The Empress smiled, “We are called to serve, every one of us, about my child. He is still young, give him time and he could blossom into something more. It is a shame he was born at this time, else he would have been able to cover one part of the sky with his hands.”

“Ha, good point, but there is not much time left. It is also his fortune, I thought you were saving that Divine Spark for yourself, it was your reward.” Malekith the Royal Hand replied while bringing the steaming cup of tea to the Empress.

She sipped the tea and sighed in satisfaction, “Becoming a god is boring, battles no longer carry any thrills, and the prospect of living until the end of time does not fascinate me, it just makes me shudder in disgust, reducing existence to just endless numbers.”

“I prefer the certainty of a mortal life, I prefer the option of death.” The Empress whispered more to herself than the Royal Hand.

“But you forget, there is a Godkiller on the loose.” The Hand pointed out,

“Bah, he would fade away like dust. The gods have handled worse before. He is just a time footnote in this glorious time such as now. In the history of my Trion, there could not be a more chaotic time for a Royal selection. At this point, every god wants this mantle and when it starts, I must have the ability to fight against Minerva or she would rule all indeed. I would admit, the goddess plays a long game.”

“That outcome is not set in stone, and you should give more credence to this Godkiller, there is something strange about him,” Malekith said.

The Empress’s glowing red eyes looked at him fully, “You hold this mortal in high regard.”

The Hand laughed dismissively, “Oh, it’s just something I feel in my old bones, he reminds me of the God King all these years ago when he told us he would make us kneel and wipe the rest of us out from Trion, no one believed he was capable of that.”

He sighed before turning and looking at the skies, “You intend to make Fury your champion for the Royal selection, is that not killing an ant with a hammer? Surely even Minerva’s Champion would not be as strong.”

The Empress laughed, “You say that because you have not seen him fight. Telmus is a monster, he is a unique individual who will never exist again, and if I am to stand against him, I need a monster of my own. Fury would serve, he is young, but he needs to be every bit as powerful, plus I have it on good recommendation that Minerva has punished her child due to his arrogance, with those chains around Telmus’s limbs, Fury should be able to shift the tides towards our favor.”

Malekith the Royal Hand, once a god of darkness, bowed towards the Empress and turned to leave, a word from her however stopped him. ｏｖ𝚕．ｃｏ𝚖

“Your Domain once intersected with Minerva’s, what do you think about her will?”

“That is hard to say…”

“You were a god once, Malekith, you are my Hand not just because you make a great cup of tea.”

“I don’t know if you would like to hear this from me, but you should know more than anyone else that the gods of Trion are a strange lot, and Minerva is the oddest among the lot. By all rights, you should win any confrontation on the surface of Trion, yet fate is unpredictable.”

“That’s a roundabout way to say a whole of nothing Malekith, see to your duties.”

The Hand bowed and walked away, the Empress sighed and she jolted as if she had been electrocuted.

The mantle above her began to shake, and cracks spread on its surface, her eyes widened in shock as the entire world of Trion began to vibrate.

Deep tremors ran through the ground swallowing cities and killing millions, when it settled the Empress was shaken.

Her will spread through her Mantle to locate the source of the chaos, and she was shocked to discover that it came from her.

It was the statement she made to Fury that set across such a chain of devastation. She had told him,

“You bring news of my wayward son’s death without bringing me his killer, of course, I know of this lost Breaker of the Kuranes family and your encounter with Boreas. Do not despair for your first loss, but know in the nearest future your fated nemesis will return to Trion and you shall collect his head, it is your destiny.”

Her words on Trion were law, and her statement once inviolable could not hold. Apparently, there was more to this Godkiller than meets the eye.

The Supreme Will granted to her by her Mantle could not dictate the death of this Mortal was shocking. She wondered how such an enigma should be hidden by the gods, his presence shifted to the sides for lesser concerns.

‘Kuranes had been holding back on her.’ The Empress thought, ‘It is time for answers.’

“Who are you, Rowan Kuranes? Why is the destiny of a child of Trion out of my reach?”

The Empress canceled all her upcoming appointments, she needed answers from the gods.

?

The Palace of Ice shuddered and began to collapse.

To create something new, a part of the old would have to be changed.

The Primordial Record shook a bit inside his body as if angered Rowan skipped its page and began ascending his bloodline without its assistance.

He did not care, at the moment he woke up he had detected powerful fluctuations around him as powerful as those of gods, his first instinct was to become stronger, he would figure out the next phase when he was at the peak of his strength.

Even though he was awake, it was not all the way through as most of his consciousness pillars were still unavailable but they were slowly rousing from slumber.