The divine radiance of Eseria, Goddess of Light, swept across the battlefield like a storm of dawn, blinding and absolute. Her voice resounded—gentle, yet sharp as a blade:
"Bellatus. God of Destruction. Why do you stand in my way?"
The words were neither threat nor plea. They were simply truth, spoken with the weight of eternity.
Bellatus should have answered with silence, as he always did. He should have turned his back and walked away, as he had done for countless ages. Yet his hand tightened around the burning stone in his pocket.
He could not ignore it.
The human child's face rose unbidden in his mind—eyes as wide as the sky, lips curving as though to say something, though he could not remember what. The image pierced him more deeply than any divine blade could.
For the first time, Bellatus hesitated.
Eseria's light flared brighter, sensing his faltering. The gods who watched from afar would never believe such a thing—Bellatus, wavering before another. It was unthinkable.
"That child…" the words escaped him, gravelly and foreign upon his tongue.He had not spoken in millennia, yet the sound pushed through his chest.
Eseria's gaze sharpened. "The child of fate. You would defy me for her?"
Bellatus did not answer. Perhaps he had no answer. He only knew that when her radiance surged forward, he stepped into its path, shielding the frail thread of life trembling behind him.
The light seared him. It scorched his armor, shattered the ground beneath his feet, tore at his very essence. Yet still he stood.
Not for war.Not for destruction.But because, inexplicably, he could not allow that fragile light to be extinguished.
In the silence that followed, the crimson mist around his fortress stirred violently. The land itself seemed to reel, as if unable to comprehend the god who had broken his own law of indifference.
When the light faded, Bellatus remained upright, his body trembling with wounds that would never heal. His fist still clenched the burning stone, its glow dimming, but alive.
He knew nothing of love. Nothing of compassion. But as he stared into the vast emptiness, one truth carved itself into his being:
This child—this fragile human girl—had unsettled him.Twice now, she had torn him from his eternal cycle.
And so, in the desolation of the ruined world, the God of Destruction clenched his jaw and whispered to himself a vow no other god would ever hear:
"I will find you."