Chapter 2
1025words
THE LAST HOURS BEFORE GODHOODThere was no music in the palace anymore.
Only blood.
It soaked the white marble floors, tracing the cracks of ancient stone where priests once knelt. At the center of the carnage, a man stood , robed in smoke and madness his hands trembling as they cradled the Ankh Blade.
Once a priest. Once a man. Now... something else.
The altar before him, cracked and pulsing, held the body of the man he had envied for lifetimes:
King Rakh.
Crowned in gold. Drenched in death.
Eyes wide open, still glowing faintly with power he no longer controlled.
"You took her," Veil whispered, standing over the corpse.
"Every life, every breath, every time... she always chose you."
"But not this time."
He didn't flinch as blood pooled around his boots. His fingers gripped the blade tighter. It still buzzed from the deathblow — warm with Rakh's essence.
Behind him, the soft rustle of silk.
Veil turned.
She stood in the doorway, face pale, lips trembling as if her soul had already fled. Her eyes went not to Veil but to the body on the altar.
She ran. Fell to her knees beside Rakh. Cradled his bloodied face in shaking hands, her chest burning with a lump she couldn't swallow.
"No... no... my love,Rakh—" her heart breaks
She snatched the dagger from Veil ,still faintly humming with divine memory. Her tears blurred her vision, but her hand did not waver at first she points it towards the monster, threateningly.
Veil stepped forward, she stepped back towards Rakh.
"He was never meant for you," he said, voice rough.
"Don't you see? This is your freedom.
Now you're mine."
Akisha didn't respond to the priest.
"If I can't follow him... I don't want to be reborn."
And before Veil could stop her
she drove the dagger into her chest.
The room cracked with unseen thunder. Veil screamed in rage.
"You did this for him?" he shouted, falling to her side removing the ankh.
"I killed for you. I burned worlds for you!"
Her eyes, dull now, never once looked at him.
"I was supposed to be enough..." Veil choked.
He knelt between their bodies, the dead King and the fallen Queen, and let the blade fall from his hand. It rang against the marble like the last note of a funeral hymn.
But then... the air changed.
The altar began to glow.
Something was coming.
Veil rose unsteadily, eyes wide. He could feel it something divine, watching him.
Panic rose. He wasn't ready. No! Not yet.
He turned to the hieroglyphics engraved into the walls and began to chant a rite so dark, it had been buried from all records.
"Let my soul become shadow.
Let the light reject me.
Let love bind me even in damnation."
He cut his tongue and his palm and pressed the blood to the altar.
It sizzled. Symbols ignited.
"Bring her back. Rewrite the ending. Make her need me—make her forget him—"
But his voice died.
The light arrived.
It wasn't fire.
It wasn't mercy.
It was formless judgment, pouring into the chamber like a second sun cold and white-hot at once. A Being of Light descended with no wings, no face... only a blinding bright light that erased the dark itself.
Veil stumbled back, arm raised.
The Being hovered above the altar, unmoved by the bodies, unmoved by his spell.
It spoke not in words, but in truths.
"This was not planned for you," it echoed.
"You were never written into the scroll."
"You were a priest, once. A watcher. Not a player."
Veil screamed, rage and pain twisting his face.
"You don't understand! She was mine! He took her in every life—"
The light struck him.
His body flared open like a cracked egg, his soul exposed. Veil shrieked as his limbs fractured, light invading every crevice of his being.
"You do not deserve her," the Being said.
"You never did. You were meant to witness, not possess."
Veil's eyes melted into light. His body cracked into smoke and ash.
"This isn't over—" he howled. "I'll come back—"
"You shall," the Being confirmed.
"But not as man. Not as memory. As punishment."
And then it unmade him.
Veil exploded into nothing — not death, but exile.
A whisper left behind.
A hunger buried in the cracks of reality.
The Being turned now to the altar to the bodies of the dead lovers.
Its glow dimmed, softened.
"Flame. Crown. Veil," it whispered.
"One god, split in rage.
Now shall bleed again."
From the center of Rakh's chest, a fracture formed glowing. Power surged, split, and reformed. His soul shattered into three, rising from the body like bronze colored smoke.
1. Rakh — the Mind, reborn with cold vision and imperial legacy.
2. Anubis — the Beast, silent and wrathful, forged of instinct and protection.
3. Rasmus — the Soul, burning with memory, love, and pain unhealed.
Rakh's eyes opened, glowing gold.
From Akisha's body, flame began to swirl.
Not fire Afrina, the sacred flame. Her eternal essence, dormant for ages, reignited in waves of color: orange, gold, and red. It danced over her skin like silk.
The Being of Light raised its hand over her.
"Daughter of flame...
You were not meant to die.
But love has cost you dearly."
A tear of light fell from its form
and when it touched her chest, Akisha gasped.
Her eyes opened wide, silver, furious.
The flame around her danced like a goddess reborn.
The Being of Light stepped back, its voice now ringing like thunder.
"Split the god, and three shall bleed.
Flame, Crown, and Veil — the cursed seed.
Bound by blood and broken lore,
When they awaken, he waits no more.
The Veil shall tear through fate's sealed gate.
Let not gold eclipse the night —
Or love shall burn beneath its light."
And then it was gone.
The world remained.
But somewhere, in the place where shadows whisper
Veil was still watching.
Waiting....
"I was first. And I'll be last."
"When they remember, she will be mine."
