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The End of the War

2,100 Years Ago

Cold rain falls from the skies, the smell of wet rocks and rotting grass fills the air. Lightning clashes against the black, churning clouds. This dark weather is from Aesha, spreading her power, threatening all those who have dared to stay in Calibria. Other Gods have already left, frightened by him . The war is over, we have lost.

Except there is one who has not admitted defeat.

“Acteem! We must go! He’s killing them all!” I scream against the wind bellowing around us. My golden- drenched dress whips frantically around me, hitting my legs with a slap.

“No! He can’t do this, Megala!” His deep voice is frantic as wide eyes look around the terrain wildly. We stand atop the mountain, watching the chaos unfold around below us. I’ve never seen the God so undone. Acteem’s pale hair is sticking to the sides of his face from the harsh water and wild wind.

I shiver violently, watching dark shadows unfurl, reaching for us. “Acteem! We must return to Elyssus before the Veil goes up! We’ll die on this side! Everyone else has left!” I plead, jumping away from a reaching wisp of darkness. Acteem doesn’t seem to notice the dark God’s power coming for us.

“Megala! He can’t just kill them all! This isn’t how you win a war! You can’t just rot kingdoms! How dare he do this! We were winning!” Acteem bellows, his beautiful wings flapping madly in his anger.

“Well, he’s fucking doing it, isn’t he!” I sass as I watch thousands of mortals fall to the ground as the God walks by. They will never wake again. “You did this! You forced his hand! We were ready to concede! To write a treaty and your Godsdamned ego condemned us all!”

“I forewent that treaty because it was bullshit! We are warranted humans as well! He has no right to take their souls like this! They are for us all! He’s stealing them! No King does this! He is undeserving! His Kingship is a dictatorship!” Acteem shouts against the wild wind, his anger taking over.

“I know, Acteem, I know. I liked the humans as much as you. To be honest, I fought for the crown, each of us did, but you deserved to have that throne,” I admit, looking to his handsome face. His chiseled jaw and cold blue eyes are striking as his anger takes hold of him. He stands tall and proud, ready to take the dark King on by himself. A very unwise decision, but Acteem is smarter than that. He has always been the smartest of us, devilish in his plans.

I watch on below as my gold-touched houses tarnish under his hands, flittering into dust in the wind. “Look, I don’t want to return.” I glance to the right to see a semblance of metallic silver high in the skies. It rains down streaks in a mirror-like fashion. The first signs of the cage bars showing, dividing our lands. My own magic feels as if it’s draining from my very hands as we speak. Gold drips from my fingers and splashes onto the water-soaked rocks. Metal soaks the air, my very tongue tastes of iron.

“Acteem,” I beg. “We must. We will bide our time. We will have our chance again. We will take him down. The King can’t stay on his throne forever.”

He groans, pulling at his snow-white hair. “Fuck.”

Suddenly, Acteem skids into my direction without warning, running into me and catching me right before we fall into flight. His sparkling iridescent wings take us into the air, and we fly through the masses of corpses on the ground. The scent of the dead and rotted vegetation has me gagging as we soar through the lands. The realms will never be the same.

The last of the Gods fly through the forming silver Veil, forever to be forgotten.