Episode 33: The God Within
The forest had never been this quiet.
Ash from burnt leaves drifted like black snow, coating the soil with scars from yesterday's war. The group limped forward—Felix, Lana, Tunde, Rhea, and the rest of the battered team—each step heavier than the last. The scroll of resurrection they found in the Vault of Whispering Skulls turned out to be incomplete, missing an entire verse, the final incantation.
Kael's body, still enclosed in the transparent magical pyramid glass, remained untouched, like a sleeping king sealed in time. Lana stood beside it every night, whispering stories of what they had been through—stories Kael couldn't hear.
Tunde leaned against a cracked boulder, flipping through an ancient spellbook.
"Chapter 19: 'Forbidden Charms You Should Definitely Not Use Unless You're Crazy.' I feel like that's our entire team," he muttered, eyeing a blood rune spell that involved turning yourself into a flame for exactly 2.6 seconds.
"You're not doing that," Rhea said, snatching the book from his hands.
"But it says it can melt through dark shields!"
"Also says you'll melt with it!"
They both turned as Lana exited the tent silently, her face pale, her eyes sunken with hope's slow decay.
"We need to go," Felix said, pulling a folded map from his satchel. "There's one last place... the Temple of Fractured Echoes. It might have the missing verse."
"Great," Tunde groaned. "Another spooky location. Does this one have lava pits? Living shadows? What's next, a guardian sphinx that wants to play Uno?"
"It's worse," Felix replied. "It demands a memory... something precious."
They all turned somber.
Still, they set out.
---
The Temple of Fractured Echoes was suspended on the edge of a cliff, surrounded by dark waterfalls pouring upward. Time didn't work here. Birds flew backward. Trees bloomed and died in reverse.
Each member of the team had to give a memory. Felix gave the moment he first felt safe with Kael's leadership. Rhea sacrificed her childhood memory of her mother's lullaby. Lana... she tried to give the memory of Kael's smile. The temple refused it.
"Too fresh," it whispered.
She tried again.
This time, she surrendered the memory of their first training session—the banter, the awkward silence, the first tiny flicker of affection. As it was taken from her, a tear rolled down her cheek.
The temple accepted the offering.
The final verse revealed itself in silver flame on a cracked obsidian wall:
"He who bears the blood of thunder, bound by death, may rise not by force... but by sacrifice of presence."
"What does that mean?" Rhea asked.
Felix's face darkened. "Someone has to vanish... not die, but be erased from ever existing."
They all stood still.
Tunde cleared his throat. "Okay, but do we really know it means that? I mean, 'presence' could mean like... shoes. Sacrifice your shoes."
No one laughed.
The ground shook.
The darkness screamed.
They were surrounded.
A horde of twisted spirits and death-born beasts—armed with black spears and glowing sigils—emerged from portals, and they were not waiting to talk. The team formed a circle, spells flying, Rhea shielding Lana, Felix throwing daggers of ice, Tunde summoning—well—tiny squirrels with explosive tails (they worked okay?!).
They were losing ground.
Tunde was hit and thrown into a tree, groaning.
Rhea's shield cracked.
A death-beast raised a burning axe toward Lana.
And then—
The sky split.
Lightning howled down from above with the fury of ancient storms.
The clouds spiraled into a vortex, and from it descended a blinding golden light. The creatures hissed, screamed, turned to ash.
The storm struck the center of the battlefield—and the magical pyramid glass exploded in a ring of raw power.
Kael floated above the ground, glowing. Not just glowing—burning with celestial fire.
His eyes were white with storm. His veins ran silver. His hair floated around him like charged shadow-light.
A sigil no one recognized pulsed on his chest.
Lana gasped. "He's..."
"Alive," Felix whispered.
"No," Rhea said, trembling. "He's more than that."
Kael landed gently, barefoot on the ground. He looked at them, and for a moment—just a second—his presence hurt. Like standing too close to a sun. Even his friends staggered.
"Back," he said.
The final wave of dark spirits came for them—but Kael raised his hand.
And unleashed it.
A shockwave of blinding storm-light surged out in a perfect ring, shattering trees, vaporizing demons, bending reality with sheer force. The light extended for miles.
When it cleared, nothing stood.
No enemies.
No clouds.
Just wind.
Kael stood at the center of the crater, his breathing calm.
Tunde groaned. "Please tell me he didn't just vaporize my eyebrows."
Kael turned slowly.
"I remember everything," he said softly. "And I saw the trials. The gods. The realms. The fire. The price."
"What are you now?" Rhea whispered.
Kael looked at his hands, still crackling with divine light.
"I don't know. But I'm not just a boy anymore."
He knelt before Lana, who was crying.
"You... died," she whispered.
"I did," he said. "But I came back for you."
He pulled her into an embrace. She held him like she never would again.
---
That night, they sat around the fire. There were no more enemies. No more spells to cast. Just stars.
Kael sat silently, his new power humming beneath his skin. It was... alive. Ancient. Whispering things not in any language they knew.
Tunde nudged him. "So, uh... do you still pee lightning now?"
Kael smirked. "Wanna find out?"
"Pass."
Everyone laughed for the first time in days.
Peace was beginning to feel real again.