The war was over put peace didn't follow. It just… stopped.
The Sandstorm Desert had gone mute. The sky, still painted in that unnatural hue of frost, no longer screamed. The invaders had been reduced to memories buried beneath collapsed dunes, silenced in the very wasteland they tried to claim.
And yet, for all that loss, for all that scorched ruin stretching to every corner of the horizon… no one was celebrating.
There were no voices raised in relief. No laughter, no drums, no divine choirs mourning or praising. Just the uneasy quiet that follows a storm too brutal to be forgotten.
Because she was coming. And they all knew.
They felt her before they saw her. Something was approaching, something massive, something heavy enough that even gods bowed to its presence.
Narisva Starisnova.
She was almost four meters tall. Her Divine Transformation cast a long, cold shadow across the broken sands, dimming the remnants of the eclipse behind her.
And in her arms was Vastarael Richinaria.
There was an eerie beauty in the way he rested against her. His body wasn't mangled or torn. There were no gory wounds, no blood-soaked armor. His outfit still clung to him, cracked and faded, and though his glaive was nowhere to be seen, it didn't matter.
He looked like someone who had died not from defeat.
Narisva held him like something sacred. She didn't stride like a conqueror returning from battle. She walked slowly. Her arms cradled him as if letting go would shatter the illusion that he might still breathe if she just believed hard enough.
The others were already there. And when they saw him…
They broke.
Phaenora saw his face and just collapsed. She dropped to her knees. She tried to scream. Her mouth opened, her chest heaved violently but her voice refused to emerge. She reached for him and ouched his cheek with fingertips that trembled like a dying flame.
And then she sobbed.
Elyonari Mintheris was next. She didn't cry right away. She just stood there, stiff, her emerald eyes locked on the body as if maybe she could Will it back to life. Her Divine robes flickered with the energy of the World Tree, vines wrapping up her limbs like serpents trying to contain her unraveling.
Then her lips parted.
"Why…?"
And that was it.
The vines surrounding her began to wither. They browned and cracked and collapsed at her feet like they too had given up. She dropped beside Phaenora, clutched her chest like something inside was clawing to escape, and just repeated it again.
"Why him…?"
The question had no answer.
Shimmer and Runner didn't move for a long time.
They stood side by side, hands clasped tightly between them. Neither dared let go. Not now. Not when the man who'd taken them in was lying still in the arms of a being who barely looked alive herself.
Shimmer stepped forward first. She knelt, reached out with fingers so delicate it looked like she was afraid to hurt him. She ran them through his crimson hair. Then she bowed her head and didn't rise again.
Runner didn't say anything. She didn't cry. She didn't even blink. She simply walked up to her sister and wrapped her arms around her.
Adelasta arrived last.
Her hands were clenched into fists so tight they shook. The moment Narisva gently laid Vastarael down, Adelasta moved in. She didn't hesitate. She saw Narisva's towering figure begin to fold in on itself, the Divine Form collapsing as the light retreated into silence. The height diminished and the pressure that had once weighed down the land simply… disappeared.
But what replaced it wasn't a person.
It was a void.
Narisva's skin was white as porcelain, almost translucent. Her movements were too slow like a puppet without strings trying to remember how to move. Her blinking was mechanical. Her breath was shallow. And her eyes… her eyes were gone. The galaxies that once danced inside them had been swallowed whole. What was left behind was black.
Adelasta stopped mid-step. Everything inside her screamed to yell. To demand an answer. To accuse. To destroy.
But when she looked into Narisva's face, all of that rage froze.
That wasn't her.
"Say something."
Narisva didn't even react.
Adelasta stepped closer. "Say his name. Look at me. Say his name, Starisnova."
Nothing.
She slapped her.
The sound cracked through the desert. The impact burst a wave of divine backlash that shattered a lot of dunes and tossed dust into the sky. Phaenora flinched. Elyonari gasped. Shimmer whimpered.
Narisva didn't even blink. She stood, her face tilted slightly from the blow. Then turned her head back slowly.
Adelasta shook. Her lip trembled. Her fists rose again.
"MOVE! Cry! Yell! Do something, dammit!"
Another slap. This one was weaker. Narisva blinked and then turned to look at Vastarael. She walked forward, her feet dragging like a marionette's. She dropped on her knees. She didn't scream. She didn't weep. She just reached out and paced her hand over his.
She sat in the same position, her head bowed slightly, her empty black irises staring into a world that no longer existed.
And then, finally, she spoke.
"He used himself as the conduit."
The words fell from her lips like glass. Phaenora slowly turned her head toward her. Elyonari stepped forward a little, eyes narrowing in both fear and worry.
"My bottleneck was too large. I… I tried. I forced it. I used everything I had. But it wouldn't break. No matter how hard I pushed. The Frozen God was too strong… his ice covered the entire battlefield. It froze intention. My body wanted to move, but my will couldn't reach it. My limbs… my power… nothing listened to me."
Her fingers curled slightly over Vastarael's hand, but her eyes didn't shift. The others listened. Elyonari stepped closer.
"He used his entire soul. His Tether. All of it. He forced his essence into me, like a bridge. He... he made me Divine by burning himself."
Her lips twitched. Tears began to stream from her eyes but her expression didn't change. Not one muscle moved. She looked like a statue crying blood.
"I broke through my bottleneck. I killed the Frozen God. I won. I became a Divine."
Her head finally turned slightly and everyone froze.
There was something horrifying about seeing her like this. The prideful, star-forged Narisva, the cocky celestial was reduced to a girl emptying her soul with no emotion left to anchor it.
"I became Divine… and I lost everything."
And that's when Elyonari, unable to bear another second of it, rushed forward and wrapped her arms around her.
The forest elf didn't ask permission. She didn't say a word. She just pulled her close and held her tight, burying her face into Narisva's shoulder. For a moment, Narisva didn't react. But then, she broke.
It didn't start with a sob. It started with her voice glitching again, followed by her entire form shaking.
She clutched Elyonari, her entire body crumbling into the embrace. Her knees gave out. Her back curled. Her head slammed into Elyonari's shoulder and the sob that came next wasn't just grief.
"I killed him!" she wailed.
It tore the silence apart.
"I used him! I said I would never let anyone die for me and I used him like a tool! I made him burn for me I...I let him—"
She couldn't finish. Her mouth opened wide, gasping like she was drowning in air and she screamed again.
Adelasta turned away, hand covering her mouth, tears falling soundlessly. The ground beneath Narisva's knees cracked.
"I should have died. I wanted to die! But he smiled. He smiled! Even when his bones were breaking, even when his soul was being torn from him, he smiled at me like I was worth it..."
Elyonari held her tighter.
"It wasn't your fault. He chose that. He loved you."
"But I didn't deserve it! I didn't earn him! I only knew how to fight! I didn't even know how to love him right! I never said it back... I never told him what he meant to me. I waited too long!"
The grief pulsed again. A crater formed beneath them from the power of a heart that no longer wanted to beat. Elyonari's vines wrapped around them both, creating a cocoon of warmth.
"I was supposed to protect him," Narisva sobbed. "And all I did… was let him die."
And as she screamed into Elyonari's arms, the others formed a circle around her.