Chapter 59:
The Serpent and the Siege
I. The Siege of the Hollow Begins
Beneath the sacred moonlight of the Hollow, where once serenity reigned, rifts tore open in the sky.
From them descended figures wrapped in black alloy and seething hate—the Terminators of the Seventh Heaven, sent to erase any trace of the forbidden lineage.
They brought no declaration of war.
Only destruction.
Lightning blades cleaved mountains. Fires rained from the skies. Ancient trees that had never bowed to time fell in silence. The creatures of the Hollow—once beasts of myth—rose to defend the divine child, but many were outmatched.
The goddess, veiled in celestial light, stood at the Hollow's core—one hand on the child's head, the other summoning a thousand seals of protection.
> "You must not break," she whispered. "You are the beginning of new creation."
As the boy reached out with tiny hands, he uttered no words, but the Hollow responded—a deep, resounding pulse that cracked the invading realm.
From far beyond, one of the Terminators paused.
> "This essence… It's not just him. Someone else is awakening…"
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II. Gate Eight: The Serpent's Sleep
Inside the ancient trial realm, Errin faced a chamber devoid of fire or light.
There was only a mirror.
He stood before it, and in the reflection was not himself—but a version of him twisted by power, draped in stolen divinity and smirking with cruelty.
> "You think you are worthy of guiding fate?" the mirror-Errin asked. "You still mourn. Still remember. Still fear."
Errin closed his eyes.
> "Yes. I remember… That's what makes me real."
The mirror shattered.
From the shards slithered the Great Serpent, born of self-doubt and divine pride—a creature that once consumed failing gods and turned them into hollow stars.
The trial was not to slay the serpent.
It was to let it enter his soul, and to either master it or be devoured.
Errin welcomed it.
He opened his chest, let the serpent wrap around his heart, and whispered the name of every ancestor who had bestowed him their will.
One by one, glyphs ignited across his reforged body.
One by one, the serpent yielded.
And as it did, a new eye opened on Errin's forehead—the Eye of Karma.
He could now see the threads of fate.
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I & II: The Turning Point
As the Terminators closed in on the Hollow's sacred core, a wave of golden light burst forth—not from the goddess, not from the divine boy—
—but from the threads of fate severing themselves.
One of the Terminators crumbled midair, erased by the Eye of Karma now watching from a distance too far to reach—Errin had awakened, and with his soul reforged, he could now pull fate's strings from other realms.
In the spirit world, he whispered:
> "Not today. Not him. Not here."
---NEXT CHAPTER.....
Welcome to The Shattered Moons, where the Hollow enters defense mode, and the god-son instinctively learns to channel the elements, while Errin walks through the memory of the war that destroyed his mother's clan?