“So, this is the land the Spirits spoke of…” Thea said quietly examining the land before her; or what was left of it anyway. She expected to see dirt, but instead, gray rocks paved the way for miles.

“A place where the elements cannot touch.” Ballard placed a hand on the ground attempting to pick up maybe a fragment of the ground, but it remained solid.

The Spirits had mentioned that each time they recreated the world, their power would drain. They had become too weak to recreate the world fully, and thus part of the land had begun to decay. Thus, Ares, Thea, and Ballard set out to the northeast to see for themselves. Linda and Jerry declined their offer as they were still settling into their roles as the sun and moon.

“I guess this part of the land is uninhabitable. Time to fence it off and call it a day,” Thea said as she turned to leave, not wanting to spend any more time somewhere as depressing as this.

“No,” Ares stopped her. “What if… What if we could fix it?”

“And how would you go about that?” Ballard asked. “Are you planning on bulldozing several tons of dirt and soil to renew the land?”

“What if this world has its own type of technology? Something we could use to make life easier for those living in this area?”

“Or they could just… not live here. Seems like the easier solution to me,” Thea said.

"Easier, definitely. But now I've piqued my own interest." Ares chuckled to himself.

---

"Why did you want to meet in a cave?" Thea asked, shivering as they made their way inside. It had only been a few steps, yet the chill hit her like a snowstorm.

"I met with the Fae prince and he gave me some information," Ares explained. "It wasn't easy either. Apparently, you and I have a sour reputation among the Fae considering it's usually our elements that end up in the destruction of the world. Needless to say, I wasn't immediately welcomed."

"Oh? And just how did you manage to sway them?"

"That's a story for another time." Ares shook his head. "What's important is that the prince mentioned a special type of light sealed within rocks. This light emitted some sort of energy that the last incarnation of Halcyone's people were never able to piece together."

"And you think this energy might be similar to electricity?"

"Exactly."

Thea scrunched her nose as she processed what he was saying. "But that was in the old world. There's no guarantee it still exists in this world."

Ares' rhythmic footsteps stopped as he realized Thea was no longer following him. "The Fae prince mentioned a place where it might be possible — no — highly likely that it made the cross-over. There are only three places that remain stagnant — always surviving the cycles."

"And this is one of those places."

Ares nodded. "If we can find a way to harness its power, we can recreate technology from our world. And maybe we can even use it to mimic the elements and restore Zetheria!"

"Can I ask you something?" Thea asked with a sly smirk.

"Yeah?" Ares gave a lopsided grin knowing whatever question she would ask would be a good one.

"You don't really care about the people, do you?"

Ares smirked. "I don't. I just want to see if my theory is accurate."

The two reached the end of the cave, stumbling upon a chamber with glistening vibrant blue light, just as the Fae prince had told Ares. Hovering his hand over a cluster of lights, he felt a strange sensation. It was unmistakable that these lights harnessed some sort of energy not unlike electricity.

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"It seems your new friend was right." Thea mused as her eyes trailed the wall. It was so beautiful that it was mesmerizing.

"What to do now..." Ares wondered.

Ares spent several moons holed up in the cave, only briefly teleporting when he needed something. Thea frequented his new hideout, mostly to ensure Ares wouldn't drive himself insane from isolation.

"It's done."

Thea nearly dropped the basket of food she was holding when she heard those words. In front of her was a radio three times the size of one in Eyris. She supposed it would take a while longer to learn how to make one the size of Eyris.

"Wow! You... You actually did it!" Thea beamed as she excitedly ran over to the "new" invention turning her head every which way to get a better look at it. Ares hadn't seen her so giddy since they were kids. "Just think of what we can bring to Halcyone with this! The likes of which they've never even seen... never even comprehended before! This can be the last cycle!" She turned to Ares excitedly.

"No," Ares said firmly. "I've already deduced that it would be impossible to replicate the elements. If we were to reinvent things from Eyris, it would... feel wrong." He pinched the bridge of his nose trying to ease his headache. When was the last time he had slept?

