After the First War, which meant a new defeat for Genea, a noisily sigh has been heard coming out of her chest and echoing throughout her stone Palace as if it was a roar. And it happened because she understood that when she gave up on her body and allowed Eris to have a chance to be born thus, she lost all the chances she had to succeed in the future or get outside of her Palace.

  Bodyless and with a cursed soul, Genea could only wander through her stone Palace, but without having the chance to leave it. And this made her so sad because, in time, her body started to vanish, becoming more transparent, and lacking life.

  „It has been my mistake that I blindly believed in my luck,” Genea whispered, barely heard, and, squatting next to the threshold, which she couldn’t ever cross over, she slowly sighed and, half opening the door, she looked at the sleeping trees that were still in the Garden, which looked so beautiful in the slight shine of the darkness. However, Genea knew that they will be brought back to life soon by Chaos’s power, with the help of the Titans, of Alabar, and of Bayer.

  Suddenly, she winced, feeling a strange pulsation in the air. But it wasn’t for sure because of Life that was turning back to her: it was a feeling of fear, which she felt a long time ago when she decided to let Yggdrasil dormant and when she dissipated the Tree of Life into nothingness, declaring herself the Queen of the Universe.

  „It can’t be,” Genea whispered, frightened. „That star vanished somewhere after our first fight. But now, I feel its presence so alive again. Or maybe…,” and Genea closed her eyes, her thoughts left her transparent body and wandered through time and space, till they got in front of Aeon. And, not that far from that bright star, the eye of her mind opened and she saw the scary Black Hole, called Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi.

  A painful sigh came out of Genea’s throat when her thought came back to her and she opened her eyes at the same time Chaos’s eyes showed up between the eye of her mind and Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi, forcing her to leave that place.

  After that, Genea stood up and, staggering to her feet, she started to wander, like a mad person, up and down the stone stairs of her Palace while her thoughts moved back in time, reaching the point of the Ages when she and Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi have had their first fight.

***

  Leaving Yggdrasil dormant and allowing the darkness to take over the surroundings, Genea was so happy because of her triumph. Yet, very soon after this, she heard a roar coming out from somewhere. That's why she looked around, but she saw nothing. But still, the roar was increasing its intensity and it was heard closer and closer.

  Only at that moment did Genea understand that the roar was the noise of hunger, in fact, the noise that was coming out of the void and which threatened the surroundings with swallowing them because no trace of life was left around there.

  Yet, Genea didn't let her tail down. She waited and tried to understand where that pulsation was coming from because no gust of air was felt around, as nothing was felt coming from above. But soon, her feet felt how the surface under her soles started to vibrate and that meant only one thing: soon, the mouth of the void will be wide open and everything around will be sentenced to perdition.

  She shuddered when she finally understood her mistake: that she had been greedy, that she wanted everything, but she was only one step from death at that moment. So, she decided to fight against the void, and this was only because she wanted to live.

  Yet, her only chance to succeed was to feed her body with energy from the same place where Yggdrasil was feeding itself with the serum of life from. So, Genea turned back to Paradise. But, when she approached the Fountain of Truth, the life-giving essence of all beings, its water, dried in seconds because Genea hadn’t the right to drink from the Holy Water, and, thus, her energy was even more limited than before.

  Then, the inevitable happened: the surface of Cosmos suddenly cracked, and, right in the middle of it, a huge hole appeared.

  The external top of the hole was rotating in circles while its inner part looked like a helicoidal throat, similar to a hall of Galaxies, which was abruptly climbing and descending as if it had dug stairs in it, and this form somehow reminded those who were seeing it about the hunting of a pack of wolves, which were never giving up if they were finding their target.

  And, when the Black Hole opened its mouth, the sound of drums has been heard coming from inside it. And, as if being a huge vacuum cleaner, it started to drag everything that was placed around it toward itself: darkness, dead and alive stars alike. Even Paradise was threatened with perdition at that moment.

  So, Genea, who witnessed the birth of the Black Hole, feverishly whispered as if she was hardened: „Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi! The Galaxy of Monsters here, in the Cosmos of Life, and this only due to my foolishness,” and she shuddered, with all her body.

  But Genea quickly turned back to her senses because she wasn’t ready to give up. That’s why, to survive, she decided to build a huge, seven-level Palace right in the middle of Paradise, behind Yggdrasil, which was the only one capable to fight against Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi because even if the tree was asleep, its power was still protecting the Cosmos.

  And Genea started her work right away. Even so, her power was limited because, in the absence of something to fight against the void, it was taking life from her, and Genea hadn’t where to fill the emptiness in her soul from.

  Nevertheless, she was convinced to triumph and, step by step, stone by stone, she laid the foundation of the Palace. But when she started to build the walls, Genea had a genius idea - why not do the same as the void had done: to steal life and energy from it?!

  So, Genea, using part of her black Magic, started to absorb, bit by bit, energy from Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi, and her seven-level, stone Palace was shining soon in all its glory. And this gave her the feeling that she won against the impossible.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  But she was so wrong because the energy she took from the Black Hole wasn't something to be by her side. So, so soon, it started to fight against her, trying to turn back to its Master, to the womb that created it.

  That's why Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi opened its huge throat so suddenly and started to drag Genea toward its hideous body.

  But Genea still had enough power to fight. And, to be sure of her success, she touched Yggdrasil´s trunk, asking for help. Yet, the Holy Tree was still asleep. Thus, she couldn't count on its power.

  And when her hand slipped off the tree’s trunk, Genea decided to attack and a black, air current has been thrown over Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi and, as a reply, the Black Hole threw a wave of hot magma over her.

