Far below the Wastes of Nyr, beyond mortal reach or divine memory, lay the Black Forge—a place older than Olympus, older even than the First Thrones.
It was not made.
It was excavated from the bones of a dead god.
The air in the forge was thick with the scent of molten ether, and the walls were carved with runes that pulsed like veins—alive, breathing, ancient. Each step sent echoes ricocheting through forgotten time.
Anubis followed Zeus in silence, her heart pounding not with fear—but anticipation.
She had been broken. She had bled. But she had not yielded.
And now she would be remade.
They stopped at the edge of a great pit. Below, divine fire swirled endlessly, black at its core, gold at the edges. This was no mortal flame—it devoured not flesh, but limitation.
Zeus turned to her. "This place does not give power. It takes away weakness. That's the cost."
"I'm ready," she said.
"No, you're not. But you will be."
He raised his spear and sliced open the air. A ring of jagged, metallic sigils flared into existence, spinning around them. The Trial Sigil.
"You will enter the forge naked—of armor, of title, of magic. Only your will can carry you through. If it breaks... you will die. Forgotten. Your name burned from all memory."
Anubis inhaled deeply, then stepped forward.
The sigils parted.
She stepped into the fire.
And screamed.
The forge was not heat—it was pressure. It crushed her from every direction, stripping away her demonic form, her elemental essence, her past. Her mind shattered into fragments—visions of her being humiliated, beaten, misused....
"Who are you?" a voice boomed, not Zeus's, but something else it came from within the depths of the Forge itself.
She didn't answer.
"WHO ARE YOU?" the voice roared again, shaking her soul.
"I... I am Anubis!" she shouted.
"Anubis is dead."
"No!" she screamed. "I am more! I am not his tool! I am not her prey! I am not the throne's shadow!"
The fire surged around her. Pain gave way to fury. Fury gave way to focus.
"I am the flame that disobeys! The wind that refuses silence! I am reborn not as a demon—but as defiance itself!"
Her body, once engulfed in fire, now burned with a new glow—neither divine nor infernal.
Something other.
The flames around her turned violet.
A color not meant for this world.
She walked out of the forge—eyes glowing, hair floating weightless, her skin carved with lines of light and runes of the dead god's tongue.
Zeus stood at the edge, watching.
She knelt before him.
He did not ask her to.
"I am yours," she said. "Not by bond. But by choice."
Zeus looked down at her, and for once, there was no cold authority in his eyes.
Only something like... pride.
"Yes, you're ready."
---
Elsewhere...
In a chamber veiled in violet mist, Nerezza paused.
Her eyes narrowed.
She felt it.
The forge had awakened something.
"A second ascendant…" she whispered. "How... delicious."
But she smiled.
"Let her rise. Let her become everything she thinks she is."
She traced a rune in the air.
"And when she does... I'll rip it from her bones myself."
------
The sky above the mortal realm was calm.
A warm breeze passed over the city—familiar streets, students laughing in the courtyard, life moving on as though nothing had happened.
They didn't know.
They didn't see the shift in the heavens. They didn't feel the crack in the realms that occurred when Anubis stepped from the Black Forge and into the world of men.
But the earth did.
It shuddered.
The moment she arrived, time bent slightly. The wind paused. The light dimmed—not into shadow, but into awe.
She landed outside her home, barefoot, her feet barely touching the ground. Her robes—if they could still be called that—were weightless, stitched from fragments of wind, flame, and something older than either. Her eyes were twin galaxies, rimmed in violet and gold. The runes burned gently along her skin, pulsing like the quiet rhythm of a new heart.
Telma, in the kitchen, dropped the glass in her hand. It shattered before it hit the floor.
She rushed to the window.
What she saw made her fall to her knees.
"Anubis..." she whispered. "Sister... is that really you?"
Anubis didn't smile.
Not yet.
She raised a hand, and the front door dissolved—not shattered, not broken—dissolved into a fine dust that shimmered and blew away.
She stepped inside.
Telma looked up, tears already forming in her eyes. "I felt you were gone. I thought— I thought you wouldn't come back."
"Something happened, I had to rush back home," Anubis replied.
"I need to rest, tomorrow is school."
With that, she walked past Telma and retreated to her room. Behind her, Telma smiled. She was finally happy to see that Anubis had returned after a week that she disappeared.
------
The obsidian walls of the sanctum trembled as Yama paced, furious. His boots crushed the bones of a shattered golem with each step, the ashes of his rage clinging to the air like smoke.
Though his wounds were healed, the humiliation remained.
Zeus had beaten him.
In front of her.
Anubis.
The girl he meant to break… had chained him.
And worse, she now bore power born of the Black Forge—a place even Yama had never dared tread.
His hands clenched until green sparks bled from his fingertips, scorching the air.
"She knelt to him," Yama growled, his voice vibrating through the stone. "She chose him."
He waved his hand and shattered a pillar of black crystal into dust.
"That arrogant mongrel…"
Just then, a quiet surge of shadow stirred behind him.
"Father," a voice said carefully.
Yama turned, his eyes immediately softening—but only slightly.
From the shadows emerged Ramiel, hands behind his back, his usual calm demeanor hiding a flicker of unease. The prince of shadows… and the secret son of Yama.
"You're here," Yama said with a low hum. "You should've come sooner."
"I sensed your anger," Ramiel replied. "The entire ninth ring did."
Yama turned away, pacing again, green flame trailing from his fingertips. "He mocked me. That damned brother of mine. Before her. That girl…"
Ramiel tilted his head. "Anubis?"
Yama's steps slowed.
His voice dropped to a near-whisper. "She stood before me like a whelp with sharpened teeth. Had the audacity to defy me. She refused my offer. Then tried to kill me."
Ramiel's brows drew together. "She's… changed. Stronger. She just returned to school."
Yama froze.
He turned slowly.
"You've been watching her?" he asked with dangerous calm.
Ramiel nodded. "Only from afar. I saw her... the air bent when she arrived. Her energy—it's not demonic. Not divine. It's something else now."
A strange look flickered across Yama's face—half admiration, half rage.
"She bore the forge," Yama whispered. "And lived."
He stepped closer to Ramiel.
"So tell me… how are things going between you and her?"
Ramiel hesitated. "I tried. She doesn't trust me. She barely looks at me. But I can feel it—part of her doesn't hate me. Not anymore."
Yama's smile returned—cold and sharp like a blade.
"Good."
Ramiel blinked. "Good?"
Yama circled him now, the way he had once circled Anubis.
"I've decided," he said. "You will stay close to her."
"To... spy?" Ramiel asked.
Yama chuckled. "To fracture her."
Ramiel's face remained still, but his gut twisted.
"She trusts Zeus. Worships him. But you—you will be her seed of doubt. You are her peer. Her equal. You will make her question her path. Sooner or later, even the strongest bond will crack... if the right words are whispered."
Ramiel looked away. "And if I don't want to?"
Yama's smile faded.
He leaned in close, voice like poison in the ear. "You owe your life to me, boy. Your mother died birthing you. I raised you from ash. Your very blood is mine. Don't pretend you have a choice."
Ramiel clenched his jaw.
"Yes, Father."
"Good," Yama said, patting his son's shoulder mockingly. "Now go. Be the serpent. Coil around her heart."
Ramiel stepped back into the shadows and vanished.
But inside him, something stirred. A part of him that didn't want to be a serpent.
A part that had started to care for Anubis.
And that was the one part Yama could never control.