Scene One: The Halls of War
The sound of boots echoed through Olympus.
Heavy.
Disciplined.
Ares, god of war, strode through the golden corridors with a scowl painted on his face. Behind him, war banners fluttered as though stirred by a wind that came from nowhere — the kind of wind that smelled of fire and blood.
He pushed open the doors to the War Council Chamber.
Inside, Zeus, Hera, Athena, and Hermes stood in a loose circle. The tension was iron-thick.
Ares didn't waste time.
"I just got word," he said, voice like a hammer on stone. "He's alive. Even after you failed." He shot a pointed look at Hermes.
Hermes shrugged. "He got lucky."
Athena scoffed. "This is not luck. This is prophecy."
Zeus growled low in his throat. "Then we break it. No more second chances. We eliminate him before he grows into what the Fallen King once was."
Ares stepped closer to the table and laid a scroll across its surface.
"We need someone not bound by divine law. Not one of us. A killer bred in shadows."
The scroll unrolled on its own, revealing a painted sigil: a black sun crossed by a silver blade.
Athena's eyes narrowed. "Her?"
"She's ready," Ares said. "I've trained her myself. Half god, half wrath — forged in the old ways."
Hermes leaned forward. "She still under control?"
"She's under purpose," Ares said coldly. "And her purpose is Megumi Valentine."
Scene Two: The Cage Below Olympus
The prison was deeper than Tartarus.
No light reached this place — only the sound of breath and the faint trickle of chains against stone.
Ares descended the spiral staircase, the torch in his hand flickering with unnatural flame. When he reached the bottom, he held the torch up to the cell door.
Inside sat a girl — maybe eighteen — cross-legged on a stone floor.
Her skin was pale and scarred in spiral patterns, tattoos glowing faintly across her back and shoulders. Her hair was white, cropped short. Her eyes… were completely black.
No whites.
No pupils.
Just void.
Ares unlocked the gate.
The girl didn't flinch.
"Nyx," he said. "Wake up."
She stood.
Effortlessly.
Like a blade being unsheathed.
"You have a target," Ares said. "A boy with golden eyes and a broken crown."
Nyx blinked once.
"Kill or capture?"
"Kill," he said.
She tilted her head.
"And if he is… more than a boy?"
Ares smirked.
"Then you'll be more than a weapon."
He handed her a dagger forged of starlight and nightshade.
"Make Olympus proud."
Scene Three: The Gathering Storm
Back on the mortal plane, far from Olympus, Leonidas laid fresh bandages across Megumi's ribs.
He worked in silence, occasionally glancing at his grandson's face — peaceful now, but twitching faintly as if caught in a dream.
"You saw him, didn't you?" Leonidas whispered. "The King inside."
Megumi didn't stir.
But far in the distance, in the forests beyond the cliffside…
A shadow moved between the trees.
Nyx had arrived.
She knelt in the grass, one hand pressed against the earth, listening.
Listening for the blood of gods.
Her lips curved into a smile that had never known kindness.
"Found you," she whispered.