RISE OF EROS

The next morning brought a different air. The sky was clear, but something in the atmosphere felt heavy, as if the earth itself were holding its breath. Andrew hadn't slept since the partial absorption of the divinity from the divine body.

Although he had survived the process, his soul still throbbed with the echo of a war that wasn't his own, yet now he carried in his blood. "It's not fully assimilated," he whispered, studying his hands, where the marks of the war god still burned with raw energy.

Sereda, who had been monitoring his magical flow, frowned. "That's dangerous. If you don't complete the integration soon, the trapped fury could destabilize you." Andrew smiled helplessly and said only, "I know. But something's preventing me."

"Preventing or delaying it?" Sereda asked. Andrew didn't answer. Because deep down, he sensed it wasn't an internal resistance. It was as if something outside of him was trying to keep him from reaching equilibrium.

At the northern tip of the continent, in the Ebon Wastes, a small squad of explorers had been sent by the northern clans to map a set of ruins that had emerged after the winter thaw. It was a routine mission, or so they thought.

But they didn't return. Three days later, only one of them—a young man named Kalem—returned, covered in blood, his eyes bulging, and a black mark tattooed on his forehead. He babbled incoherently until he uttered a phrase that caused the northern council to immediately summon Chrono: "The abyss sings... and it sings in the language of angels."

Hours later, Andrew and Chrono arrived in the region. The cold was so brutal that even divine energy seemed to slow down. There, young Kalem was resting under magical medical supervision. Elidyr was already in the area, analyzing the terrain.

"This place is contaminated," the liquid spirit reported, moving through the frozen rocks. "There's an energetic fracture beneath the ruins. Something is leaking celestial power… or a very dangerous imitation of it," it continued.

Andrew descended into the ruins with Chrono, Sereda, and two guardians from their inner circle. What they found beneath the ice stunned them into silence. A circular chamber of black stone, carved with symbols no mage recognized… except one.

Zaros, who flew in moments later, stopped and stared at an inscription. "This is not of this world. It's not even from this era," he exclaimed. "What is it?" Chrono asked.

"It's the name of a celestial being who was… banished from the divine plane. One of the Great Old Ones," Zaros said, surprising everyone. There's little in this world that Chrono doesn't know, but he seemed at a loss for this.

Everyone looked at each other. The word "Great Old One" wasn't common, even among scholars of divine magic. According to ancient texts, there existed entities before the current gods, beings whose natures were so intertwined with chaos that not even the heavens tolerated them.

Andrew felt a chill. "Are you saying Purgatory… is trying to awaken one of them?" Zaros nodded slowly. "I wouldn't be surprised. They've been silent for two years. Long enough to search for something older than the gods themselves."

As they inspected the chamber, Sereda placed her hands on a central altar. Immediately, her body tensed. A torrent of images flowed toward her: screams, black flames, broken wings, colossal chains…

And a voice. Deep. As if a thousand mountains spoke at once, "I was war before there was conflict. I was blood before flesh. And I will return with the wailing of the children of light". Sereda fell to her knees, gasping. Andrew caught her before she hit the ground. "Don't touch anything else," he ordered sternly, adding, "This chamber isn't a ruin. It's a seal."

Elidyr floated to the center. "The flow here hasn't just been disturbed. It's been reversed. They're draining energy from the material plane into something... trapped below." Chrono took a step forward and said sternly, "And if they manage to break that seal…" "The continent wouldn't survive," Zaros concluded.

Chrono summoned a divine barrier that sealed the chamber completely. If they couldn't destroy the place—and destroying it could free the trapped one—they would keep it asleep. For now.

However, that night, as everyone slept in the makeshift camp, Andrew received an unexpected visitor. A shadow loomed in his tent. It didn't cross the threshold, but its voice filled the space like suppressed thunder.

"Interesting choice, warrior of light. Seal, not destroy." Andrew leaped to his feet, drawing his weapon. The figure was humanoid, wrapped in a gray cloak that seemed to devour light. "Who are you?" he asked. "Someone who knows the abyss... because he was born in it," the figure said.

"Are you part of Purgatory?" Andrew continued, but the shadow only laughed. "Purgatory is a spark. I... am the pit," he said. Without another word, he disappeared, leaving a burnt mark on the ground: an inverted star within a circle of broken wings.

Andrew fell silent. They were no longer facing just Purgatory or the fallen angels. They were entering uncharted territory. What existed before order. The true abyss.

Back at the fortress, Andrew gathered all available allied leaders through magical projection. "Listen carefully. The enemy is no longer just Purgatory or the fallen angels. There is a greater force... and it is breaking loose. The ruins we found are not temples or fortresses. They are prisons."

"And there are more like that?" asked Elder Raktar, from the city of Ghal'Toran. "Probably," Sereda chimed in, adding, "If that was just one, the others may be all over the continent... and even beyond."

Zaros spoke coldly, "We must strengthen our alliances. Call even those who doubt. If we let the world remain relaxed, the roar of the abyss will devour them in their sleep."

Andrew nodded and said, "We will initiate a global reconnaissance plan. I will see to it that I reinforce my corps with the still-unstable divinities, but if we don't stop this soon… the war will not be between light and darkness."

"It will be between existence… and emptiness," Elidyr concluded. A new chapter was opening. One where the echoes of the abyss were not a rumor… but the harbinger of extinction. If Purgatory, the fallen angels, and the fallen god himself weren't enough, now they had to worry about this new enemy.