Zen raised his head, looking onward among the greatest of all throne rooms.
His eyes glowed faintly with the power of balance, as all things should.
He had spent decades upon decades fighting for the throne, just as his fathers before him.
A faint smile rested on his lips as the time of peace slowly crawled its way to a fitting end.
"It is nearly time my dear..."
He spoke softly, the vibration of his own vocal cords threatening to rip his entire body apart from the sheer power of his infinite axis...
He looked upward, at the grand clock hanging from the top of the farthest archway.
It was the clock of war...
And its bell would soon chime across the vast lands of Vallmora...
Star kept her head lowered as she knelt before her father.
"When the battle is over... If the boy and his army is too somehow root out the evil with the kingdom of Equus... You will kill the boy... And you will strengthen my name across history by carving my house into his very flesh..."
She rose with a bow, never daring to look her father in his powerful eyes.
"Yes father..."
She answered with a sense of hesitation in her voice.
Zen nearly lost his composure, for his own flesh and blood to show fear... To hesitate before the king was a costly effort.
"You da-"
"Father, you heard what had happened... King Rider has slain one of the lesser gods... Devoured his flesh... And now Mare of House Night is beginning to rally troops as we speak. As for Ch- The boy, he has allied with The City of Factions... And far to the north... The Dwarven Kingdom has threatened to join Chase's war efforts as well."
Star had the audacity to not only interrupt her mighty father, but the sheer will to argue against him...
"Woman... Must you be thrown to the wolves?"
He asked with no sense of remorse in his being.
She flinched, but only spoke further.
"Father..."
Her voice trailed off, going against her every moral as she cleared her throat.
"The kingdom of Zephyria have began to establish troops outside of the floating isles for the first time in three decades... You have been far too patient... The boy has built a backbone, a foundation behind his own claim... The people are starting to look at him like savior... You should not have sent that spineless woman whom I call a sister to be the one to snuff out his flame..."
Zen rose, perhaps for the first time since he had first sat on the golden throne.
The bottom of his shoes threatened to crush the entire kingdom of Orion below his power.
His mouth twitched as scarce amounts of energy began to reverberate through his bones.
"Star... You have spoken against my will. You have criticized the man who slayed the entirety of House Orion and House Phoenix. Now you will pay the price for such a grand crime..."
He stepped forward, feeling the weight of the world shake below him.
Her eyes widened as she began to back away, but it was too late, before she could even put her foot down, Zen had cleared the distance between them, grabbing her by the throat.
"The boy is of no threat to me. And I will sure as hell raise the nation into flames before they follow a boy in my place..."
She gagged and trembled under his mighty grip, but she was somehow able to spit out a single sentence before the great king.
"Not- all... of them..."
Anger rose within his chest...
...
Chase awoke at the center of a large chasm, sitting who knew how far underneath the ground.
He stood up after shaking the nausea from his vision.
The last thing he remembered was gently taking Luna's hand.
She was sitting across from where he had awakened, her eyes were closed shut, but crystal-colored tears were slowly falling from her eyelids.
Chase walked across the overgrown grass, assuming that there was no path within this cavern.
Around him, countless plants that he had never even heard of were glowing with alien-like life.
As he walked, he tried to take in the stunning imagery of the area, but even his own vision couldn't do it justice.
He remembered his last conversation with Luna and Zephyr in Leander's office, which he refused to call his own.
They had convinced him to wait ten days until their armies would march against Equus.
And so he alerted everyone, but then vanished as Luna had taken his hand.
He walked until he spotted a crystal river before him.
Lowering himself next to the river, he gazed into the water, expecting to see his reflection, but foresaw naught.
As only the bed of the stream could be seen below him.
He wondered if he would ever see himself again, but quickly shook the thoughts out as he drank what could have been his last sips of water.
Then her turned around, walking towards Luna as she awaited him.
As he got closer, the goddess spoke.
It was strange, as if this was the girl's true body.
The amount of power even her very breath held was immense, and probably the strongest force that Chase had ever witnessed.
He clenched his teeth as he walked closer to her.
"My champion... Prometheus has been slain, the god of humanity... The first of the lesser gods is dead, and will surely bring chaos to the roundtable of the lesser gods. It will give the ones above us power beyond their own comprehension. I- It- Prometheus had been correct... A great war awaits all of us..."
She trailed off, her silver hair dancing in the luminescent lighting of the large cavern.
Chase only stood, trying his hardest to comprehend what the goddess was saying.
"Wha- What do you mean?"
He hesitated before he said the words.
"The gods will wage war against each other, but only after the humans bury themselves in war, murdering each other over mortal affairs..."
She continued to speak in a sad voice, as she did not dare open her eyes before her champion.
Chase sat down in front of her, crossing his legs, and making sure that his back was turned away from the goddess.
"I am ready..."
He whispered.
"As I am sure you are, my champion... Is what I would like to say, but you know well as I do that you are no where near ready to truly surpass the first seal, in fact... You have not truly broken the first seal, and will not until you begin to unravel the second seal..."
Chase swallowed his spit, clenching his fist as he shut his own eyes.
"But I have no choice..."
He replied after almost an entire minute passed.
"Correct... Which is why I would like to apologize for what the next ten days will bring you..."
Chase shook his head, beginning to lean back as slowly as he could.
"You do not need to apologize, I know what could happen to me..."
Luna scoffed.
"I already told you that you will die from this, and there is no real way for you to face a slayer of gods as you are... The odds you survive are in fact zero..."
Chase only laughed.
"My odds have been at zero my entire life."
Luna awaited a moment, almost as if she was deciding against the deal that she had been the one to offer.
"Chase-"
Before she could finish, Chase's body had fully hit the ground in front of him, relaxing as his eyes remain shut with the back of his head inches away from Luna's body.
"I have no choice."
Were the last words he had said, accepting the fact that he could very well die from what was about to happen.
Luna hesitated but eventually grew powerful, exerting her full energy capacity into the cavern around them.
The plants began to grow at vast speeds, and her true form began to crack the human shell that she had spent years perfecting.
Then with two fingers of each hand, she lowered them above Chase's resting head.
She took a deep breath and spoke.
Although it was but a whisper, the entire cavern echoed them as words of the ancient.
"You will enter a rest, a rest so deep that your mind will not fully return until you have gained access to a grand destiny... You will abandon your emotion, your rage, your body, your entire being. And you will be born anew..."
She had not fully come to terms with what she was saying, so the words felt hollow to her, but the words spoke power nonetheless.
"You will leave behind all that makes you human, you will lose your senses, becoming chaos incarnate... And if you survive the trail that awaits you... You will become the chaos that will end you..."
His breathing stopped.
Luna's fingers officially made contact with the temples of his forehead.
Then a faint blue energy began to run through his veins, deepening his sleep.
She tried not to cry, as this could very well be the end of her champion.
But she knew that if he were to fight Rider as he is, then he would surely meet a terrible fate.
Chase's body jolted, and Luna flinched, but remained strong.
The boy's body began to convulse under her godly power, his eyes darted around underneath his eyelids, but it was no use.
The boy had lost his sight, he had lost his touch, he had lost his body entirely. And now he floated within his own void, unable to make sense of anything...