The silence that followed the death of the last creature was deafening.
The monsters simply vanished, as if they had never existed, leaving behind only the echo of their roars and the smell of sulfur that slowly dissipated in the night air of the port. But no one was paying attention to that.
All eyes were fixed on Alexander's motionless body, collapsed on the ground with a dark hole where his heart used to be.
Adrian was the first to move, running toward his best friend's body with an expression of horror he had never shown before. Cali was paralyzed, her hands trembling as she watched the blood spreading beneath Alexander like a crimson pool.
"No, no, no," Adrian murmured, falling to his knees next to Alexander. "Alex, wake up. Come on, wake up."
Sara approached with hesitant steps, tears running down her cheeks. Throughout the entire mission she had been seeing Alexander as a potential threat, as someone dangerous and unpredictable. Now, seeing his broken body on the ground, she realized how terribly wrong she had been.
"I can heal him," she said, her voice breaking. "Isis has blessed me with healing magic. I can—"
She knelt next to Alexander and placed her hands over the wound, invoking all the healing magic she knew. Golden light emanated from her palms, but when it touched the wound, the light simply faded as if it had been absorbed by the darkness.
"What...?" Sara frowned, concentrating harder. She invoked more powerful spells, magics she had learned from the oldest books that Kaius had shown her. But nothing worked. It was as if something was actively rejecting her magic.
"It's not working!" she screamed, desperation evident in her voice. "Nothing I do works!"
Adrian didn't wait any longer. He lifted Alexander's unconscious body in his arms, surprised by how light it felt. "We're going back to the fortress. Now."
The return trip was a blurred nightmare of screams and panic. Adrian ran through the streets with Alexander in his arms, followed closely by Cali and Sara, all shouting for help from any Bearer they found along the way.
"Medical emergency!" Sara shouted. "We need the healers!"
But when they arrived at the fortress, something strange began to happen.
Alexander's parents, Marcus and Helena Rasis, had been in their office reviewing reports when they heard the commotion. For the first time in days, they looked up from their work, irritated by the interruption.
"What's all that noise?" Marcus murmured, but when he saw Adrian running toward the main entrance with a bloodied figure in his arms, his heart stopped.
"Is it...?" Helena went pale.
"Alexander," Marcus confirmed, and both ran toward the entrance.
When they saw their son—the hole where his heart should be, the deathly pallor of his skin, the blood dripping from Adrian's arms—both parents froze in shock.
"My God," Helena whispered. "What happened to him?"
"A creature," Adrian gasped. "A giant scorpion. Its stinger went completely through his chest."
Other Bearers had gathered to see what was happening, but when they saw Alexander's condition, many backed away uncomfortably. The rumor that he had magically manipulated Kaius was still fresh. Even mortally wounded, some felt that staying away was safest.
But then the smell began.
It started as a subtle note in the air, barely perceptible. Sweet, musky, with a depth that made something primitive in everyone present's brain awaken. It was a scent so intense, so overwhelmingly attractive, that everyone in the lobby stopped and instinctively turned toward its source.
Alexander.
"What the hell...?" one of the Bearers murmured, his eyes dilating.
The smell intensified, becoming something so powerful that Adrian, who was holding Alexander, could barely think clearly. It was as if all his inhibitions were being dismantled by those pheromones.
"I have to... I have to get him to the infirmary," Adrian managed to say, though every word was an effort. "Now."
He ran through the hallways on trembling legs, followed by a group of Bearers who seemed to be in some kind of trance. Alexander's scent had become so intense that it was affecting everyone within a radius of several meters.
When they reached the infirmary, the healers approached immediately, but as soon as the smell hit them, they stood motionless.
"What kind of pheromones are these?" murmured Dr. Chen, the head healer. "I've never felt anything like this."
Despite the distraction, they managed to place Alexander on one of the medical beds. The monitors began working immediately, showing something that made no sense: his heart was still beating, despite the massive hole in his chest.
"This is impossible," said Dr. Chen, looking at the readings. "Without a heart, he should be clinically dead. But his vital signs are... stable."
"Can you heal him?" asked Cali, who had arrived panting.
The doctor examined the wound more closely, frowning. "I've never seen anything like this. The venom has crystallized around the wound, preventing it from closing, but also... protecting it somehow. It's as if the creature that did this had some specific purpose."
"What kind of creature does this?" asked Sara.
