Ava could feel the life draining from her with every second as the leeching creatures tore at her flesh, their monstrous fangs puncturing her skin like it was nothing. Her face turned deathly pale, and her breath came in shallow gasps. She could no longer scream; her throat was raw, her voice stolen by the agony. Her vision blurred, reduced to flickers of shadows and grotesque faces. Blood soaked the stone floor beneath her, her once vibrant body now limp and helpless. The grotesque beings feeding off her were relentless, their hunger insatiable as they siphoned the sacred energy from her veins.
Then everything faded to black.
She collapsed like a rag doll, lifeless. Unknowing. Forgotten.
Yet amidst this brutality, Lyon stood unmoved.
The man who called himself her father—Lyon—watched it all with a face as cold as marble, his expression unreadable. No trace of concern, no flinch of remorse. Nothing. Only his eyes moved—fixed, not on Ava's suffering, but on the figures stirring in the center of the summoning chamber. They were changing. Morphing. Their hideous forms slowly sculpted into beings of divine, dreadful beauty. The seven gods—ancient, vengeful, ethereal.
Still, Lyon remained composed, turning instead toward Aaron, his partner in sacrilege.
"What do you think happens now?" Lyon said in a low voice, almost a whisper, laced with venom. "And our deal… don't test me, Aaron. Betray me, and you'll regret it."
Aaron chuckled darkly, brushing dust off his sleeves. "Regret? Oh Lyon, regret is for mortals. What I'm about to become... is beyond regret." He turned, patting Lyon's shoulder mockingly. "You'll have your protection. Your power. And I'll have my dominion."
The air in the chamber thickened. Shadows stretched unnaturally along the cracked stone walls. Aaron's phone glinted in his hand, already drafting the next wave of manipulation, the next step in his masterplan. He'd wanted to use Ava, believed her to be the key to unlocking power from the gods. But the way she was killed—like a lamb to the slaughter—left him questioning her significance. Maybe she was just a vessel. A mistake.
Then came the voice.
"Who dares release I, the Great God of the Sea?"
A towering figure emerged fully from the summoning circle. His hair was a cascade of blue silk, eyes the color of deep ocean trenches, his robe rippling like a living river. This was Dagon—the Sea Wielder, the Ocean Monarch.
As Dagon surveyed the room with disdain, the remaining six gods crept from the summoning runes, their transformations complete. Each one bore otherworldly features—terrifying, handsome, and divine. A celestial army reborn.
Lyon felt the weight of their presence instantly, his knees buckling slightly. These were no minor deities—they were the last immortals of Mount Olympus, the final remnants of a pantheon destroyed five centuries ago.
"Your grace," Lyon said, falling to his knees, trembling before the gods. "We freed you from your prison... that cursed realm the gods placed you in. Now, by your mercy, we ask for our reward."
Dagon said nothing at first. His sea-blue eyes shimmered with menace as he studied the blood-spattered floor and the girl lying dead in the center. Then he laughed—a cold, monstrous echo that reverberated through the chamber.
"Where is the goddess Avery?" he demanded, his voice thunderous, eyes now hollow and black like the deepest sea.
Aaron stepped forward hastily. "She's the one lying there. Her blood was the key. We used her to bring you back."
Dagon's face twisted into a mask of fury.
"No…" he murmured. "That is not the goddess Avery."
From the shadows, a serpentine figure slithered forward—glittering scales shifting beneath his skin, not fully snake, not fully man. His eyes glowed with a blinding white light that scorched the very air.
"You idiots," the Snake God snarled. "Avery cannot be killed. She is the most powerful celestial to ever exist. If that girl is dead, she was never Avery to begin with. But then… how did we return? Only she could unlock our prison."
He hissed, moving toward Ava's body, sniffing the air like a predator. "Something is wrong."
Then he paused, his eyes narrowing.
"There's a calamity coming," he hissed. "Someone… someone with our bloodline. But tainted—mixed with the blood of witches. A being backed by the Torch of Light. He's coming. And when he does, he'll annihilate everything in his path."
Aaron's heart skipped. "You mean Asher?" he whispered, horrified. "That mortal boy?"
The Snake God's didn't respond but he raised his hands and a figure appeared in the air in the form of a mist.
It was Lamia Alexandria figure.
But Aaron has no idea who he was.
Aaron panicked. His empire—his school, his world—was crumbling. "Please!" he begged. "Help me defend my school. Ward off this attack. I'll serve you, do anything! Let me be like you… make me a god!"
Aaron pleaded, once again scheming to climb up the ladder of being a god and an immortal.
Dagon raised his hand, hesitating. But before he could speak, the ground trembled.
The walls cracked. The runes on the floor glowed violently. A strange wind howled through the chamber, lifting rubble and ash. And in the center—where Ava had once lain dead—her body began to rise.
Suspended in midair, her limbs moved like a puppet pulled by invisible strings. Her hair, once matted with blood, billowed like wildfire. Around her, the air pulsed with a glowing, supreme energy—ancient and dangerous.
Aaron stumbled backward. "She was dead! What's happening?!"
Lyon's mouth fell open.
"She's… awakening," he murmured.
The gods, too, watched silently, until the Snake God stepped forward, eyes flaring.
"You entity! You dare return?" he spat. "Then we shall cage you again. Drain every essence from your soul until you are but dust."
He summoned a storm of green lightning, a beam of divine energy so powerful the walls melted around its path. It struck Ava dead-on.
Or so he thought.
The light vanished—and Ava's eyes opened.
Green at first.
Then gold.
Brilliant, blinding gold.
A voice boomed—so powerful, the chamber cracked, and stone blocks tumbled like leaves.
"I guess I didn't do you justice the first time," Ava said, her voice layered with divine resonance. "But that was my mistake."
The gods recoiled. Dagon's jaw tightened. Aaron collapsed.
"So now it's time to die."
But before she could strike, everything froze—and Ava was plunged into a memory.
She stood alone on a collapsing snake bridge, darkness yawning beneath her. She was trembling, exhausted, ready to fall into oblivion. But then… light.
A radiant being appeared.
"Do you know who you are, Ava Gonzalez?" the figure asked. Her voice was serene, her long golden hair cascading in celestial waves. "You were born to guide the divine being. To protect the one who will rise. Take him to Volantis—the City of Ascension—where he shall take the Silver Throne and be reborn."
The woman's eyes shimmered like stars.
"I am Goddess Avery. And you, Ava, are my reincarnation."
Ava fell to her knees, tears streaming. "I was tortured. Betrayed. Killed. How am I supposed to forgive them? How do I go on?"
"Because," Avery replied, kneeling beside her, "you're more powerful than even I was. But only when you let go—of the pain, the anger. You need your friends, Ava. Rose. Asher. All of them. You must band together. The witches are hunting the last dragons. If they succeed, they will become immortal… and all will be lost."
Ava nodded slowly. "I understand."
"Then rise," Avery whispered. "Embrace your truth."
Back in the chamber, Ava opened her eyes again—now glowing like the sun. Her feet never touched the ground. She hovered like an avenging spirit, her power shaking the foundations of the earth itself.
"I forgive them," she said softly. "But you I won't do that."
Then, with a whisper of power, her body flared with golden light, and the chamber erupted into chaos.
Dagon charged, but Ava caught him mid-air and flung him like a rag doll. The Snake God tried to summon his lightning, but it fizzled against her aura. One by one, the gods attacked.