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Scene One: Long Before Megumi
The sound of steel against bone echoed through the training halls beneath Olympus.
A girl—no older than ten—stood bleeding, one eye swollen shut. Her arms trembled under the weight of a black-bladed spear nearly twice her size.
Across from her stood Ares, the god of war.
Towering. Smirking. Pitiless.
"Again," he barked.
Nyx raised the spear.
Her ribs cracked as she forced herself to her feet. She charged. He knocked her aside like a doll.
"Sloppy," Ares spat, circling her. "Emotions make you weak. Mercy makes you dead. You are a weapon, not a daughter."
Nyx lay curled in the dust. Her lip quivered—but she did not cry. She was not allowed to cry.
Chains glowed beneath her skin—golden runes etched into her very soul, searing pain through every nerve. A curse of obedience. A binding oath.
"You exist to kill," Ares said, crouching beside her. "You will never love. Never hope. Never be free. That is your gift."
The chains pulsed.
And so, she rose again.
Scene Two: Present Day – The Binding Room
Nyx stood alone in the ruins of the monastery's lower sanctum. Stone pillars stretched upward into shadow. It was here, beneath the earth, that Leonidas had brought them to rest and regroup.
Megumi approached from the darkness.
He had watched her grow more distant since pledging loyalty.
"I know that look," he said softly. "The one where you forget what it means to be anything but a blade."
Nyx didn't turn around.
"I was born a chain," she said. "I don't know how to be anything else."
Megumi walked closer. "I saw them, you know. When we fought. The chains inside you."
She flinched.
"They're still there."
Silence.
"I don't want them to be," she whispered, almost ashamed.
Megumi raised a hand. A golden shimmer radiated from his palm — pure, radiant, unstable energy born from wrath and love.
"I'm going to break them," he said.
Nyx finally turned, panic flashing in her eyes. "No. You don't understand. They're tied to Olympus. If you break them—"
"—They'll feel it," Megumi finished. "Good."
He reached out.
And placed his hand over her heart.
The chains screamed. Her body lit up with divine glyphs—pulsing, writhing, resisting.
Megumi's halo ignited behind him, casting gold and black across the chamber. The Fallen King's energy rippled through the room, shaking the pillars, splitting the ground.
Nyx screamed—but not in pain. In release.
And then—
Snap.
A sound like glass shattering across the heavens.
The chains unraveled. The runes dissolved. Her body collapsed forward, caught by Megumi's arms.
And in that moment—her eyes, once black voids, flickered.
Light bloomed behind them.
Soft. Blue. Human.
"…I can see the stars," she whispered, trembling.
Megumi held her steady. "They were always there. You just weren't allowed to look."
She clutched his sleeve.
"…thank you," she said. "For letting me exist."
Scene Three: Olympus Reacts
Far above, in the golden halls of Olympus, a seer dropped to her knees mid-ritual. Her mouth foamed. Her eyes rolled back.
Zeus turned.
"What is it?"
The oracle gasped.
"The Chains of Ares have been broken."
A hush fell over the throne room.
Athena stood slowly. "Nyx has defected."
Ares stepped forward, face twisting with fury. "That girl was mine."
Zeus's eyes burned with lightning.
"Then bring her back," he said coldly.
"Or burn the world she hides in."