"You don't feel that these inventions belong in this world..." Thea answered for him.

"Exactly. It would be like turning this world into another Eyris.”

”What if I don’t feel the same?” Thea asked.

“Your opinions are your own. I can’t change how you feel.” Ares shrugged, closing his eyes. Thea was surprised he wasn’t angry at her for disagreeing. So, he didn’t feel that strongly about it after all.

”Teach me how this new energy works.”

Ares opened an eye hesitantly. “You still want to try even if it doesn’t change anything in Zetheria?”

”It’s still too early to give up. If you don’t see your inventions through, I will.”

—-

Ares had spent many moons honing his elemental powers as well as befriending the other Elemental Spirits and Fae folk. Even still, he felt lonely without Thea by his side. She was the only part of his world left, and she had dedicated all of her time to Zetheria.

He had stubbornly avoided her. If she really cared about him, she would make time to visit him, wouldn’t she?

How many moons had it been since he last saw her? His patience was wearing thin. He would check on her, but only to give her a piece of his mind.

To his utter surprise, Zetheria was covered in marble roads, with various inventions strewn about. And to his utter disgust, Ballard was there beside her tinkering with some sort of floating board.

“You asked Ballard for help?!” Ares clenched his fists. His blood boiled from how much he hated that man. He had thought Thea shared his feelings.

”I didn’t ask; he volunteered,” Thea said matter of factly. Ballard waved from his spot on the ground, grinning from ear to ear.

“You haven't been around…” Ares mumbled, feeling too embarrassed to vent in front of Ballard. He wondered if Ballard would view him the same way he had viewed Ballard.

”I could say the same about you.” There was an unmistakable chill in her voice. She was upset. No — hurt.

Maybe he was a jerk after all. Thea had visited him countless times while he was pulling all-nighters in the cave, yet he hadn’t visited her once.

That didn’t change that he was still too proud and upset to properly apologize. Instead, he decided to change the subject. Maybe even compliment her a little. “You’ve made a lot of progress.”

“Yeah, that tends to happen in half a year.”

”Half a year?!” Ares gawked. Had it really been that long since he had seen her? Now he really felt like a jerk.

“Thea said you were the one who learned about this energy. Just how did you come about such knowledge?” Ballard asked.

“The Fae.” Ares answered lazily.

Ballard nodded his head understandingly. If the Fae knew about the energy in the cave and also possessed knowledge of the old world, just what other information were they hiding?

Thus, Ballard put his new plan into action.

He knew it would take a while to gain the Fae’s trust, but he had never expected it would take years. Just how had Ares managed to receive their trust so quickly? Never mind. He had all the time in the world, after all.

Once he gained their trust, it was just a matter of befriending the right people and gaining access to their archives. Of course, none of the right people wanted to be his friend; the fault of Ares, no doubt.

So, he waited several more years. And when several more years provided the same results, he depended on his power over the living to get the answers he wanted. He would simply kill whoever was in his way, and decompose the body before anyone could find it.

At last, all of the knowledge of the Fae belonged to him. And what fascinating knowledge it was! There were three main points he gathered from what he found.

Firstly, war, famine, and death among the five chosen by the Spirits were seemingly reasons for the Spirits to recreate the world.

Secondly, he had already learned from the Spirits themselves that their draining power was the cause of the erosion in Halcyone. However, one of the archives spoke of the heart of Halcyone, a place fueled by energy. It was theorized that the spirits of the departed could also be funneled to increase Halcyone’s energy, assuming the natural order of the dead departing to the afterlife could be interrupted.

Thirdly, humans also had the potential for magic. By exposing them to large amounts of the desired element and making use of an incantation— something that had apparently been lost the last few cycles — they could drain elemental magic from the Spirits themselves.

His plan was simple in theory: He would use the humans to drain the magic from the Spirits until they would become too weak to recreate the world, guaranteeing his immortal life. Then, use the same humans to sustain Halcyone once the Spirits are no more.

He would become this world’s god.