Chaos didn’t spare us. She had saved Marie’s life, but terrible things had happened to our friends.

Due to the afflux of magic, Illy was weakened a lot and had to walk with a cane, and her daughter Rose lost her ability to speak.

Marie had tried to continue her lessons with the nature witch, but felt the need to stop, at least for a while.

My lover wasn’t exactly a witch anymore.

She had been linked to me through a magic conduit. This had not taken long for me and her to discover, as I could clearly see it, and I could share that vision with her.

She had obtained the power all demonologists dreamt of, without suffering any side effects.

There was almost no need for her to use rituals again, except if she wanted to use extremely powerful spells.

And even though Illy did not mind this at all, Marie herself couldn’t bear to show herself in front of the mute Rose.

“It is not fair.” She had confessed to me.

I didn’t agree, there was nothing we could do about how the events had occurred, and my lover was smart, she knew that perfectly well. But she needed some time to face this truth, and I respected her for being able to realize that.

The price paid by Natasha was even higher.

She had survived that night. Because no one could have died then.

The respite of the Eden Days let the hospital treat her effectively, and they had done an operation that would usually be considered too risky.

She got out of her coma.

But the free and sexual woman stayed paralyzed.

We had gone and visited her plenty of times at the hospital, and every time, the smile she had welcomed us with broke my heart more and more.

She joked as she tried her best to buzz around in her wheelchair, saying that she would use telekinesis to move her legs and that it didn’t matter.

Marie didn’t need my ability to spot lies to perceive that one.

As for our enemies, well, they were no more.

Astarte was pissed about Alik’s disappearance. She had promised to punish him, after all. He couldn’t have died, as no one could at that time, but he had seemingly vanished from existence.

Marie and Henry knew what had happened to him. But Marie had refused to tell me. She even made me promise to never ask Henry about it.

“This is a secret, one that should not yet, if ever, be revealed. No matter what. You understand, Gray?”

I felt the truth in her words.

As for Belfor Marak... he had angered a witch that apparently shouldn’t have been angered, his fate was supposedly set in stone.

But this witch, Gione, didn’t act upon her threat.

She did not punish the man in any way.

No one would.

What was left of Belfor Marak was currently staying in a beautiful retirement home next to the western coast, twenty miles south of Jeanne’s old house.

Nurses didn’t like taking care of him, unsettled by something that they could not perceive.

I knew.

That night, he had been stripped of everything that mattered.

He looked like an old man now, but in truth, he was just something without inner magic. He was a living being without the basic thing that made him a living thing.

An empty husk.

Chaos hadn’t punished him, at least, I knew she didn’t see it that way.

She didn’t want Marie to use her power to create order, so she had shown her what would ultimately happen to all of those who did.

My lover had not understood, at least not completely, which was normal. I couldn’t understand Chaos with my human mind either, even though she was me.

One thing was certain, Magic was a thing of wonders and disasters, and Marie wasn’t allowed to use it to enforce laws. She could not use her powers to create Order.

It would have helped if we understood exactly what that meant.

Ten days after the Chaos event.

We had watched the Yürmungand as it had disappeared under the horizon, just outside our flat, and followed the media coverage with Marie’s smartphone.

“Do you understand what it said, Gray?”

“Yes.”

“Well, what was it?”

“It revealed the Underworld to the world.”

“Oh… I’m almost sad it is gone. It was so beautiful.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Everyone in the state of Washington had been able to see the creature in the western sky. It was mostly a large shadow that sometimes hid the sun. Those times had been strange.

People were silent, many just contemplating. There were no protests here, no violence and panic. People just stared in awe.

Marie and I were hugging on one of the many parc’s benches.

The day after the events, Astarte had apologized for what had happened. She explained to us that when we had called her, when in Jeanne’s home, to ask about the Yür, she was actually already back in North America, but knew we were being listened to. Her phone wasn’t traceable, and she had acted as if she was receiving a long-distance call, but Alik was apparently aware of that and had already prepared a very elaborate contingency plan to capture her.

The Eden Days didn’t affect us directly, but some disturbances at campus prevented Marie and I from going to our lessons. Then came the mythical sea creature, and well, it would probably take another week for people to get over that, move on and act as if nothing ever happened.

Eleven days after the event.

Astarte spoke. “The creature is well known, it was never found, but too many stories about it existed. People will handle that. To reveal the U to all though…we’d better lay low for a while. Things are going to change. A lot.”

We were sitting at the balcony, for the first time this year, it was sunny and warm outside.

I was holding Marie in my arms, currently under Ray’s guise and dressed in rather posh clothing. My girlfriend was dressed in a magnificent red and black long dress, had removed most of her piercings except one on her nose and had toned down her goth look considerably.

The three of us had just heard the recording of the words spoken by the Yürmungand, and we were looking at the empty sky that it had filled before.

“What is going to happen?” I asked the God-Child.

“Impossible to say. Lots of people are going to die. Countries are going to burn. This one…I don’t think things are going to be good here.”

“What should we do?” Marie also questioned her.

“You? Nothing. The both of you have done enough. To be honest, I won’t do anything either. I could, but it is not my role.”

“But you are powerful. So am I, we could help.” I retorted.

“Power? Helpful? Hah!” Astarte mocked me. “Power helps you with changing your life, and not always for the better, but changing the lives of others? Apart from killing them, no, it doesn’t.”

