Flames devoured everything.
The sky bled red, the air thick with ash and screams. Towers crumbled one after another as rivers of molten fire carved through what once was a grand city. The heat was suffocating, so intense that even the clouds above were set ablaze.
The POV's body trembled as they stood amidst the ruin, their breath ragged, their heart pounding like a war drum. The ground quaked under every distant roar.
Then came the silence.
A single step echoed through the inferno heavy, deliberate, and divine.
From the smoke emerged a colossal silhouette cloaked in shadows, eyes burning crimson like dying stars. His very presence made reality shatter like glass. The air warped, the flames bent toward him as if bowing in reverence.
The Forgotten God.
The POV's voice broke, trembling.
"Y-you… again…?"
The shadow loomed closer, its voice an otherworldly echo that filled every corner of the burning world.
"You mortals never learn."
The ground split, swallowing the horizon whole. The sky darkened to pitch black, and for a brief moment, the POV could see something else behind the God fragments of faces, memories, laughter, battles, and a single figure with black and red hair, watching from afar.
And then-
"-gh!"
The Sage jolted awake, breath ragged, sweat dripping down his forehead. His hand trembled as he gripped the armrest of his chair. Papers fluttered to the floor, disturbed by the sudden motion.
He blinked rapidly, trying to steady his breathing. The room was quiet only the soft hum of the evening wind brushing against the windows.
"A… dream?" he muttered, rubbing his temples. But the burning smell still lingered faintly in his nose, too vivid to be imagination.
He looked down at his hands faint traces of soot, black as ash, dusted across his fingertips.
"No… not just a dream."
He leaned back, exhaling heavily, his expression darkening.
"Why now? After all these years…"
A name surfaced in his thoughts, unbidden. Mila.
He frowned, gazing out the window where the moon hung over the academy courtyard.
"The moment she appeared… my nightmares returned."
He closed his eyes, and behind his eyelids the Forgotten God's gaze still burned, watching him through the veil of dreams.
"If that being truly lives again…"
"Then none of us are safe."