The first light after the Blood Moon was pale and hollow a sun that seemed afraid to rise over the ashes of what had been revealed. The Covenant had been sealed, but with it came a silence that weighed on the air like mourning.
Black Jesus stood at the edge of the broken temple, the crimson dust of the night still clinging to his robes. Beneath his feet, the old sigils still pulsed faintly a reminder that power once given could not be unmade. The whispers of the ancestors echoed through the cracks of the earth. "You are the balance… or the blade."
He had seen visions in the blood moon cities burning, faces he loved dissolving into smoke. But the clearest image was of a place called Kiros, the City of Shadows. The prophecy said whoever walked through its gates would see the truth of his soul… or be consumed by it.
He began the journey alone. The others Miriam, Ezra, and the boy prophet Dami had gone into hiding after the Covenant. The king's men were already hunting them. The cult of the White Sun had declared him an abomination, a false savior born under a cursed moon.
But something followed him on the road.
At dusk, the wind began to carry voices — soft, broken laughter that crawled into his mind. When he looked back, the dust twisted into shapes: children without eyes, soldiers made of ash, women with mouths stitched shut. The shadows of those who had died believing in him.
By nightfall, he reached the gates of Kiros. The city shimmered like a mirage — towers of black glass reflecting nothing, streets lined with fire that gave no heat. A figure waited for him there — cloaked, unmoving, face hidden beneath a veil of gold chains.
"You have come," the figure said, voice both male and female. "The Covenant lives in you now. But tell me, son of the red moon do you still know who you are?"
Black Jesus did not answer. The chain around his neck forged from the blood moon's light began to glow faintly.
"I came to find the truth," he said. "Not the gods' lies, not the church's poison. My truth."
The figure laughed softly, the sound like breaking glass.
"Then step inside, and may your truth not destroy you."
As he crossed the threshold, the city came alive. Statues turned their heads. The shadows grew teeth. And the first test of his new power began — not against men, but against the memories of his own sins.
To be continued.....
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