"I don't know," the doctor admitted. "We don't have anything like this in our files. This is beyond my experience."
That's when Sara made a desperate decision.
"I'm going to call Kaius," she announced.
"Are you crazy?" said Adrian. "After everything that happened—"
"He's our only resource," Sara interrupted. "If I can't heal him, and the fortress healers can't heal him, then we need someone with demonic knowledge. Kaius knows creatures we can't even imagine."
Without waiting for an answer, she took out her phone and dialed.
"Sara?" Kaius's voice sounded surprised. "Why are you calling so late?"
"There's an emergency," Sara said quickly. "We have someone injured by a creature we can't identify. Not even I can heal him, and you know what that means."
There was a pause. If Sara, blessed by Isis, the goddess of Egyptian magic, couldn't heal something, then they were talking about magic that transcended even divine limits.
"Where are you?" asked Kaius.
"At the New York fortress. Third floor infirmary."
"I'll be there in twenty minutes."
Sara hung up and looked at the others. "He's coming. But..." she hesitated. "I didn't tell him it's Alexander."
"Why not?" asked Cali.
"Because if I had, he wouldn't have come," Sara replied simply.
Twenty minutes later, Kaius appeared in the infirmary with his characteristic air of confidence. He was tall, dark-haired, with eyes that changed color according to his mood—a mark of his demonic heritage. When he entered, Alexander's pheromones hit him immediately, but his expression remained controlled.
"Where's the patient?" he asked, but stopped when he saw the figure on the bed.
His eyes hardened. "Sara."
"Kaius, please," Sara begged. "I know what you're thinking, but—"
"You lied to me," said Kaius, his voice cold. "You told me there was an emergency. You didn't tell me it was him."
"Because I knew you wouldn't come!" Sara exploded. "But look at him, Kaius. Do you really think someone would fake being dying just to manipulate you?"
Kaius looked toward the bed where Alexander lay motionless, the pallor of his skin contrasting with the dark hole in his chest. Despite his anger, he couldn't deny that no one could fake being so close to death.
"Once," he said finally. "I'll do it once, and then I never want to see him again."
He approached the bed, preparing to use his demonic magic to heal what divine magic hadn't been able to touch. He extended his hands over the wound, invoking the power he had inherited from his father.
But the moment his magic touched Alexander's body, everything became chaotic.
Alexander's body rejected it with a force that sent Kaius flying backward against the wall. At the same time, the pheromones that had been emanating from Alexander intensified to a point that was almost unbearable.
"What the fuck...?" Kaius murmured, recovering from the impact. He had never experienced anything like this. The pheromones were so potent that even he, with his demonic resistance, felt overwhelmed.
But that wasn't the most shocking part.
The most shocking part was what happened to Alexander's body.
A light began to radiate from his skin, an impossible combination of bright gold and deep blue that pulsed in rhythm with his heart that continued beating miraculously. The light intensified until everyone in the room had to shield their eyes.
And then, they appeared.
First there were lines of light that formed over Alexander's face, as if something was being drawn by invisible hands. The lines solidified, becoming a mask that materialized directly on his skin.
It was a death mask, the type that ancient Egyptians put on the faces of their gods when they died. But this one was different. The design was clearly that of Sekhmet, a goddess who had never appeared and who was said that when she did, it was a sign of chaos—the goddess of chaos and war—with her characteristic feline features and golden ornaments.
But there was something more. Blue horns extended from the temples of the mask, curving backward in a design that no one recognized. They weren't Egyptian, they weren't from any god they knew.
"What is that?" whispered Dr. Chen.
No one had an answer. The mask radiated a power that was palpable, filling the room with an energy that made the air itself vibrate. And no one—absolutely no one—could approach Alexander now.
Every time someone tried to take a step toward the bed, an invisible force pushed them back. It was as if something was actively protecting Alexander's body from any external interference.
"We can't do anything," said Kaius, his voice filled with a mixture of awe and fear. "Whatever is happening, it's beyond anything I can understand."
Sara got as close as she could to the bed, tears running down her cheeks. "Alex, I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry for not believing you."
The mask didn't respond, but the golden and blue lights continued pulsing, as if something inside Alexander's body was awakening after a millennial sleep.
And somewhere, in a dimension that existed between dream and reality, between life and death, Alexander began to remember things he had forgotten since the moment of his birth.