Scene One: The Path of Bones
The path to the resting place of the Fallen King was not marked by stars, but by silence.
Megumi and Leonidas walked across a dead valley beneath the earth — an endless field of petrified bones stretching in every direction. Skulls cracked beneath their boots, fused with fossilized remnants of weapons long since rusted into dust. Time held no meaning here.
Above them, the cavern ceiling loomed like a sky made of iron.
"This place…" Megumi muttered.
Leonidas nodded, his cloak dragging behind him. "This is where the last battle was fought. Before Olympus. Before memory. When the Fallen King made the gods bleed and vanished into the dark."
"Why bring me here?"
Leonidas stopped and turned, his gaze grim.
"Because if you want to kill them… you need more than hatred. You need legacy."
He pointed ahead — toward a black spire rising in the distance. Twisted stone, carved in spirals of ancient symbols, pulsed with violet energy. The tower looked alive, breathing slowly, like a heart buried in stone.
"The Crown waits inside," Leonidas said. "But it won't just sit on your head. You'll have to earn it. The tomb tests the bloodline. If it doesn't see the King in you… it will tear you apart."
Megumi said nothing. His halo pulsed quietly, fractured and dark.
He walked forward.
Scene Two: The Vault of Kings
The door opened with a whisper of air — as if the tomb had been waiting for him.
Inside was darkness. Not the kind that repels light, but the kind that devours it. Stone walls stretched impossibly high, covered in sigils carved by forgotten tongues. Floating in the center of the chamber was a crown made of jagged obsidian and broken light — suspended in nothingness, humming with latent power.
Megumi stepped toward it.
And the ground trembled.
From the shadows, skeletal guardians rose — not corpses, but echoes of warriors who had failed the trial. Their eyes burned with cold white fire, blades drawn from nightmare metal.
Leonidas didn't follow. He simply stood at the door and whispered, "Now show him you're worthy."
Scene Three: Olympus Watches
Far above the mortal world, in a throne room of gold and ivory, Zeus stood overlooking the clouds. Hera sat nearby, silent. The others watched the pool of vision before them.
In it: Megumi, stepping into the black tomb, halo burning like a smothered sun.
Zeus's jaw tightened.
"He moves toward the Crown."
Athena narrowed her eyes. "It's waking him."
Hera's voice was cold. "Send someone."
Zeus didn't hesitate. "Hermes."
A blur of wind and silver landed behind him, lounging atop the table like a coiled serpent.
"You rang?" Hermes grinned, twirling a dagger between his fingers.
"Kill him before he claims it," Zeus said.
Hermes raised an eyebrow. "Even if he's in the middle of the trial?"
Zeus's eyes sparked. "Especially then."
Hermes stood and stretched.
"Fine. I'll bring back his head."
Scene Four: The Trial of the Crown
Megumi dodged a spectral blade, rolling beneath a strike and slamming his palm into the skeletal warrior's chest. A blast of lightning exploded outward, reducing the bones to ash — but three more were already on him.
The Crown hovered behind them — closer now, whispering his name in voices that sounded like Ava's, like his unborn child's, like someone he used to be.
He screamed, releasing a pulse of energy that shattered the stone beneath him and launched the guardians away. His gauntlet lit up, responding to the trial, to the ancient bloodline inside him waking like a beast beneath his skin.
He staggered toward the Crown.
Then—
A flash of silver.
A blade grazed his cheek, faster than thought.
Megumi turned just in time to catch a glimpse of a figure walking casually into the tomb, whistling an old tune.
"Wow," Hermes said, grinning. "Didn't think you'd make it this far. Must be the half-god rage thing you've got going."
Megumi's halo flickered in warning. "You're Hermes."
"In the flesh," Hermes bowed mockingly. "Messenger of the gods. Trickster. Killer. And today—"
He flicked his dagger into the air, caught it, and pointed it straight at Megumi's chest.
"Executioner."
Scene Five: Lightning and Speed
Hermes moved like a phantom.
One moment he stood twenty feet away — the next, his dagger was at Megumi's throat. Megumi barely raised his arm in time, the gauntlet catching the blade and shrieking in protest. Sparks flew. Blood followed.
Hermes laughed.
"You're slower than I expected. Heavy crown weighing on your mind already?"
Megumi lunged, a blast of raw power tearing through the air. The tomb shook, runes glowing. But Hermes was gone — already behind him, slashing across his back.
Megumi stumbled forward, panting. The trial wasn't over. The guardians still circled. The Crown still floated. And now Hermes was toying with him like a cat with a broken-winged bird.
Then… the voices started.
"Megumi…"
"Remember who you are…"
A vision flashed — not of Ava, but of the Fallen King — eyes like burning moons, crowned in obsidian, standing atop a mountain of divine corpses.
And then, for the first time, Megumi didn't feel like himself.
He felt like something older.
He turned toward Hermes — his halo cracked ringed in black electricity
"I'm not done yet."