The Stars Look Back
Scene 1
Eris POV
"You really thought Lord Pluto wouldn't account for an enlightened one pioneering Zeus's path in this cycle?"
I buried my hand into the void and grabbed the fool steeped in Chaos before he could latch onto Tenebris.
At the same time, I commanded my vessel to hurry toward the edge of the Greek Cycle and retrieve her Young Lord. This fool had truly thought everyone had forgotten he existed alongside his brother's story.
Apollo's foolish actions had sent a faint but real signal into the cosmos. Yet even that mistake proved something useful: he could still locate one of the nodes and discern false targets from real ones.
The rest of our gods were already incoming to lock this fool down.
"Do you have to be so rough?" he asked. "I know our past as fellow Chaos-bringers is one of intimate Roman—"
I slapped him before he could disgrace me further.
He smiled through the black blood spilling from his mouth, the liquid reeking of Chaos and faint Order.
I held myself back from stripping him of his Grotto Heart and the Key of Order he had corrupted. Young Lord Odin's plan still included this demon.
"Oh, a barrier…" His smile widened. "Even Fatí has made a move. Time to discard this vessel as well."
The light in the Astral God's eyes vanished.
The puppet was cut off before we could trace his true location or Domain. He would only reveal that when he could kill his sibling.
"Eris," Morpheus said, appearing beside me as he removed the Dream Laws he had used to draw the enlightened one toward a dreamscape. "We missed our chance."
"No, Morpheus. We witnessed enough to know he is hiding in the fringes. He just lost a stronger vessel he will have to spend several million years recreating, let alone traveling back to this region near Earth."
Fatí stepped forward before her form split into three women. The eldest carried on the words spoken by their united figure.
"Thanatos is currently checking Lord Odin at his ending. If another vessel is found there, he will lead the Reapers into the fringes and cleanse everything touched by Enlightened Ones."
Styx appeared in front of me, watching the iceberg that had swallowed the Star of Baldur.
"To think Tyr would fall this far is heartbreaking," she said. "Yet expecting Odin to choose differently would mean believing the Odin of myth was capable of becoming a wise king instead of a scheming king against his own court."
Her gaze narrowed.
"The Death Courts were functional until our Blazing Sun Odin decided Sophie and Tyr were worth swimming through the Sea to find."
The False Death King Odin had forced his universe to continue by transforming it into a ship of True Ice, bordering the level of Emperors. Yet he still lacked the ability to truly capture the crown jewel.
Because Mortal Odin had already won the game of Odins.
A game so deadly that most divine beings sought candidates capable of grasping True Essences and earning the qualifications to take part in the Sea conflicts. Kings often mistook themselves for Emperors, when the true goal of an empire was to create for the next generation.
The Blazing Sun was the only one to take a Skyfather name and live through it to the end.
I stopped my thoughts and waved my hand, sending Lord Pluto's palace back to Nyx's realm.
"Come," Styx said. "We return to Lord Pluto's court. We have illegal invaders trying to follow Hastur."
I glanced down at the collapsing iceberg one final time.
Then I sent a wave of darkness through it, destroying the iceberg and the star completely.
I refused to leave even a clue behind.
Scene 2
Ten POV
"Okay. This should be far enough."
I stopped two universes away from the Fallen Star region after blitzing through the void for over two hundred years.
Only then did I feel the connection to my cycle return. The flow of time slowly corrected itself around me, and when I recounted the journey, nearly three thousand years had passed.
I landed on a dead planet to refocus and organize my thoughts.
The spear rested warm in my hand.
The Life variant of the Sword of Pluto sat at my waist.
The pressure I had felt inside me since my first meeting with Hastur had finally quieted.
The tattoo of stars along my right arm and shoulder had grown toward my neck. Its design felt like a mimicry of the spear in my hand. I could also feel the Laws of Ice embedded inside the weapon from constant use.
The runes on it were already ruined.
Odin had struck the letters out as if he feared the spear would turn against him. He had turned its purpose into ceremony instead of letting it serve its true function.
Piercing enemies.
"Gungnir," I said softly. "I may not be able to return you to your original state, but I won't take you away from your duty either."
I coated it in my natural black flames.
The fire ate through the Ice affinity it had gained from Odin, removing his imprint. The spear accepted my flames with something close to glee. It only took a few minutes for it to feed until full.
A process I would repeat over eons until it became my personal divine weapon.
"The Black Sun and Hornless Reaper."
I whispered my Divine Title among Reapers, and the spear accepted the first name I gave it.
An offshoot of my True Domain.
I focused on my Grotto Heart and retrieved the two wolves and the Kunlun, who still had Artemis on its back. I pulled all four into the void.
The two wolves remained asleep.
Artemis was still covered by the Solar Laws I had wrapped around her. I dismissed them, allowing her to wake.
It took her nearly an hour to fully stabilize her gains at Low Major God rank.
Then her eyes snapped open, and a bow appeared in her hands.
"What the fuck did you do to me—"
Her words fell apart as her fight-or-flight instincts cleared.
