Darkness.
A dense and absolute emptiness. Cale was floating in this nothingness, lost between existence and oblivion. The pain still reverberated in his mind, a cruel memory that he could not dispel. He was adrift, torn apart in body and soul. Slowly, he felt something different. A subtle change, a golden light that flickered in the distance, like a flame about to go out.
A sound echoed through that vastness 一 the ticking of a clock, slow and deep. Each beat seemed to resonate in his bones.
Suddenly, the emptiness began to transform. Fragments of glass floated around him, reflecting distorted images: the face of Nuria smiling cruelly, Alinys' terrified expression, the cold eyes of Krynt looking at him with contempt, his father's hand extended to try to save him; Aries' kiss;
He wanted to scream, but his throat was dry. He wanted to run away, but there was nowhere to run. He wanted to return to the warmth of the one he loves.
"Open your eyes, Cale Arkalis."
A soft light broke through the darkness, shimmering like a golden thread in the fabric of nothingness. Gradually, the light took shape. A female figure, ethereal and translucent, appeared wrapped in floating veils, which seemed made of pure stellar light. Her hair shone like golden threads, and in her delicate hands a needle of light flickered.
She was sewing.
Cale tried to move, but realized he couldn't. He was suspended, his limbs floating around the trunk, connected to him by golden threads that the woman was skillfully intertwining.
At each given point, a feeling of warmth filled his veins, as if a new energy was being injected into his soul. He watched, fascinated and terrified, as his arms and legs were restored. Not with ordinary flesh, but with something deeper, older.
With each movement of the needle, complex symbols were traced on his skin 一 light patterns that solidified into elegant and symmetrical tattoos. They were not scars, but marks of power, containing a mysterious symbol: a stylized hourglass surrounded by stars.
"Who are you?"
The woman did not answer. She just continued her work, silent and concentrated, as if weaving her own destiny.
Cale no longer felt the pain of lost limbs. The agony that had consumed him seemed to have been left behind, trapped in another reality. But the emptiness offered no consolation. It was an emptiness full of echoes, distorted memories, voices that no longer existed.
Alinys... Mother... Father... Aries.
The memory of his sister and Aries trying to save him, cut his torpor through the darkness like a cold blade. A knot tightened in his throat, even without having a body to feel it.
"Why am I still here?" your voice echoed without sound.
Then a light appeared. A small golden flame in the distance, pulsating softly. It grew, spreading like a rising sun, pushing the darkness away. The light was pure and serene, bringing with it a heat that did not burn, just comforted. And from it came a voice 一 deep, old, full of wisdom.
"Cale Arkalis."
The name reverberated through all empty space, filling every particle of existence.
Cale tried to answer, but his ethereal form did not seem to correspond to the desire. Even so, the light seemed to understand.
"Your time froze, the gears of this world stopped working. Poor child, adored by the Universe."
The light intensified, and then a distinct figure emerged. A being wrapped in light cloaks, with a pocket watch swinging from a chain attached to his waist. His face looked slightly familiar, but Cale could not rescue the memory accurately. But the seriousness in his countenance had some impact on him. As if he was able to see all its secrets, its weaknesses and fears.
That being was sitting on his throne, watching Cale with deep purple eyes like the stars, similar to Cale.
"What is this place... What happened... who are you", Cale's thoughts ran loose, transmitting your ethereal voice through that wide space.
"Child blessed by the Universe, it seems that not even fools could end your fate."
His body burned in anger. His teeth clenched. He wanted to clench his fists, but he doesn't even have his arms. Yet Cale felt as if he could strain every muscle in his body in pure anger, to hear that over and over again.
Blessed.
Blessed!
"I am not blessed!!! How could it? I'm dead, damn it!!! And all for what? What did I do to deserve death? Damn it!!!"
The two ethereal beings watched Cale's emotional explosion in silence. No sign of discomfort, it was as if they expected such a reaction. Only when the cursing finally ceased, did that being on throne speak again.
"I see you know nothing. All right, child... You are entitled to three questions before leaving this world definitively. Be wise."
The hesitation became apparent in Cale's expression. He looked at the female figure that continued to sew his body, and then again faced the other being. Perhaps that was the afterlife? If it was, then would that mean he's dead? But Cale didn't want to know about it, he was afraid of the answer.
Fear still haunted him.
Three questions... three chances to understand what led him there. His mind turned, desperately seeking answers. Who knows so could have peace at least before dying definitively.
"What curse have they cast on me?"
The ethereal being tilted his head, the ticking of the clock exalted silence. It was as if he gave time for Cale to think well and change his mind about his question, but the boy kept staring at him anxious to know.
There are three curses residing in your body currently. The curse of weakness, which makes your body weak like a human; the curse of limitation, which prevents you from developing your abilities as demigod and"the being sighed, supporting his chin on the palm, "the curse of cowardice, that makes you fear absolutely any divine being who is stronger than you."
