[Heavens Above Ashraya – The Rift Expands]
The skies split open—not like a storm, but like a memory being torn back into reality.
What emerged wasn't a creature… but a presence.
Vast. Ancient. Shaped like nothing known.
It didn't walk. It hovered, wrapped in veils of living starlight.
They were the Agnatara—the Forgotten Race.
The first children of the Supreme Being… before even the goddesses were born.
And now, they remembered him.
---
[Flame Caverns – Ground Below the Rift]
Ash looked up calmly.
Reyansh, still weak, shielded his eyes. "What… what are those things?"
Ash answered quietly.
> "My first creations."
> "The ones I sealed away when they refused to stop devouring galaxies."
From the rift descended a single figure—humanoid, but woven from equations, colorless fire, and memory.
It knelt before Ash.
> "Creator. The Seal is broken."
> "Shall we begin again?"
Ash's face darkened. "No."
> "This time… I will not erase existence."
The Agnatara tilted its head.
> "Then what shall we devour?"
Ash raised a hand. "Nothing."
> "You will wait."
The being trembled.
> "We are hunger incarnate."
Ash's aura flared. "And I am your father. Obey."
The Agnatara vanished—obeying, but not happily.
---
[Truth Chamber – Below the Rift]
The goddesses watched in silence.
Even Void, the most emotionless, whispered:
> "The Agnatara… still live?"
Akarshan turned to her. "You knew?"
She nodded. "We thought he destroyed them. He didn't."
Shivam added, "He couldn't. Because part of him… is them."
Shiv looked at Akarshan. "Then what now?"
Before anyone could answer, the flame of the chamber dimmed—
And a new voice echoed across the planes:
> "My brother awakens…"
> "Then so must I."
---
[Unknown Location – Edge of the Universe]
A black temple crumbled.
And from its depths rose a being draped in silence.
He was the Second Fragment—cast away in the first cosmic war.
His name had been lost… but soon, all would remember.
Because he, too, was once Supreme.
And unlike Ash… he never forgave.
---