Her eyes focused on me.
My robe, the one Fatí had sewn for me, was gone. Teeth and claw marks from the wolves had not fully healed. Golden blood still leaked from the wounds.
"Wha—"
"Don't worry about it. Just take your gains. The Moon Wolf is yours. The Sun Wolf is mine."
Her eyes shifted toward the beasts.
"Our deal for the Stellar Heart was based on which star it was housed inside. I'll be taking it, since the Sun Wolf devoured the heart and the Sun essences."
Artemis's mouth closed slightly.
"The Moon Wolf lived inside a land of True Ice," I continued. "You can link to her as your divine beast and study those Laws of Ice and Moon. They are foreign to our universe, but they can still serve as reference material."
I used Force and Darkness to create a robe, hiding the injuries still leaking Golden blood.
The Kunlun enlarged as I threw the Sun Wolf back into my Grotto Heart. Artemis took the Moon Wolf and the reins of the Kunlun, which had transformed from its eagle form back into a whale.
I accepted her lead and lay down on the back of my divine beast.
It fed me the excess Moon energy it had stored, though it could not perform the same act I had done for Artemis. I did not expect her to do it either.
She had already lost the chance to explore the realm she had targeted for over a million years with Apollo.
With her leading, the return journey became quiet.
For once, I decided to sleep.
Scene 3
Artemis POV
"A fine gift."
I looked toward my father, Poseidon, as he admired the Moon Wolf suspended in the air.
Every Sea King and general lined his court, showing how seriously they were treating this war.
I had still not stepped into the role of leading the Sea Faction as its heir. It was a duty I had run from in favor of aiding Apollo and chasing dreams I believed could still be fixed.
"A truly deadly beast regardless," Father said. "Devouring Laws are wicked things."
His gaze sharpened on the wolf's claws.
"To think a Beast of the Moon could tear a piece from Tenebris's soul. These Solar and Death Laws covering its claws are potent additions to an already anti-divine beast."
Then his eyes returned to me.
"And you said there were teeth marks? A brother wolf?"
Everyone's gaze focused on me.
Shame settled over me as I understood what they all knew.
I could never have defeated that beast, regardless of my higher-tier Domain as a True Moon Goddess and Ocean Princess.
"Yes, Father," I said. "Tenebris had claw marks on his chest and back. One wolf bit into his left collar and shoulder. It left teeth marks, but he called it a Sun Wolf."
Father nodded before sending the beast back to me. With a wave, he ordered Rhettos to train it in Sea Laws.
"A dangerous ordeal. One misstep and he could have lost his own Sun to the beast. It was clearly aiming for his Grotto Heart."
His eyes landed on me fully.
"Your objective in chasing the Stellar Heart was what, Daughter? To my knowledge, my brother Pluto already gave you half of the Stellar Heart of our Greek Pantheon. So why desire another version that could lead you into corruption?"
The pressure across the oceans increased.
I shifted slightly before forcing myself calm.
"To repair Apollo's Sun claim," I said. "He is still my brother and fated partner as the Sun."
The surrounding gods began pressuring me for disobeying a direct order from my father.
"Hm. I see."
His throne turned into water as his eyes began radiating the primal Laws of Ocean.
"And have you learned your lesson, or should I let you experience an ounce of the terror you drew him into?"
My breath collapsed beneath the pressure.
"I warned you and Apollo about higher-tier beings that wait for weak gods to dare them into accepting a fresh meal."
The pressure rose again.
I fell to my knees.
"Do not crumble yet, Daughter. You have not even made it past Chronos's peak."
The pressure dropped as a pair of feet appeared in front of me.
More shame filled me as my mother stepped forward from her hidden throne.
She cut off the pressure.
She and Father communicated silently before she lifted me and turned to leave.
Scene 4
Yin POV
"Hold him still, Bale!"
Abi failed to restrain Brother Tenebris as Bale and the Reapers forced the light of decay back inside him.
His skeletal body was revealed beneath the collapsing divine flesh. Force began filling the missing spaces where organs should have been, while his crimson eye shed tears of black blood.
Bale finally sat directly on top of Tenebris as a Death God directly linked to our Domains. He shielded the others from the decay effects that would have killed lesser Reapers instantly.
He was careful to only hold Brother Tenebris's arms down, leaving room for Juris and Fatí to sew the wounds together.
They used a mix of Time, Fate, and our Dark Sun to create the threads.
The threads struck his True Soul.
Wounds that would never heal on their own, wounds that would leak his essence over time, were forced closed as Tenebris lost control from the agony.
His soul triggered his True Form.
Something beyond his divine forms.
It took nearly five hundred years just to close the wounds.
Then another three hundred to force the corruption out.
Finally, Eris sealed everything with the Seal of True Darkness.
Only then did Brother Tenebris stop fighting. His breathing slowed as his form returned.
Aunt Hestia gestured for me to follow her.
She pulled out her brown flame.
I answered with my blue flame.
Together, we placed them inside his lungs to ease the assimilation of the threads Juris and Fatí had crafted.
