The Tartarus was silent, but this silence was not comforting. It pressed on my shoulders like a mechanical certainty: here, every movement, every breath, was observed by the foundations of existence themselves. The bones and scorched rocks formed a labyrinth, each turn whispering ancient warnings.
Siegfried floated before me, suspended by his ether-silver chains, immobile and imposing. His single eye fixed me with infinite patience, as if he were waiting for me to reveal a secret too heavy to speak. And that secret burned behind my chest, in the heart of the red lycoris: it was no longer merely my fire.
— Siegfried… I finally spoke, my voice echoing through my black glass cage, cracking the silence like a hammer on stone.
He tilted his head slightly. A simple gesture, yet it carried the weight of centuries.
— Yes, Jormund? he said calmly.
I took a step, my obsidian feet crushing the white sand and fragments of forgotten titans. The red light of the lycoris pulsed in my chest with almost painful force, as if it knew the truth before I did.
— Since I swallowed a fragment of Chronos… I… I inherited more than just his power. His will. His hatred. His desire to destroy the gods.
Siegfried's silence did not break immediately. But I felt his chains vibrate, as if translating into sound what his eyes did not show.
— So you carry not only the strength of time, but also its rebellion, he said at last, his voice deposited directly into my mind. A calculated, relentless, cold rebellion.
I lowered my gaze to my hands, feeling the weight of Chronos' fragment merge with the hardness of my black glass body. Every fiber of my being had adapted, transformed, but this transformation had not only shaped my body. It had shaped my will.
— Does this mean… I am destined to defy the gods? I murmured.
Siegfried let out a slight breath, almost a laugh. Not mocking, but heavy with gravity.
— Destined? he asked. The gods never look at destiny. They observe, judge, correct… and destroy what they cannot understand. You… you have surpassed their understanding. You are now a variable they cannot eliminate.
My lycoris heart beat harder, each pulse resonating like a war drum.
— And if I return this will to them… if I become Chronos' instrument against them… would you stop me?
Siegfried tilted his head again, this time with a chilling curiosity.
— No, he said finally. Because I am not the one who must decide. And above all… this power, this rage… it must exist for balance to be possible. But beware, Jormund: inheriting Chronos is not merely a gift. It is a burden. Every action, every thought, every deviation from the norm will be a step closer to the ultimate conflict.
I felt the echo of his voice in my head, and for the first time in centuries, I fully understood the solitude of my role. I served neither justice, nor revenge, nor rebellion. I served an older purpose: the balance of what time itself refused to erase.
— I know what I have inherited, I said slowly. I know what Chronos intended… and I will choose how to wield it. But one thing is clear: the gods will not stand if I stand.
Siegfried remained silent, but I felt an implicit understanding. A recognition that brute strength alone would not contain what I had become.
— Then be cautious, Jormund, he said at last. Your name is now more than an identity. It is a promise. And every promise carries a price.
I lifted my gaze to the deeper darkness of Tartarus. Below, the roots of the world extended, where Chronos himself had left his mark. The fragment I had swallowed still burned in my heart.
— I will not flee, I murmured. I will descend. And what I become… even the gods will have to bow.
Siegfried nodded slowly, as if this statement confirmed a future he had already anticipated.
— Then the next stage begins, he said. Let time itself tremble.
And for the first time since I had left the Styx, I felt absolute certainty: the fall into the unknown was no longer a loss. It was a choice.
Tartarus stretched before me, abyssal, burning, and silent. But at the center of my chest, the red lycoris pulsed with the promise of a power capable of defying the heavens themselves.