Were it not such a dire situation, seeing the sibling gods scurry around in a panic would have been amusing to watch.

  This isn’t good at all! Gialan thought.

  He unconsciously gnawed on his nail, his every movement steeped in trepidation.

  “If we return to the Astral Realm, perhaps we can placate him and dissuade him from descending to Dargon?” He muttered.

  Pelos shook his head with a frown unbecoming of the young face he wore, “No, we cannot do that. He wants our worlds destroyed and we are the reason he hasn’t already done it.”

  Aeliyas nodded thoughtfully, “Yes, as long as we are here, he cannot destroy our worlds without destroying our souls as well.”

  “He… wouldn’t go that far… right?” Gialan said hesitantly.

  The sibling gods were silent for a moment.

  <--<< >>-->

  “Haert isn’t supposed to awaken now!” Garyth muttered under his breath.

  Gialan looked over at him with a partly condescending and partly frustrated look and said snidely, “You say you turned back time and tried to change the course of history and yet you are confused when history changes?”

  Garyth found himself at a loss for words, then silently berated himself for not thinking of that sooner. His face burned as the embarrassment creeped in, but he bit back the feeling and quietly acknowledged the truth to the god’s words.

  “Well, regardless of what has happened, this is the time we live in and the situation we face. Do you know of any way that Dargon can be saved?” Garyth asked the sibling gods, forcing himself to put aside his personal feelings.

  They looked visibly uncomfortable at his question.

  Garyth felt a sense of dread pooling in his stomach.

  His fists were clenched tightly as he asked quietly, “You’re not… going to abandon Dargon again, are you?”

  Gialan was silent, but Pelos instantly shook his head, a scowl across his youthful features.

  “Never,” He said.

  Garyth smiled sadly, “That’s what you said last time. But in the end, you couldn’t keep your word…”

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  He trailed off, then caught himself and said, “But the past is the past. Is it even possible to… change the creator’s mind or… something?”

  Pelos sighed, a solemn expression on his face, before he admitted, “Truthfully, I don’t see a way out of this that can save Dargon. Our grandfather is almost as much a stranger to us as he is to you.”

  Feeling frustrated, Garyth groaned, “How does that even make sense…? You’re all gods, aren’t you?”

  Aeliyas chimed in, “There is a hierarchy, as with all things. We are all derived from his power—we cannot betray him and we cannot disobey him. For if we do, the balance will make us all pay. We are not as free as you believe us to be, mortal.”

  Lirya, who’d remained silent with the other guardians, hesitantly spoke up, asking quietly, “Are we all going to die?”

  Taryn joined in, “Why does he want to destroy Dargon? What have we done?”

  Gialan shook his head and peered at his siblings, an unreadable expression shared between them. Garyth knew instantly that there was something they weren’t saying. They looked up and met his eyes and Garyth could see that they knew he was aware.

  “What aren’t you telling us?” Garyth asked sharply, his eyes boring into theirs.

  “He had no knowledge of our creation of the worlds. We created Dargon and the other worlds, not the creator god. He had no part in this and he has no attachment to your worlds! Not like we do,” Pelos said.

  Garyth furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to make sense of Pelos’ words.

  Is attachment really the only thing that would prevent him from destroying Dargon? If so, how can we make him form some kind of attachment to Dargon? Garyth thought, then asked the sibling gods quietly, “Is it possible to bind him to a mortal form, much like your own?”

  “What?” Gialan questioned, but Aeliyas contemplated his words.

  “You mean to show him why Dargon is worth saving?” She asked slowly.

  Garyth nodded, “There is beauty in mortality. To you gods, who live for an eternity, our lifespans are only that of a grain of time’s sand. But because we are mortal, we burn bright with chaos and creation. We, too, are his creations and if we cannot show him Dargon’s beauty, we never had any chance anyways.”

  Out of nowhere, there was a rumble and a blinding flash of light. Garyth shut his eyes, then shielded them with his arm when the light seeped through his eyelids.

  Through the ringing in his ears, Garyth dimly heard Gialan utter a muffled curse. Then, as suddenly as it came, the light receded and Garyth hesitantly opened his eyes, blinking the spots out of his vision. The others were similarly rattled.

  “He’s here!” Aeliyas hissed, her eyes brimming with apprehension.

  Another blinding flash of light illuminated the whole palace, but this time it did not disappear within moments. It stayed and within mere moments, it felt like his skin was getting melted off. Bathed in the light that was brighter and hotter than the sun, Garyth dimly wondered if he could die again.

  Just as Garyth truly believed he was going to melt, he felt a cool shadow pass over him and the pain disappeared the moment the light did. He blinked, slowly focusing his eyes, and saw Aeliyas standing in front of him, casting a shield over him and Ariane. Pelos and Gialan stood protectively over the others, seemingly unaffected by Haert’s blinding radiance.

  Curiosity got the better of him, and Garyth let his gaze wander up to where the creator god was descending. The creator god had been a terrifying giant with vaguely humanoid shape like an endless abyss whirling with chaos. Now, he wore a humanoid skin—one that masked the monster beneath. He was hauntingly beautiful in an ethereal sense, with a dark, star-speckled body and long silvery hair. That was as much as Garyth saw, before he had to tear his eyes away as they began to burn. The creator god’s mere presence was painful.