Brother Tenebris fell into a slumber.
He would need one hundred years to recover.
Scene 5
Artemis POV
"Greetings, Brother-in-law. Lord Pluto."
My mother bowed.
I followed her actions.
The name drew dread into me the way it always did when meeting the True Lord Hades. His court outranked every god operating on Earth. Only my father could claim a comparable weight.
Lord Pluto wore bone armor as he sat on his throne.
The entire court directed hostility toward me.
More openly than even the Ocean generals who hated my whimsical behavior around the throne.
"Greetings, Uncle," I said, bowing my head deeper.
"Leto," Lord Pluto said. "It has been quite some time since Eris aided your escape. You look even happier than you claimed you felt under the sky."
A soft smile crossed his face.
"It seems my cold-hearted brother still has some warmth buried in the depths of that Ocean."
Mother smiled as well.
"Yes. The knowledge you gave me made that decision much easier. To think Zeus would sabotage the birth of his own son to compete with Uranus was the last nail in his growing abuse of power."
Her expression softened.
"Sadly, Artemis and Apollo could not be twins if I wanted them to have a better chance to escape Fate."
She offered her deepest thanks, and I saw the warmth she only reserved for Apollo, me, and her husband.
"I see he truly has broken his fate," Lord Pluto said. "Mother's advice must have woken him from his stupor enough to win against Zeus."
Then his gaze shifted to me.
"Since you came, I assume this concerns the duties of a mother?"
Shame crept over me.
"Yes," Mother said. "She needs to apologize for failing to see the value in your words twice. First, when she and Apollo attracted that entity directly to her Moon. Now, again, when Eris notified me that Outer Cycle entities had become active."
Mother pushed me forward slightly.
"The only thing I could do was trust that you would retrieve them in the worst-case scenario, like the outer planet you are."
Lord Pluto focused on me fully.
"Did you see the Star Realm?"
I nodded.
"Did you see anything I should be concerned about?"
"I was asleep the entire time. Tenebris placed me under a Solar barrier that overloaded me. He handled everything."
Lord Pluto nodded.
The pressure across the court eased slightly.
Eris stepped forward and summoned a portal of shadows, displaying what was happening inside the NetherRealms where I had once stayed.
Nothing was hidden.
I was forced to watch Juris administer treatment to his brother.
Tenebris was in his True Form, the same one we had only seen once in his youth. I watched the entire process unfold openly beside my mother, who did not blink. Neither did the court.
I spent nearly nine hundred years under that unbearable pressure before the process was completed by Aunt Hestia and Juris's future wife, Yin.
When Tenebris finally stopped resisting and entered a deep sleep, Juris looked up.
His eyes locked directly with mine.
Then he waved his hand, using his connection to Chronos to block everyone's sight.
He was clearly unhappy that the court had watched him.
Mother laughed softly.
"That one reminds me of you, Pluto. The other likes to run around like Persephone. She would have been delighted to see her three heirs leading the charge."
I held my breath at the name of the missing Queen.
Hades tapped his finger before smiling softly, as if remembering something.
"Yes. She would have been beyond delighted to see the Underworld house more than only me and her. Now three children are taking our roles."
His gaze returned to me.
"Something Artemis would treat as blasphemy to Fate."
The court was dismissed.
Only Mother and I remained before him, while the Big Four blocked the doors with a barrier.
"Now let us move to the serious conversation."
Lord Pluto looked directly at me.
"Do you know who Hastur is?"
I shook my head.
The name had only recently joined my list of words never to say openly.
"Good, if you were content with remaining near Earth. But as you have shown, you failed to internalize my lesson."
He opened his palm.
"Since you will not stop without oversight, I will give you a reason to watch the shadows and stars you have grown to love."
A scene appeared.
Tenebris walked a path of stars beside Pontus inside a realm I had never seen. His eyes lifted toward Primal-sized beings reaching for a gap in the barrier protecting them.
One of the shadowed figures smiled widely.
The darkness failed to hide its perfect teeth.
Moon Laws began to sing to me from the vision.
A musical instrument I had never heard struck soft chords while a woman's voice sang of a dying Sun and a promise.
My ears began bleeding.
Then I was pulled through the vision into a garden of ice.
The entire world was frozen in time.
A mortal woman held a child while staring at a bearded man rocking another child to sleep.
The woman's eyes met mine.
Then the man's gaze lifted to me.
"Chang'e," he said tiredly, "stop causing drama for me."
Golden flames with black and white dots manifested over the hand he lifted from the child.
He blew them toward me.
I raised my hands in defense, but my Laws failed to answer.
A bone-armored hand rose in front of me.
Lord Pluto blocked the golden flames with white fire.
"Oh," the man said. "It was you who sent her, Master."
His expression softened slightly.
"It has been a while. I wish we could speak at length, but my sister-in-law cannot handle all of us being inside her head."
He waved his hand.
A barrier of golden flames blocked us out.
Lord Pluto's hand pulled me back into my body.