Far above the kingdom, beyond the storm clouds and the reach of mortal eyes, the heavens stirred. A cold wind swept through the endless sea of clouds, parting their white expanse as a deep, ancient hum echoed across the sky, carrying the lingering resonance of the Quartz Cannon into the world above.
The sound traveled higher still.
Beyond the floating clouds...
Beyond the soaring mountain peaks...
Toward a place where history itself gathered in silence.
There, a meeting was already underway.
The air around the obsidian table grew heavy, carrying the sharp scent of ozone and ancient dust. Whatever restraint Zeus had been clinging to finally snapped like a fraying rope.
Ares slammed his fist onto the obsidian table, spiderwebs of fractures racing across its polished surface as a deafening crack echoed through the chamber.
"Fuck the observation!"
Ares roared.
"You're talking about 'observing' while that god-damn piece of shit crystal is cannibalizing the mortal realm! You're acting like this is some fucking celestial board game while our influence—our very reason for existing—is being scraped away like rot from a wound!"
Zeus leaned forward, his overwhelming presence expanding until the chamber itself felt suffocating.
"Watch your tongue, boy,"
He growled.
"I am well aware of what is at stake."
"Are you?"
Ares sneered, pacing around the shattered table as his armor clashed with every furious step.
"Because you sound like a fucking coward. You're afraid of Maelkris. We're all fucking terrified of him, and that's exactly why we're sitting in this godforsaken void while that Quartz bastard grows stronger every second."
Isis goddess of magic never moved, yet the temperature around her dropped until frost crept across the edge of the obsidian table.
"Ares is an idiot,"
She said coldly,
"But he isn't entirely wrong."
Her eyes shifted toward the glowing projection.
"We're paralyzed by the fear of one monster, and in our hesitation, we're allowing another parasitic piece of shit to take root in our own garden."
She raised a hand toward the image as the violet light pulsed like a living heartbeat.
"The God of Quartz is a cancer. He doesn't care about the laws of the pantheons. He doesn't give a single fuck about balance. He only wants to exist again, and he'll burn everything to the ground if that's what it takes."
One of the Greek gods leaned back in his chair, his expression twisted with contempt.
"The Buddhists had the right idea,"
He muttered.
"They walked away because they saw the writing on the wall. They knew this was a lose-lose situation. If we kill the Quartz entity, we attract the Devourer. If we don't, the Quartz entity becomes an unkillable master of the realm."
He let out a bitter laugh.
"Either way... we're the god-damned losers."
Zeus's eyes ignited, blazing with brilliant white lightning.
"I will not have a room full of gods sit here debating the logistics of our own extinction!"
He rose from his throne as arcs of lightning crawled across his body, illuminating the chamber in violent flashes.
"We are not here to decide whether the mortal realm burns."
His gaze swept across every deity seated at the table.
"We are here to decide whether we will be the ones holding the torch... or whether we'll let that fucking parasitic relic do it for us."
His eyes drifted toward the empty seats reserved for the Buddhist delegation.
Their absence spoke louder than any voice in the chamber.
"The Buddhists aren't being wise,"
Zeus spat, genuine hatred sharpening every word.
"They're being fucking cowards. They'd rather watch the universe collapse into nothingness than dirty their hands with reality."
Ares stopped directly in front of the King of Olympus, refusing to lower his gaze.
"So what's the plan, King?"
His voice cut through the chamber like a blade.
"Do we fight... or do we keep our fucking heads down and pray that the Devour of gods doesn't notice us when he finally comes to feed?"
The chamber fell silent.
A crushing pressure settled over the obsidian hall, rattling the ancient pillars as five pantheons stared at one another across the fractured table.
Today, the gods were not rulers of creation.
They were predators trapped inside a shrinking cage...
waiting for the hunter outside to decide when the feast would begin.
The air at the table shifted from tense to suffocating the moment the obsidian surface began to ripple like water.
God of Creationdid not walk into the room; the room simply adjusted to accommodate his presence. He was a figure of heavy, cosmic gravity, his features constantly blurring as if he were a sketch being redrawn by a frantic hand.
By his side stood Seraviel, the Heaven's Fury Knight. His armor was not metal, but a solidified, blinding white atmospheric pressure that made the surrounding gods feel fragile and small.
Ares didn't wait for pleasantries. He stood, his chair clattering to the floor.
"You. You sanctimonious piece of shit."
The Greek pantheon turned as one, their faces twisted in visceral disgust. They didn't fear the Creator's power as much as they loathed his origin. He wasn't one of them; he was the architect who had dared to birth the balance, only to lose control of the scale.
"Careful, Ares,"
Zeus rumbled, his voice low, though he too rose to meet the intruder.
"He isn't here to participate in our council. He is here to witness the wreckage of his own design."
The Creator looked at the table at the gods who ruled the sun, the sea, and the dead—as if they were dust motes in a sunbeam.
"You argue over realms and harvest like scavengers,"
Creator said. His voice didn't come from his mouth; it vibrated from the very structure of the room.
"You speak of the 'God of Quartz' as if he is an enigma. He is a result. A result of the vacuum left behind by my failures."
Isis narrowed her eyes, her voice cold.
"Your failures? You mean the one you keep locked away? The one you chose to bring into existence?"
The room went deathly quiet. Every god there knew the history: the Creator had fashioned two sons—two pillars meant to uphold the cycle of all things.
One was the light, the sustainer; the other was the shadow, the pruning tool that had been designed to keep the universe from stagnating. But the shadow had become a monster.
The shadow had become Maelkris.
"I was meant to be the edge of the blade,"
Creator said, his expression devoid of remorse.
"That he chose to stop cutting and start consuming, i had to live since the first age. Do not mistake my creation for my malice."
Seraviel took a step forward, his gauntlet glowing with a hum that set the teeth of every god at the table on edge.
"My brother is a plague," Seraviel stated. His voice was like grinding glass.
"But this... this Quartz entity is an attempt to rewrite the foundation of our world. It tries to force a 'perfection' that reality was never meant to sustain."
"And you think your righteous fury is the solution?"
A Greek deity sneered.
"You're just another side of the same fucked-up coin. One brother eats the world, the other tries to 'purify' it into a statue. You're both going to end us."
"I am the balance you were too weak to maintain,"
Seraviel retorted, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade.
"The God of Quartz is feeding on the mortality you so greedily exploit. If he is allowed to reform, he will turn this realm into an immutable, crystalline cage. There will be no life, no death, no change. Just his echo, forever."
The Creator placed a hand on the table, and the obsidian groaned under the pressure.
"The Buddhists saw the tide coming and had the sense to step back. You fools are still standing in the surf, arguing about who owns the beach. My son, Seraviel, descends now. He will shatter the Quartz heart. And if Maelkris chooses to manifest to protect his 'interest' in this world..."
The Creator turned his hollow, all-seeing gaze toward the projection of the mortal realm.
"...then let him come. The cycle has been stagnant for too long. Let the brothers meet in the rubble."
Zeus looked at the Creator, his hands trembling with suppressed fury.
"You're starting a war that will end existence."
"No,"
Creator whispered, his form beginning to dissolve back into the void.
"I am simply letting the pendulum finish its swing. The balance will be restored, one way or the other."
With a flash of blinding, silent white, the Creator and Seraviel vanished, leaving the remaining gods in a state of shell-shocked paralysis.
The "God of Creation" hadn't come to help them; he had simply announced that the purge had begun.