Scene One: After the Vault
The storm hadn't passed — it had only moved inside him.
Megumi sat at the edge of the cliff overlooking the ravine outside the Vault of Thalos, the jagged gauntlet fused to his right arm humming with quiet, ancient energy. Sparks of black lightning curled up his forearm and vanished into the veins of his skin like ink bleeding through parchment.
He wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting there. Hours, maybe. Maybe longer.
The sky was overcast, heavy with clouds that looked like bruises. The world felt distant — muted beneath the thrum of what now lived inside him.
Leonidas emerged from the stone tunnel, his steps quiet but firm.
"I know that look," the old man said as he crouched beside his grandson. "You're planning to do something reckless."
Megumi didn't answer at first. His eyes never left the sky. "I'm going to kill them all."
Leonidas exhaled slowly.
"I figured as much."
Megumi finally looked at him. His golden eyes no longer shimmered with sorrow — they burned, low and deep, like a furnace waiting to roar.
"I don't want an army. I don't need pawns or heroes or prophecies. This isn't about destiny anymore. It's about revenge. They made it personal."
Leonidas frowned. "You think you're the first mortal to stand against Olympus alone? The first to burn with purpose?"
"I don't care if I'm the first," Megumi said coldly. "I'll be the last."
He stood slowly, the gauntlet reacting with a shriek of metal and magic. Wind picked up around them, stirring the dirt in tiny cyclones. Thunder rolled behind the mountains, distant yet echoing like a warning.
Leonidas remained still.
"You haven't fully awakened," he said carefully. "You haven't even begun to understand what you are. What's inside you."
Megumi glanced at him, the wind lifting strands of his dark hair. "Then tell me."
Leonidas stood too, slowly, like a man walking into a fire he couldn't stop. "You're not just Ava's lover. You're not just a grieving father. You're a fragment of something the gods have spent thousands of years trying to bury."
He looked out toward the clouds.
"You're a remnant of the Fallen King — the first and last being who ever made the gods bleed."
Silence.
Megumi didn't flinch. "And where is he now?"
"No one knows," Leonidas said, his voice hushed. "Some say he was erased from time. Others… that he became something worse. But his bloodline lived on — hidden, diluted, waiting. Until now."
A bitter smirk touched Megumi's lips.
"They killed Ava… to stop something they didn't even understand."
"No," Leonidas corrected. "They killed Ava because they did understand. You're not just a threat to Olympus. You're the reckoning they've feared since the dawn of their rule."
Megumi's fists tightened. Cracks formed beneath his feet as a pulse of energy radiated outward from his body — the land itself reacting to his rising wrath.
"But you are not ready," Leonidas said sharply, stepping forward. "You think you are, but you're not. What's inside you — that ancient power — it's still asleep. Right now, all you are is a storm waiting to destroy itself."
"I don't care if it kills me."
"But it won't just kill you," Leonidas said. "It'll kill us all."
Megumi blinked.
Leonidas continued. "You want to face the gods alone? Fine. But if you go now, in this state, they'll break you. And when they do, the world will follow. Because they'll make sure of it."
The storm in Megumi's heart paused.
"You have power, yes," Leonidas said. "But without control, power is nothing but noise. Fire without aim. And the gods… the gods have perfected the art of killing fire."
Megumi turned away. He looked out at the horizon. Thunder cracked again — closer this time.
"You want me to wait?"
"I want you to awaken," Leonidas said. "Truly awaken. Not just as a man mourning what he's lost. But as the being you were always meant to become."
Megumi was quiet for a long time.
Then, finally, he said, "So where do we begin?"
Leonidas's gaze hardened. "With blood. With fire. With memory."
Scene Two: Elsewhere — The Garden of Fates
Far away, in a corner of the world untouched by time, three cloaked figures hovered above a silver pool — their faces veiled, their voices layered in echoes.
The Fates watched.
In the pool, an image flickered: Megumi, eyes glowing, halo fractured and furious.
"He is awakening," whispered the first.
"Too soon," said the second.
"Or far too late," said the third.
They leaned closer.
"The blood of the first king walks again," they spoke in unison. "The crown of ash and lightning seeks a head."
The water turned red.
"The gods will fall."