  This made Genea jump to the side and she barely managed to avoid being transformed into ashes because that unequal fight, between the two Females of the Shadows, hideous and hungry for power, could only end when one of them would have been dead.

  Understanding this, Genea shuddered again. But she hadn't time to think about what she had to do. She could only act. That's why she took a step in front, and, using the entire power she could use at that moment, she tried to close the mouth of the Black Hole.

  But when she was about to do that, the Black Hole forced her to take two steps back because the power of Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi wasn't something Genea could so easily defeat, more because that power was coming from inside of the star, something that was bigger than her power, and, because of this, it was making her get closer to that Black Star with quick steps, soon after this.

  And, very soon, when Genea's toes were about to touch the threshold of that devilish star's mouth, Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi opened widely its mouth, thinking that it won.

  But this only forced Genea to make the final decision - to choose either life or death. And Genea made that decision: at the last possible moment. That's why she gave up on struggling to defeat the Black Hole, and, with the last remained power, she threw a wave of black lava inside of that opened mouth, forcing it to close its throat. And this gave her the possibility to breathe a sigh of relief, even if it has been for a few moments only.

  Yet, Genea didn't stay to breathe: she just ran toward her palace, entered, closed, and locked the door behind her, and, without even caring about the huge stain of shame that her run left on the soul of the Cosmos, she gave up on that fight.

  But she felt the power of that burden very soon: ashamed and knelt, Genea has just imprisoned herself in her Stone Palace, sentencing herself to isolation, and this happened when she understood that if she had continued to fight against the life-giving energy of the Universe, considered something impossible by her at that moment, she would have just vanished in the end, as if she had never existed in this world.

  And she made the right decision then: a getaway does not always mean defeat! It can be only a fresh breath of air before the final winning battle and she was right because her last hope to survive was the one whom she stole power from - Yggdrasil because the power of the Holy Tree wasn’t asleep. Asleep was only its body and it could be seen at the moment the light of the Holy Tree's being brought Chaos to life and namely that part of the Cosmos's heart was also beating in Chaos's chest. And it was a bright heart that was illuminating the surroundings, and, instead of feeling herself avenged and helped, Genea felt again betrayed.

  But she hadn’t the right to claim something because when she gave into Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi, Yggdrasil saved the world, with the serum of life that was flowing inside its trunk and which it sent as a wave of life-giving energy toward the Black Hole, forcing it to close its Gates and hide.

  Then, Genea thought she was free and decided to leave her prison. But she found it impossible because she imprisoned herself in that Palace and she hadn't the power and the right to leave it anymore.

  Yet, she wasn't ready to give up on her idea of getting revenge. That's why, when Chaos's heart started to beat in his chest, before opening his eyes, she put the fire of her heart in that glance, and, thus, she forced him to call her „mother." And she thought that the fire, which she put in Chaos's eyes, will make him be always by her side and do evil things, as her thoughts were planning. But she had been wrong, and this made her roar, this made her scream, this made her be mad, and bring Eris to life.

  Namely the birth of a new child of the Cosmos meant the first failure for Chaos. But he was so blind to see it. However, they all lost, in the end: Chaos has been scattered throughout the Cosmos, Eris has been imprisoned in the worst and the scariest prison which ever existed, while Genea had to remain a captive in her own prison, where she was swallowed step by step by her own evil thoughts, making her fear, making her weak, and want to vanish.

  However, that defeat meant something different for all of them: while Genea and Chaos accepted their failure and their destiny, not the same happened to Eris, who had a seed of hope to escape someday, and that seed was just a product of her black heart, for evil knows another evil, they can smell each other from far distances, and this always means the same: big troubles for everybody.

  And to be sure that she'll succeed, Eris made, with her own hands, from a seed of black energy which she took from the tripes of Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi, a black diamond. Then, she took her heart out of her chest, being able to exist without it, and, joining her heart with that black diamond, she gathered their power while feeding it with her black milk, and when that diamond was powerful enough to exist on its own, Eris looked for an opportunity to make it escape from that prison.

  And it happened very soon: one night, when a small gate had been opened by her power on the wall of Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi, Eris threw the diamond through it, quickly closed that door not to be spotted by someone, and ordered the diamond to hide in the Universe.

  But that escape has been considered Dike's fault, for being a dreamer and for falling prey to the charm of the Cosmos that night. And, because of this, Dike has been sent to Earth, a world already created by the Titans, where Gaea was considered the Mother of all living things. Yet, there was still a lot to do because that new world was still formed by her. That's why Dike had a new mission there: to form a world where kindness could hide in case of need.

  And Dike was told to stay on Earth till it will be totally formed, till he'll have a worthy scion to rule that world in his place, and only when the Titan is aware that he taught everybody how to stand against evil, when he is aware that he also knows everything about Good and Evil, about Kindness and Loss, about Peace and War, he'll be free to turn back to Paradise and guard Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi again.

  That's why Dike left the limitless Cosmos right away and came to Earth. But he left his elder brother there, he left Lodur to guard Eris in his place, and this made her roar because she understood the big mistake she had done: leaving that black diamond escape, she condemned herself to eternal prison, to no chance to freely breathe again, for Lodur wasn't the same dreamer his brother had been, and he wasn't able to leave her to feel free, even for a second.

  And, with Dike’s coming to Earth, a new era started for the earthly creatures, for, even if he suffered the shame of being chased away from Paradise, he had a grandiose plan in his mind: to lay the foundation of a new Paradise on Earth while ruling the Rophions.