Seraphina stood alone at the heart of a shattered realm, the remnants of the Soul Abyss falling away into nothingness. Lightning pulsed through the sky like veins, and the world bent around the presence of Him.
The god wasn't what she expected.
He didn't have horns or claws. No monstrous form. No grotesque aura.
He was beautiful.
Terrifyingly so.
Tall, regal, draped in robes stitched with starlight and silence. His crown shifted with the wind, a circlet of broken time and forgotten memories. His eyes… they weren't eyes. They were collapsing stars.
"You're not real," she breathed.
He smiled, and her bones ached.
> "Neither are you. At least, not in the way you think."
---
Scene Break – A Story Rewritten
"I am Aetherion," the god said. "The first scribe. The one who penned the beginning and will seal the end."
Seraphina didn't flinch. She clenched the ring Kaelith had given her tight in her palm.
"You're the reason for all of this," she said. "The lives lost. Kaelith's suffering. My family's ruin."
He tilted his head.
> "No. I merely wrote the possibilities. You chose the outcomes."
"You twisted fate."
"I offered you a role. You embraced it."
She took a step forward.
"Then rewrite it again. Let Kaelith live. Let me—"
Aetherion raised a single hand, and the air warped.
Seraphina was forced to her knees.
> "You don't give commands, girl. You were born a placeholder. A plot device in a saga older than time."
She gasped, struggling to stand.
"But you changed the ending," he murmured, almost fondly. "You ruined the tragedy I designed. Fascinating."
---
Scene Break – The Bargain
Aetherion approached her, footsteps silent on the air itself.
"I will offer you one final bargain," he said, kneeling so they were eye to eye.
His fingers brushed her jaw, and suddenly she saw herself—thousands of versions of herself—burning, begging, breaking.
"All stories must cost something."
"I already paid," she whispered.
"No," Aetherion said gently. "You borrowed."
He placed his hand over the ring in her palm.
> "Use it… and you'll burn the remaining thread of your existence. There will be no coming back. No rebirth. No next life."
"Then so be it."
He stared at her, surprised.
"You would give up your soul… for him?"
She didn't blink.
"I already did."
---
Final Scene – The Flame Begins
The sky cracked a second time. Golden fire licked through the shadows.
The ring pulsed in her hand—then lifted into the air, spinning wildly as ancient glyphs burst from its center.
Aetherion's smile finally faltered.
> "You activated it?"
The ground quaked.
Seraphina rose to her feet, body glowing with the same light she had once used to defy the prophecy.
"I'm not your pawn," she said, voice clear, strong, final.
The ring split into three pieces and shot into her chest, embedding deep into her heart.
Her body convulsed, and a searing wave of power exploded from within her.
The god staggered back.
> "What have you done?"
And Seraphina—bathed in divine flame, eyes white-hot with rebirth—smiled through her tears.
"I'm rewriting everything."