"We need to move. Now."
Hades was already pulling Aria to her feet. Cerberus had shifted back to human form, his eyes scanning the horizon where three separate forces were converging.
"We can't outrun all three," Cerberus said. "Not in our current state."
He was right. The absorption had drained them, even distributed through the bond. Aria could barely stand, let alone fight or flee.
"Then we don't run," Aria said. "We negotiate."
Both men stared at her.
"Negotiate?" Hades' tone was incredulous. "With three armies that all want us dead or captured?"
"Not all of them want us dead." Aria's mind raced, the absorbed power giving her strange clarity. "The council's army—they're following orders, but they're still technically loyal to you. Heaven's forces... they're probably here to assess the situation, not attack. Yet."
"And Erebus?"
"Erebus definitely wants us dead. So we deal with him first, then handle the others."
Through the bond, she felt Hades' analytical mind working through the logistics. Cerberus' more straightforward approach: fight everything, sort it out later.
"It could work," Hades admitted. "If we time it perfectly. If we can turn the council's forces to our side before Heaven makes a move—"
"We stand a chance," Aria finished. "Or we die spectacularly. Coin flip, really."
"I hate that I'm agreeing with this plan," Cerberus muttered.
"Get used to disappointment," Aria said. "Now help me stand up straight. Can't negotiate from my knees."
They positioned themselves on a ridge, making themselves visible to all three approaching forces.
Within minutes, the armies arrived, surrounding them from three sides.
To the east: Erebus' forces—thousands of corrupted demons, twisted creatures, and bound souls. Erebus himself stood at the front, his perfect face split in a terrible smile.
To the west: The council's army, led by Bael and what remained of Hades' generals. They looked uncertain, weapons drawn but not actively threatening.
To the south: The angels.
Aria had never seen angels before. They were beautiful and terrifying—beings of pure light and absolute conviction, armored in brilliance that hurt to look at. At their head, a figure that blazed brighter than the rest.
"That's Michael," Hades said quietly. "The Archangel. Commander of Heaven's Host."
"Fantastic," Aria muttered. "No pressure."
The three forces stopped, maintaining distance from each other as much as from the triad.
Erebus spoke first, his voice carrying across the wastes: "The little triad, cornered at last. How poetic."
"We're not cornered," Aria called back. "We're exactly where we want to be."
"Brave words from someone who can barely stand."
"Stance is overrated. Power is what matters." She let silver fire dance across her fingers. "And we have plenty of that."
Michael's voice cut through, radiant and cold: "Hades, Lord of the Underworld. You have violated ancient law. Created a soul triad involving a mortal. Destabilized the realms. Heaven demands you submit to judgment."
"Heaven can demand whatever it wants," Hades said. "I answer to no authority but my own."
"Pride," Michael said. "Your eternal flaw."
"Self-determination," Hades corrected. "There's a difference."
Bael stepped forward from the council's forces. "Lord Hades. The council requires proof that the triad is stable. That you're not a threat to the realm."
"We've already proven that," Cerberus snarled.
"Have you?" Bael's expression was unreadable. "Or have you simply hidden the instability well?"
Aria felt the trap closing. Three sides, three demands, all of them impossible to satisfy simultaneously.
They're coordinating, Hades thought. This isn't coincidence. Someone arranged this confrontation.
The traitor, Cerberus added. They wanted us here, surrounded, with no escape.
Then we give them what they expect, Aria thought back. A demonstration of power. But not the kind they're anticipating.
What are you planning?
Trust me.
She felt their hesitation, then their acceptance. The bond pulsed with warmth.
Aria stepped forward, putting herself between all three armies.
"You all want proof," she said, her voice carrying with unnatural clarity. "Proof that we're stable. That we're not a threat. That the triad was the right choice."
"Yes," Michael said.
"Agreed," Bael added.
Erebus just smiled, waiting.
"Then here's your proof." Aria raised her hands, and the Heart's power responded. "A triad isn't just three souls bound together. It's a new kind of existence. A balance between mortal and divine, between control and chaos, between every impossible thing we were told couldn't coexist."
Silver light began to build around her.
"You're afraid we'll upset the order of things," she continued. "That we'll break the rules, shatter the boundaries, remake reality according to our will."
The light intensified, spreading to encompass Hades and Cerberus.
"And you're right to be afraid. Because that's exactly what we're going to do."
She released the power.
But not as an attack. As a revelation.
The light exploded outward, washing over all three armies. And in that light, everyone saw what the triad really was.
They saw Aria's mortal determination, her refusal to break even when everything said she should. They saw Hades' ancient grief transformed into something like hope. They saw Cerberus' wild passion tempered by fierce loyalty.
And they saw the bond itself—not a weapon, not a tool, but a living thing. Love made tangible. Choice made permanent. Three souls saying "us" instead of "me" and meaning it with every fiber of their existence.
The light faded.
Silence.
Then, from the council's forces, someone dropped their weapon. Then another. Then dozens.
"The triad is stable," Bael said, his voice filled with wonder. "More than stable. It's... perfect."
Michael's expression was harder to read. "Perfect by whose definition?"
"By its own," Bael said. "Don't you see? They're not following Heaven's rules or Hell's. They're creating something new. Something that doesn't need our approval or our fear."
"Heresy," Michael said flatly.
"Evolution," Bael countered.
The two locked eyes across the wasteland.
Erebus, watching this unfold, began to laugh. "Oh, this is delicious. Heaven and Hell arguing over whether to embrace or destroy change. While I..." He raised his hand. "I'll simply destroy them all and let Chaos sort it out."
Dark energy erupted from his palm, aimed directly at Aria.
Everything happened at once.
Hades materialized in front of her, his blade catching the blast. Cerberus charged in beast form, three heads roaring. The council's forces moved to protect their lord. Michael's angels shifted, uncertain who to engage.
And Aria, still glowing with residual power, saw the opening.
Now! she sent through the bond. The cathedral structure—it's connected to Erebus. If we sever that connection—
We cut him off from Chaos' power, Hades finished. But we'd need to reach it.
Leave that to me.
Aria closed her eyes and did something insane.
She teleported.
Not her body—that stayed with Hades and Cerberus. But her consciousness, riding the pathways of power that connected everything in Hell, shot across miles in an instant to the bone cathedral.
She could see the vortex up close now. See the way it pulsed, fed by thousands of dying souls. See the chains of dark magic linking it to Erebus.
And she could see something else. Something Erebus had hidden even from his own forces.
The vortex wasn't just opening a passage to Chaos. It was opening a passage from Chaos. And something was already coming through.
"Oh no," Aria breathed.
A hand—if you could call it that—emerged from the vortex. It was made of unmaking itself, reality screaming as it touched the physical realm.
Chaos wasn't being summoned.
It was being born.
And Erebus wasn't its servant.
He was its father.
Aria snapped back to her body, gasping.
"It's a trap!" she shouted. "All of it! The armies, the confrontation, everything! Erebus wanted us here, wanted us to fight each other, because while we're distracted—"
The ground shook. Not an earthquake. Something worse.
From the direction of the cathedral, a sound erupted. A scream that was