From the ether, I watched Dream's realm stretch perilously thin beneath the pressure of divine fury. The sky cracked. The floating tables of starlight splintered around the edges. The soft, drifting landscapes twisted in pain, unable to withstand what stood inside them.
The Fallen and the gods were seconds from igniting the universe's first war.
Scourge stood with wings half-spread, crimson fissures glowing along his skin like embers waiting for breath. Ellas stood behind him, mortal body trembling but hatred rising like a firestorm.
The gods surrounded them with blazing weapons. The angels hovered above like a silver storm. Destruction-and-Creation flickered in panic. Destiny's threads snapped violently around their hands. Death whispered, "This will end badly…"
But Dream
Dream trembled at the centre of it all, floating like a candle in a hurricane.
Silver spears pointed downward. Shadowfire flickered upward. The tension snapped tighter. The dream realm strained.
Then
Dream screamed.
"ENOUGH!"
The entire realm shook.
Colour imploded into white brilliance. Sound tore itself apart. Every god froze in place, eyes wide with shock. The angels recoiled, wings folding instinctively. Even Scourge paused, head tilting in surprise.
Dream rose higher, its form expanding with desperate celestial force.
"I will not let my realm be your battlefield."
Their voice boomed through the realm, amplified by raw desperation.
"I will not be the first casualty of your war!"I will not let dreams be the soil for your hatred! I will not let my sanctuary be broken!"
The sky screamed with them.
"OUT!"
The dream-realm cracked apart like glass beneath a hammer.
Every god, angel, and fallen creature staggered as the floor beneath them evaporated into blinding light.
Scourge snarled. "Dream! Do not"
But Dream's eyes blazed with power they had never used before.
"OUT OF MY REALM!"
With a single gesture, gentle, desperate, sorrowful Dream released a wave of dreamlight that shattered the entire meeting into dust.
And everything
EVERYTHING
was expelled. Darkness welcomed Scourge like an old lover.
He gasped as he crashed into the molten black stone of his throne room, the throne itself cracking under the force of his return. Shadowfire pulsed around him like a heartbeat, and the jagged throne reformed around him in jagged spikes.
He sat hunched over for a moment, breath ragged, wings twitching.
Then, slowly…
He smiled.
"You try to push a storm," he murmured to himself. "The storm returns harder."
Ellas was gone ejected into another corner of the Below by Dream's desperate banishment. The demons were visible scattered across the Below,
He rose from the throne.
Every crack in his skin glowed brighter. His wings unfurled like tattered banners of war. Shadowfire surged around him in swirling columns of flame.
The Below itself rumbled, recognising its king's awakening fury.
Scourge looked out across his realm a landscape of burning rivers, shattered mountains, and fractured void where the air tasted of ash and raw hatred.
"Dream fears war," Scourge murmured. "The gods fear change."
He lifted a hand. A spear of pure shadowfire erupted into existence.
"But the Elder…"
His grin sharpened.
"The Elder has something worth taking."
The throne behind him cracked further, molten stone dripping like tears.
Scourge began to walk forward, footsteps echoing like war drums. His shadow slithered ahead of him, stretching through the caverns and pits of the Below like a living omen.
"The dreamrealm was not ready for war," Scourge said softly. "But another realm is."
He paused at the centre of his molten hall, raising his spear high.
"Elder," he whispered. "The child of silver and starlight. Bringer of life. Maker of mortals. Protector of weaklings."
The name rolled off his tongue with soft venom.
"I think it's time we knock on YOUR door."
A roar erupted from the depths of the Below.
Demons surged from the cracks horned, clawed, howling, burning with loyalty to the first Fallen. They dropped to their knees around him.
"MY KING!"COMMAND US!"LEAD US!"WE FOLLOW YOU TO THE END!"
Scourge lowered his spear, fire reflecting in his eyes.
"We begin with a message," he said. "A reminder that your creator cannot protect you. A reminder that the Fallen rise."
The demons snarled and roared in savage delight.
Scourge raised the spear higher.
"A strike against the Elder's realm."
The Below shook in approval.
"An attack on the Elder."
The Below screamed with him.
And somewhere far above without knowing it
Elder felt the first tremor of war coming for their gates.