Cale felt the air rarefied of emptiness tighten even more, as if the being's words were to thread invisible around his chest. Three curses. Not one, but three. The revelation hit him with the force of a punch in the stomach, taking his breath that he did not have. Each of them, a brutal explanation for the flaws that he always considered his own shortcomings.
Weakness, limitation and cowardice... They were impositions, not failures.
The anger, before diffuse, began to solidify, concentrating in a burning point within his ethereal soul. The humiliation of a lifetime, the certainty of being a "pathetic demigod", everything was rewritten in his mind, turning into a colossal injustice.
Nuria's words haunt his mind again: "the gods of Keonna have cursed you. Of course, I too". The despair and anger grew in his chest, making him feel foolish to be lost in a field he was completely unaware of. Innocence was a veil thicker than he had imagined.
"Who cursed me?"
As before, the ethereal being waited for a few seconds making sure that Cale was right about his second question. However, his warm body, the look with burning fury and rancor, seemed to grow yearning for answers. The golden light around the ethereal being pulsed, as if reality itself was contorted with the answer.
"Three gods of Keonna: Nuria, the god of chaos has cursed him with cowardice because he feels pleasure in the dread of his prey."
Each word of the Time God seemed to unfold in echoes, as if he was speaking in multiple timelines at the same time. Fragments of Cale's memory — events he had never experienced — danced briefly at the edge of his consciousness.
That was obvious, Cale imagined. During all the time he was tortured by Nuria, he smiled like a maniac and had fun making him scream. The more pain, the more blood... the more Nuria had fun.
Biting his lips, Cale was even more frustrated. He stared at the ethereal being and waited for the rest of the answer.
"The one who cursed him with limitation was Krynt; and the curse of weakness was imposed by Ruen, the goddess of celestial harmony."
Krynt's name did not cause surprise, just a bitter confirmation of the betrayal he had already experienced. But Ruen... Ruen! The wife of Ereghast, the Goddess of Celestial Harmony. Cale's mind staggered with an incongruity. How could the goddess of harmony curse anyone, especially the child of a lesser god?
The anger that filled him began to mix with a sense of outrage and a cold confusion. It was not only cruelty, it was a deep hypocrisy that shocked his ethereal being. The world, which he already perceived as unfair, now revealed layers of depravity that Cale never imagined.
"Why?" he muttered, feeling the steaming anger heating up his body completely. "Why the hell would they do that to me?"
"Is that your third question?"
"Tell me!!"
The fire of anger bubbled inside him, fighting against the ice of fear. He wanted to scream, destroy something — anything. But the voice that echoed in his mind, whispering his powerlessness, was unbearably high. 'Why?' he repeated, as if the question was an anchor in the midst of chaos.
The female figure cut the thread that sewed Cale's right leg. With each movement of the needle, it seemed not only to restore Cale's body, but also to strengthen the invisible bonds of his soul with time itself. She raised her misty eyes to the other ethereal being and smiled mysteriously before starting work on Cale's arm.
"Because you are loved by the Universe. Your existence threatens the fragile balance that the gods struggle to maintain. Instead of embracing what you represent, as Ereghast did, they feared. And in their fear, they found an excuse to destroy it."
The truth struck him like lightning. It was not a failure. It was a gift. A blessing so powerful that the gods, in their arrogance and fear, tried to crush it. Cale was not a mistake; it was a threat to his power. The epiphany was overwhelming, turning his anger from impotence into rage with purpose.
Every humiliation, every mockery, every blow, everything was resented. They did not hate him for being weak, but for being too strong, for being something they could not control or understand. The shock was so deep that, for a moment, the emptiness itself seemed to vibrate with the magnitude of the revelation.
Cale felt as if the ground had collapsed under his feet. He was not to blame for his failures, for his cowardice. He was a mistake in the eyes of the gods, a problem to be eliminated.
Anger bubbled inside him, a flame that grew stubbornness.
The being backed away, observing each reaction of Cale.
"Now, answer my only question: do you want to come back to life?"
Cale stared at him confused.
"For what? To be tortured again? To be hunted by these damned gods?"
"To bring the balance to the world that the gods are breaking with their arrogance", the ethereal being got up from his throne and walked slowly to Cale and the female figure who worked on his seam. "You can hide in death, or you can fight to change size fulfilling their destiny."
Cale looked into the eyes of that ethereal being, his own reflection multiplied in the purple depths. He knew what it meant to accept 一 was to give up peace, final rest, and plunge into a war that he never wanted.
Did not want to return to have to deal with such petulance of the gods. Only that he wanted to go back to his family, who apparently would be the only one to love and protect him. This made him more and more confused.
"You should look for someone more capable of confronting these gods than a cursed coward."
"I believe I have misunderstood something here, Cale Arkalis", The being crouched in front of Cale's mutilated body, and leaned enough so that the two pairs of purple eyes met, "I am the guardian of time, the one who serves the Voice of the Universe. If I say that the Universe has blessed you and expected a fate for you, then you will have absolutely everything you need to do it."