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Location: Godfall Sector – Outpost 17
Time: Three days later
The Godfall Sector wasn't on any official map.
Because it wasn't supposed to exist anymore.
They erased it after the war. Buried it under divine sanctions, scorched the skies above it, silenced the names that once lived here.
But some names won't stay buried.
Kairo stood before the rusted gates of Outpost 17, his breath turning to mist in the ghost air. Behind him, Velra tightened her gloves, eyes scanning the ruins.
> "This is where Zerith's last stand happened," she said. "Before the Council labeled him a monster."
Kairo ran his fingers across the burned sigils on the wall.
He didn't speak.
Not yet.
Because deep in his chest… something was calling.
---
Inside the outpost, they were met with silence. No guards. No grand welcome. Just eyes—watching from behind broken machinery, behind walls lined with rebel sigils.
Then…
A voice from the dark:
> "He doesn't look like a godkiller."
Kairo turned.
A woman stepped forward, half her face covered in a crimson mask shaped like a flame.
She wasn't divine. But the way she moved—confident, haunted—it told him she'd survived too much to kneel now.
> "Name's Lys."
"Leader of the Red Star Rebellion. And you… are the boy who bled back."
Kairo blinked. "...You don't seem impressed."
Lys didn't smile. She handed him a datapad.
It flickered to life—images of cities burning, children crying, divine thrones floating overhead.
> "This is what they call peace.
You think killing one Executioner changes anything?"
> "You're not our hope, Kairo."
> "You're our proof that gods can bleed."
---
The Room Shifted. Emotion hit like gravity.
Kairo didn't reply immediately.
He looked at the broken people around him.
A child holding a cracked sword like a teddy bear.
An old woman whispering names to the dust.
A man polishing armor that hadn't been used in decades.
All of them waiting for someone to believe they weren't crazy for fighting.
He took a deep breath.
Not because he needed it—
But because he felt the weight now.
> "Then let's make them remember why they were afraid to bleed in the first place."
That's when Zerith stirred.
> "You felt it, didn't you?"
"The other one. The forgotten bond. It's waking up."
---
Suddenly—alarms blared.
The sky turned white.
A god descended.
Not with war.
But with… an offer.
Floating in silver robes, his face veiled by starlight, the god known as Vaelrin spoke:
> "Kairo.
Come with me.
I am not here to kill you."
> "I'm here to tell you the truth about your mother."
---
Everyone froze.
Even Zerith.
Even Kairo.
Because the one thing he'd buried the deepest—the thing that still hurt more than flame or blade—
Was her.
---