The first thing Alex felt was the taste of blood.
It clung to his lips, warm, metallic, heavy. He opened his eyes slowly. His vision was dull, washed in grey. Pain pressed down on him, not sharp, but crushing, like something vast was holding him in place.
Someone was holding him.
Arms wrapped tightly around his body, shaking. She knelt in ash, her knees stained red, rocking slightly as if refusing to let go. Dirt covered her face. Tears cut through it in uneven lines. Her voice was broken, worn down from calling his name again and again.
"Don't," she whispered. "Please… don't leave me."
Alex tried to speak.
His lips parted.
Blood slipped out instead.
His hands didn't move.
---
Ciara leaned down and pressed her lips to his.
The kiss wasn't gentle.
It was desperate.
Something passed between them.
A pulse.
---
Her body jerked.
Ciara pulled back suddenly, eyes wide, breath caught.
"Alex…?"
Then she screamed.
Her back arched as her muscles locked. Dark veins spread under her skin, rising along her neck like cracks forming through stone. Her heartbeat, Alex could hear it.
Then stopped.
For a moment
Then it started again.
Slower.
Heavier
---
Alex let out a final breath.
His head turned slightly to the side. His body went still.
No movement.
No sound.
---
But Ciara was still breathing.
"CIARA!"
Jack's voice cut through the silence.
He staggered toward them, his armour broken, blood covering his arms. One eye was swollen, barely open. He reached them—
And stopped.
He felt it.
A sharp burn at his neck.
His fingers moved to it, touching the wound.
Something inside him reacted.
---
Alex lay motionless in Ciara's arms.
Jack dropped to one knee, his breath breaking as heat spread through his body. His veins tightened. His vision warped.
He growled under his breath.
His body was changing.
---
Elsewhere—
A hall of black stone stood silent under silver fire.
Two figures watched.
Sia stood before the Mirror of Worlds. Hades stood beside her, still and pale.
"They're breaking," Sia said quietly. "Cracked by something they were never meant to carry."
Hades didn't look away from the mirror. "Mortals weren't meant to touch the divine. Even a fragment is enough."
The mirror shifted.
It showed the battlefield.
Alex still.
Ciara changed.
Jack collapses under the weight of his own body.
---
Sia's expression softened slightly.
Not kindness.
"One of ours already suffers below," she said. "And the God of War still lives."
"We can end it," Hades replied. "Send a few gods. Burn it out before it spreads."
"No."
Her voice didn't rise.
It didn't need to.
---
She turned from the mirror.
Her shadow stretched behind her.
"Every death. Every change. Every fall, comes to me in the end."
---
She began to walk away.
"Let them fight."
Her voice stayed calm.
"Let them rise."
Each step echoed.
"Let them fall."
---
She stopped.
A faint smile touched her face.
"In the end," she said quietly,
"Death always wins."
---