The Guardian gods

His voice cracked, the weight of centuries pressing on every syllable. "I have lived in fear for as long as I can remember. Never once… not even after I took the throne, not even after building a great world for my people, never once did I know true happiness. My fear silenced me. My fear made me turn away from my brother's pleas, made me abandon him when he urged me to resist, to fight back."

Kairos leaned back into his throne, a shadow of a smile breaking through his tired expression. "As the young god said…" His words trailed off into a whisper. "I am… indeed tired."

Keles regarded him in silence for a moment, at last she spoke.

"Kairos… after all these centuries of silence, of carrying fear as if it were a crown upon your head… tell me how do you feel now that you have spoken your truth?"

Her question hung in the air, not meant to wound but to cut away the last bindings he held around himself.

Kairos lowered his head, his hands trembling against the armrests of his throne. For the first time in so long, his words came not as an emperor, not as a mage, but simply as a man.

"I feel nothing but calmness, our talk made me realise how miniscule thing are in the grand cosmos. Moat importantly, it felt great know that what is currently happening to me and my world isn't some grand plan but a natural occuring a world has to face in it's growth"

"We were just the unlucky one, I feel reegret for my people, the ratmen. How far would we have come if we had opened up our mind to possibilites and looked further beyond the mages shadows"

"I feel great knowing our world won't fall to the hands of the mages" kairos said with a smile.

He looked at Keles "May I ask what death feel like?"

Keles took a moment before she responded "Death is different in your world and is hard to put into words what it is like but if you don't mind I can tell you about how death is in my world"

"Please do" Kairos felt himself strangely sleepy, he knew what was coming but he didn't struggle instead he closed his eyes.

Keles began to speaj, her words strangely calming "Death in world is the beginning of a new life, all life upon their death makes their way to my realm where their new life begins"

"Depending on the strength of your soul, you have your will in tact once in my realm even if your soul strength is weak it grows after a while in my realm where you begin to remember things"

"My last sight of my realm was beautiful, souls with their thought shape the outlook of my realm. Some creating a paradise, some creating a place of suffering"

"You become unbound from the mortal world, some souls after a while get to meet their loved ones where the ones again being their loving life and new chapter"

Kairos, in his strange, half-conscious state, murmured softly, almost to himself, "It sounds… beautiful."

His voice trembled, hesitant, as if weighing the impossibility of the question. "Is there… a chance my people, regardless of me, can have their souls… headed for your world?"

Keles's eyes held a quiet, unyielding finality as she spoke, her tone cutting through the lingering haze. "No."

As her words settled over him, the last threads of Kairos's mortal consciousness ebbed away. He felt the fabric of his mind unravel, each thought and memory gently loosening like threads sliding from a loom. A profound, serene release washed over him a weight he had carried for lifetimes lifted at last.

His body slumped softly into the throne, finally giving in to the exhaustion that had long haunted him. Yet even as the mortal vessel went still, his soul did not falter. Unbound and luminous, it burned with a quiet intensity, a stark contrast to the dark void that surrounded him.

In this new state, Kairos beheld Keles with eyes unclouded by flesh or fear. His gaze now pierced beyond the Veil, into the vast unknown of her realm. The sight stirred something within him, a resonance that reached past the limits of mortality.

"Beautiful," he whispered, his voice carrying both awe and wonder, a soul's recognition of a freedom he had never known in life.

His gaze then shifted, tender and contemplative, towards her belly. "I think… I now understand why you spoke to me of the young god's path, and of divinity," he murmured.

Keles raised a brow, curiosity and warmth mingling in her expression, as Kairos continued, his voice gentle yet filled with quiet conviction. "In a world where people fight desperately to defy their fate, his existence… would look like a mockery to them. To many, he would be seen as an enemy."

Keles's lips curved into a loving, serene smile as she placed a hand over her belly. "I know," she said softly, "but he won't be alone. He will have him and his father right beside him, just as he has me in this very moment."

Kairos returned her gaze with a look that held both reverence and farewell. He exhaled slowly, a sigh that carried the weight of lifetimes, yet tinged with peace. "I suppose I should leave… with grace, then," he said, offering a final, gentle smile.

As he spoke, his soul began to dissolve, drifting upward in a soft, scintillant haze like stardust returning to the heavens. It shimmered, folding in on itself before expanding outward in a luminous cloud, enveloping the space in a warm, ethereal glow.

"Here… is my gift to the young god," his voice echoed faintly, carried on the currents of light. "May it protect him as he takes on his responsibility."

And with that, Kairos's essence was gone, dispersing into an enormous, radiant cloud of mana, a final blessing that lingered in the air like a promise, a guide, and a memory of the soul that once ruled time itself.

The dark void Keles had woven recoiled sharply, retreating into nothingness as she stood alone on the barren planet. Her gaze lifted to the immense cloud of mana hovering above, shimmering with Kairos's final essence.

Her body trembled slightly as the emperor's artifact, the weapon shaped like a clock hand emerged from the luminous cloud, floating deliberately toward her.

Keles reached out, letting her hands cradle it, and as she healed the weapon, she felt something extraordinary: a wave of joy from her unborn child. The restless stirrings that had plagued the fetus eased, gradually returning him to a calm, natural rhythm. Relief and warmth spread through her, a quiet confirmation that Kairos's gift had reached its mark.

She allowed the weapon to slip from her hands, letting it sink into the depths of her shadows, secured within her control. Then, with a slow, deliberate wave of her hand, the ground beneath her cracked and tore open. The earth swallowed the mortal vessel of the emperor whole, leaving no trace of his former life.

From her back, dark feathery wings unfurled, stretching wide in the void of space. With a single powerful flap, she lifted off the planet; with another, she propelled herself forward, heading back through the stars.

Her mind was at peace, her thoughts steady and calm, anchored by the knowledge of her child's safety.

It had worried her greatly, how restless he had been how fiercely active his tiny life seemed, and whether such unrest would herald complications at his birth. But after the emperor met his end, a profound calm settled over him. Keles felt it as surely as she felt the pulse of her own being: he was now in his rightful state, balanced and whole.

Meanwhile, back on the barren world she had just left, the enormous cloud of mana began to descend. It fell slowly at first, then with increasing intensity, like a gentle rain drenching the desolate planet. Each droplet glowed faintly, leaving streaks of shimmering light across the cracked, lifeless soil.

"An end for a beginning," she murmured to herself, watching the celestial cascade. Who could say what this strange fate would bring? Perhaps the planet would bloom in time, nourished by the remnants of a fallen emperor's power and the gift of a soul returned to the cosmos. Perhaps it would remain barren, a monument to what had passed.

Meanwhile with Zarvok, His battle began with both mages unfolding their domain. Before his transformation, Zarvok, in his demon form, was a blur of frenetic motion, an anchor of defiance against the storm of the mages' combined attack.

The Lightning Mage, a living network of brilliant energy arcs, pulsed with fury. His Law of Covalent Discharge created conduits of pure force, lashing out to sear Zarvok's flesh and tear at his essence. The Water Mage, a graceful figure of liquid moonlight, was in ceaseless motion, his Law of Perpetual Flow allowing him to erode Zarvok's defenses and flow around his attacks, patiently wearing him down.