“I agree with Arte.” Marie continued. “We cannot force anyone to change against their will. It doesn’t work like that. We can only try our best ourselves, and hope it’ll inspire others to do the same.”

I sighed. “What’s the point then?”

“I don’t know.” Astarte answered. “I’ve lived for more than five thousand years, and I’ve got no clue. I’ve seen a king burn all evildoers from his kingdom, and then there were only bad men left. I witnessed a child give up her only possession, a little doll made of wood and cloth, to the young prince who had everything. For one century the kingdom lived in relative peace. Does this make sense?”

Marie’s phone rang, cutting Astarte’s story short. “It is time.” She said.

I grimaced.

“It’ll be fine. Arte, you take care of the flat.”

“Of course. Have fun.”

“Definitely won’t.” I said back to her.

“Come on. We have the chance to reveal the truth to the people we love. We thought we’d never be able to!” Marie encouraged me.

“I don’t love them.”

“Interesting of you to say that. Was it the truth or a lie?”

I looked at Marie. “It was a lie.”

“Of course it was. You may hate your parents, but that doesn’t mean you don’t love them too. I’m more concerned about how they’ll react about me.”

“If my father says anything bad, I’ll eat him.”

“I thought the Beast was gone?”

“Not the wolf.”

“Fortunately. I can defend myself, but thanks for the proposal. The taxi is waiting. Let us go.”

“This is going too fast, they heard about the U less than twenty-four hours ago!” I continued complaining.

“No. It is not.” Marie calmly retorted.

“And why not Ana first?”

“Gray, calm down. It’ll be fine. Mom has had a crazy week at the clinic, she needs some rest. We’ll go tomorrow. It is the time of truths, is it not?”

“…yes…” I admitted.

“Then stop acting like a child. And let us go.” My girlfriend took me by the arm and dragged me outside. “Bye Arte.” I said.

“Goodbye, prophetess of Chaos.”

I winced at that name but didn’t retort anything.

I was going to tell my parents everything. Show them how their son was not really their son anymore.

“I’m scared.” I confessed.

The elevator doors closed.

“Me too.” Marie grasped my hand and smiled. “But we are together.”

I smiled back.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Prologue

  The creature was magnificent.

But this was an absurdity of a thought.

He was facing an abject being.

The embodiment of death itself.

She was the Blizzard of Hi, a violent promise, an icy breath, freezing bodies and snuffing out souls.

Still, he could not stop himself from contemplating her magnificence.

The creature was three times his size. She seemed only made of bones and muscles. She had four limbs, similar to legs and arms. But at the extremities of those almost humanoid appendages, what she used as toes and fingers was far from it. On each hand, on each foot, eight long claws created some sort of arachnid-like tendrils. Her scaly skin was covered in frozen blood belonging to the unfortunate ones that had crossed her path. The solidified liquid formed a reddish veil around her.

Her face, if you could call it that, was such a sight it could only have crawled out of the nightmares of the traumatized.

In spite of all this, the real pinnacle of horror wasn’t her blood covered body, wasn’t her claws or dagger-like fangs. No, what would render you mad, what would haunt you beyond death, were her eyes.

Her eyes were ocean blue, unfathomable and breathtaking.

Sole token of beauty, pure and innocent, in the middle of a face that gave glimpses of hell.

It was like seeing a euphoric child cooing inside a battlefield littered with dead bodies and rotting bowels.

It was like seeing a happy, smiling mother swinging her dead baby by the foot.

“Run!”

It had been the last request given to him by his kind.

The echoes of the screams that had followed didn’t last long, replaced by the ghostly whine of the wind rushing through the mountain pass.

However, even after having fled, even after having stopped and hidden inside one of the numerous caves of the Canyon of Sables, he could still hear them scream.

Why choose this cave and not another? He did not know. He did not even understand why he had ceased his running, why he had disobeyed.

He never disobeyed.

The only thing he knew now was this: She who never should have walked this earth was looking for him, the last survivor.

He was certain of it.

After what seemed like eternity, he saw her. For the first time he was able to admire the machine of death that, in her macabre glory, came to end her hunt. It wasn’t a shadow around the campfire anymore. There, at the entrance of his sanctuary, she stood, unveiled by the glimmer of stars. Obsidian scales glazed in red were reflecting the silvery glow of the night.

This is where he understood that this creature wasn’t something that should exist.

This is when he found her magnificent.

“I will fiiind youuuuu.” The monster’s voice wasn’t strident or cavernous. It was normal. You could have confused it with one of a woman or a child.

He couldn’t have imagined more terrifying.

He made no noise, cowering himself further on the rocky wall of the cave.

His sanctuary had become a prison, where he was waiting for his inevitable execution.

The creature stepped once. Towards him.

Something absurd happened. The creature’s claws pierced the rocks like they were soft snow, sinking deep and fast, destabilizing the beast. She hit her head violently against a stalactite of ice, which broke instantly upon impact and shattered on the ground. After the deadly silence that had reigned until then, the noise was deafening.

An abomination of a sound followed the noise of shattering ice, like chalk on a blackboard. It was the creature roaring in anger. Each time she tried to remove one of her grotesque limbs from the stone ground, another sank in.

Ultimately, she broke free. She looked around, gazed upon the dark cave…then went away.

Did she decide that the cave wasn’t worth it anymore?

He did not care; he could finally breathe again.

The scene had gone from horrifying to ridiculous in an instant.