The heavens of the Celestial Realm gathered for judgment.
There were no trumpets.
It simply happened.
The constellations stopped turning.
The tides of ether came to a halt.
The firmament itself acknowledged the divine presence.
At the heart of existence, where the creation of the universe had first been anchored, the Conclave of the Eighteen took their thrones suspended above the luminous abyss.
Only one god remained standing.
The Throne of Darkness did not recognize the goddess.
It did not accept her. It did not sustain her.
Without that throne, the gods could not move the universe according to their will.
Below, creation continued.
Above, eternity stood still.
The God of Darkness had not fallen because of corruption.
He had been betrayed.
And before disappearing, he left something behind.
An heir.
As long as he lived, the will of the gods remained blocked.
The name was never spoken.
Even so, all of them heard it.
Lusian.
A man. A curse left behind by the God of Darkness before his fall. A fragment of his power seeded into the world.
Something that should not exist.
As long as he exists, the Celestial Realm cannot stabilize.
It does not matter how much faith they gather.
It does not matter how many crusades they proclaim.
It does not matter how many worlds they purify.
His existence introduces an impossible error.
Authority.
The thrones are the key to creation. But they must be complete.
One of them is not recognized.
As long as it remains absent, order cannot fully activate.
It is not rebellion.
It is a structural flaw in the universe's control over the gods.
Amon broke the silence.
His voice fell heavily across the heavens.
—If he lives, we become irrelevant.
Aeltharis answered without raising his voice.
—If we descend, we may fall into a trap. Like Velyrion did.
A pause followed.
—Do you truly believe that bastard left us a trap? —Amon spat, no longer calm.
The name did not need to be repeated.
Kheris.
All of them understood, even if none dared to speak it aloud.
Velyrion had lied.
They knew it.
And still, they allowed the lie to remain truth.
Not because they trusted him…
but because it was easier that way.
Because the name of Kheris still weighed heavily in all their memories.
The god who no longer stood within the Celestial Realm had not been cast out for justice.
He had been cast out because they feared letting him remain.
Valerius clenched his fist.
Nearby galaxies trembled.
—Then go —he said.—Descend. Kill him. And you will be rewarded.
Amon looked at him for a moment.
—There is no need —he finally replied.—We already have the Chosen. They test the ground for us. If they fall, we send others.
Not all of them agreed.
The air between the thrones tightened once again.
The heavens did not merely emit mana.
They sustained it.
It flowed through the universe like an invisible river, feeding all that existed.
But it was not enough.
The gods did not survive on mana alone.
They depended on something else as well.
Faith.
Without it, mana alone could not sustain them.
They could continue existing… for a time.
But they could not endure.
When faith declined, divine power weakened.
And when it vanished completely…
the god was no longer upheld by the world.
They faded.
Amon spoke again.
—Then this is not yet the moment.
Silence.
—We descend only when we are certain. When there is no risk.
—We isolate him.
—We sever his divinity.
—We limit Kheris's influence.
—And that human will cease to be a problem.
—He will be contained.
—Lusian will not be executed.
—He will be imprisoned… within his own domain.
Luminaria closed her eyes briefly.
—That prevents the rebirth of the Dark One… if all of this was truly part of his plan.
Aeltharis did not answer.
He remained silent, staring into the center of the void where all decisions were made.
He did not need to speak.
His lack of opposition was enough for the others to understand.
Lusian would be contained.
His divinity stripped away, severed from the system that sustained him.
And the Tree…
the Tree would cease growing beyond what was permitted.
What they did not know was this:
The Dark One had not created Lusian to destroy the heavens.
He had created him to force them to change.
If the gods chose to contain him, the world would learn to resist.
And if the world learned to resist, faith would never remain the same.
And when faith changes…
the gods change as well.
Or cease to be what they once were.
The sentence was death.
And they did not know it.
And for the first time since creation, the gods understood something they had never before needed to feel.
Fear.