The sound was not just heard, it was felt.
Just as King Maymun and Mr. Johns finished speaking, a deep bellow rolled across the palace like the roar of a dying star. It came from beneath the earth and echoed through the golden domes, shaking the obsidian pillars and the crystal-tiled floor.
The world held its breath.
The air shifted. The light in the grand hall dimmed as if the sun itself had flinched. Then the tremor hit. Not from beneath the ground but from the very threads of reality groaning under the weight of the ancient seal unraveling.
A horn, vast and godless, tore across the heavens.
King Maymun stiffened. The map of the world on the table distorted, red lines pulsing and breaking into chaotic spirals. Flames ignited around the edges of the vision.
The king's voice was barely above a whisper, but it struck everyone like thunder.
"We were too slow."
His golden eyes narrowed. "We underestimated Hecate."
The words dropped into the silence like a guillotine.
Mike stepped into the chamber, his frame heavy, scarred from his journey into the depths of hell and back. His hand was wrapped tightly around Kelsey's. She lay resting on the divan beside the golden pool, her body whole but not yet healed. She still bore the wounds of her possession. Wards flickered around her like failing stars.
She didn't wake.
Mike knelt beside her and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. His voice was low, meant only for her.
"Hey, Kels," he murmured, eyes stinging, jaw tight. "I won't be here when you wake up. I have to finish what I started with the bitch who did this to you."
He paused, squeezing her hand.
"And the gods who let it happen. All of them."
He brushed a kiss against her temple.
"I'll be back. Thanatos will keep you safe."
Behind him, Thanatos stood silently in the shadows. Watching. Waiting.
The god of death gave Mike the faintest nod.
Outside, the wind changed.
The sky turned black.
The winds of the desert screamed like a funeral choir. Shadows slithered along the horizon, rippling like smoke. The sound of wings, vast and beating, filled the heavens. But these were not angels.
The obsidian doors no longer stood closed.
They yawned open, revealing a chasm so dark it swallowed magic, light, and sound.
From that pit came footsteps.
The first to emerge was shaped like a man, but with the height of a mountain and wings sewn from night itself. The Watcher known as Samyaza.
Behind him, dozens followed. Not just demons. Not titans. Not just gods.
Creatures that had no name in human tongues. Forgotten exiles of the first war.
The war before time.
They whispered.
They wept.
They smiled.
And they marched into a world that had forgotten them.
Far away, cities cracked. Volcanoes erupted. Oceans boiled at the edges. Somewhere in the Pacific, a whirlpool swallowed an entire fleet. In the Arctic, a mountain split and bled molten gold.
The world was ending in pieces.
Across the planet, chaos unfurled.
Rome, Italy
The Vatican bells rang, but not by human hands. Statues wept molten tears. A titan made of ivory and flame burst from beneath the catacombs, swatting helicopters from the sky. The Pope, mid-prayer, turned to ash in a flash of fire as a scream like a thousand tortured saints echoed through the streets.
Shanghai, China
The skyline fell in silence. Not from an explosion. From gravity reversing.
One by one, buildings folded in on themselves as a horned giant crawled out of a rift above the city, dragging chains of burning corpses behind it. Its laughter was a discordant song that cracked windows and bones alike.
New York City
People ran as the East River boiled red. A creature with a spider's body and a woman's torso slithered through Times Square, whispering secrets that made mortals tear their ears from their skulls. The National Guard opened fire, only to be swallowed by a wave of shadow.
Across the Earth
The Watchers awakened.
Beings not born of Earth or Hell. Eldritch monstrosities that were never meant to be seen by mortal eyes. Forgotten giants. Nameless sorcerers locked away in flesh prisons now broken open. Gods who had once warred against creation before the first stars were born.
And walking calmly through it all… was her.
Hecate. Maiden. Mother. Crone.
All three forms moved across the battlefield that was now Earth, shifting in and out of phase. Time fractured around her. Forests died where she stepped. Oceans wept salt from the sky.
Each of her vessels carried a piece of divinity, and she had opened the door.
King Maymun's Palace
"Prepare for war," the king said.
Not a command. Not a suggestion.
A declaration.
The djinn gathered instantly. No need for orders. No panic. Every being in that chamber had seen worlds burn before. This would be no different, unless they made it different.
Hamza stepped forward, flame wreathing his hands. "We deploy immediately. We hit her armies before they can entrench. We rescue what we can aid us."
Mike stood slowly. Power rolled off him in waves. His human form barely contained the fury boiling underneath.
"I need to find her," he said. "I need to finish this. She doesn't get to walk away from what she did to Kelsey."
Dina approached, placing a hand over her chest. "We'll fight with you. Not behind you."
Maymun raised his hand again. "You will all have your targets. Hecate's forces are moving in three major lines, east, west, and beneath. Some are heading straight for Olympus. But the largest force…"
He pointed toward the gate Mr. Johns had marked earlier.
"…marches straight for Anatolia."
"The prison is fully open," Mr. Johns said grimly. "If we don't stop them now, the world's done. We become another ruin beneath their rule."
Mike clenched his fists. "I'll go first. I'll hit her army. I'll make her bleed. I don't care if I have to burn through a hundred Titans. She doesn't get to win."
Hamza stepped beside him. "And I'll go with him."
The king nodded once. "Then may the Flame guide your steps. Kur, lend him your wrath."
A pulse ran through the room as the god stirred inside Mike's bones.
Somewhere in the Ruins of Greece
A skyless night.
The ground ruptured, and a beast with a body of stars and eyes like nebulae crawled from the fault line. It screamed. The sky cracked open and Mike roared as he descended in his dragon form.
Black and red fire erupted from his throat as he soared over the battlefield. The flame licked across legions of demonic spawn, warlocks, summoned titans. His eyes blazed like suns.
Below, Kelsey's name echoed in his mind like a prayer.
In his wake, cities turned to molten glass. He didn't care. Not anymore.
He was vengeance wrapped in draconic fury.
He slammed into a rising abomination, twenty arms, twelve heads, a centipede of rotting gods and tore it apart mid-air.
The ground quaked beneath him as more rose.
He kept going.
For her.
For every second she suffered.
For every piece of himself the gods tried to break. Also to avenge his friend Hunter.
He wouldn't stop until the world burned, the gods were destroyed and she was safe.