn't dodge.
I greeted it.
When its jaws clamped around me, I grabbed both upper fangs and pulled—ripping its skull bones apart with divine-infused rage.
It snarled.Celestial sparks burst from its maw.
Its claws raked my chest—not cutting flesh,but striking something deeper,the sealed divine core.
Pain jolted through me.
I cracked my knuckles.
"Good."
I blurred forward, smashing my knee into its sternum, ripping a glowing rib from its chest and using it like a spear—
shhk—!
—stabbing the beast through its celestial heart.
The beast staggered, trembling.
Then bowed.
Head low.Breath heavy.Submitting.
I rested the rib-spear on my shoulder.
"Stand."
The beast rose obediently.
Another reminder:
I wasn't becoming powerful.
I was returning to what I already was.
THE HEAVENS SENSE THE TREMOR
Far above the mortal realm—in the Celestial Throne Hall—a ripple of pure fear traveled through the divine court.
Gods turned their gazes toward the mortal plane.
One deity—clothed in cracked armor—fell to one knee.
"Your Holiness… his power signature has reawakened."
The Seventh Deity clenched his jaw.
"That shouldn't be possible. The seal was absolute."
A divine messenger burst into the hall.
"Lord Seven—three assassins are dead. Their divine essence was absorbed by—"
He never finished.
The Seventh Deity vaporized him in a burst of blue flames.
The throne hall trembled.
"Send the First Apostle," he commanded.
"But, my lord—he is our strongest mortal vessel."
"Send him anyway.We must put Hiro down… before he remembers everything."
THE STARFALL BEAST BECOMES MINE
Back in the mortal realm, I placed my palm on the beast's forehead.
It pressed into my touch, whining softly like a child recognizing its lost parent.
A strange warmth filled my chest.
A memory—fractured, painful—slammed through my mind:
A battlefield of gods.My throne burning.A thousand beasts like this one kneeling at my feet.My wings—full, radiant—casting shadows across the heavens.
And a voice—
"Forgive us, Your Highness…"
I snapped back.
The reflection in the lake watched silently.
"You command beasts born from stars," it said."This is the first."
"The first?" I asked.
"Yes."It smiled darkly."You had thousands."
The lake darkened.
The reflection began to fade.
One last whisper reached me:
"Find the next fragment.Or the gods will find you first."
THE NEXT LOCATION REVEALED
The beast lifted its head and howled.
The howl wasn't animal.It was direction—the way ancient beasts communicated with their monarch.
A pulse of divine resonance spread across the forest, shaping a path of glowing dust on the ground.
A map.
A destination.
A warning.
The next fragment of my divinity was located in—
The City of Fallen Saints.
A place where gods executed their enemies.A place where blood still soaked the stones.A place where divine remains never rest.
I climbed onto the Starfall Beast's back.
It growled, ready.
I cracked my knuckles.
"Alright," I whispered."Let's collect what they stole from me."
The beast surged forward—
toward the city where the gods tried to bury me the first time.
They won't get a second chance.