-----Chapter 11: A Prayer Left Unanswered-----
The stone corridors stretched endlessly, lined with knights standing like statues, their polished armor reflecting the flickering torches. The air was stiff, heavy with something unspoken, something that made even the most disciplined warriors stiffen as she passed.
Her steps were deliberate, precise—not a step wasted, not a moment of hesitation.
Despite her title, she wore no flowing robes of divinity. Her armor gleamed in the dim light, a battle-worn testament to the wars she had fought. She was no fragile saint. She was a war priestess. A goddess of battle.
The torches barely lit the path ahead. But she didn't need them.
Sofia had walked in darker places before.
Her fingers brushed the cold steel of her gauntlets, the pressure grounding her. But no matter how tightly she clenched her fists, the weight in her chest refused to fade.
Because she was here now. In this castle, on solid ground.
But three months ago, there was nothing beneath her feet.
Three months ago, the world died.
At first, she thought it was a storm.
A distant rumbling, too deep, too vast to be natural, rolled across the land. The sky, once a tapestry of shifting blues and golds, began to crack.
Not clouds. Not thunder. Something greater. Something terrible.
And then—the tremors began.
The earth heaved beneath her feet, splitting open like flesh beneath a dull blade. Buildings that had stood for centuries collapsed in an instant, their stone and wood devoured by the void swallowing the land. People screamed, running, reaching for something—anything—only to find nothing.
Not fire. Not war.
Oblivion.
She turned to the grand temple behind her, its towering spires reaching toward the heavens. She had spent her life there, leading prayers, guiding the faithful. It had withstood storms, wars, plagues.
It was supposed to stand forever.
And yet—
It was disappearing.
Not crumbling. Vanishing.
The grand halls, the golden altar, the sacred relics—all fading, like ink washing away in the rain.
Her breath came ragged.
"Please."
She fell to her knees, pressing her hands together, her voice breaking.
"Please, answer me."
The ground cracked beneath her. The people she had sworn to protect were screaming.
"Do something!"
Nothing.
The gods did not answer.
Her fingers curled into fists, nails digging into her palms until she drew blood.
"Why?" she choked out. "Why won't you answer?"
But there was no answer. There never was.
And then—the world ended.
A rush of wind, as if the universe itself had exhaled, and everything around her was gone.
No ruins. No bodies. No land.
Nothing.
She stood alone in the void.
And then, before her—a portal opened.
A tear in reality itself. A door where there was no wall.
It did not shimmer with divine light. It did not hum with celestial energy.
It was wrong.
She should have hesitated.
She should have questioned.
But there was nowhere else to go.
She stepped forward.
Not out of faith. Not out of hope.
Out of desperation.
The moment she stepped through, she expected death. But—
She found chaos.
The air was thick, heavy, wrong. The sky above was vast and endless, but it was not hers. It was too high. Too deep. Too unnatural.
And all around her—there were others.
Not just a few. Not just hundreds.
Thousands. Tens of thousands.
People were pouring out of rifts just like hers, collapsing onto unfamiliar land, their bodies trembling, their eyes wide with horror.
Some wept. Some collapsed, whispering prayers that no longer had a god to answer them. Some stared blankly at the sky, as if trying to convince themselves this was real.
A man held onto the last piece of his child's cloak, his hands shaking, his eyes hollow. A woman clawed at the dirt, as if she could dig her way back home.
Some simply stood, unmoving.
Not breathing.
Their bodies alive, but their souls already dead.
Sofia turned, looking for something—anything familiar.
And then, from above—
"You are safe now."
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere.
She looked up.
And for the first time, she saw Aria.
The goddess she had prayed to.
The goddess who had finally answered.
But it was too late.
Her breath was steady. Her heart was not.
"Where were you?" Her voice was hollow.
Aria stood before her, clad in robes of gold and white, her presence radiant, untouchable. Her feet did not touch the ground. She looked perfect. As if nothing had changed.
As if nothing had been lost.
"Where were you when my world fell?"
No answer.
"Where were you when I prayed? When I begged?"
The goddess remained silent.
"Where were you when they died?"
Aria exhaled, as if she too had been holding something inside. But it was not regret. Not sorrow.
"I have come for you now."
Sofia let out a breathless laugh. A sound so bitter it tasted like blood in her mouth.
"Now?" She stepped forward, eyes burning. "Now, after everything is gone? My people are dead. My prayers were unheard. And now you come for me?"
The goddess did not flinch.
"Not just your world," she said softly. "Not just your people."
And then the truth hit her.
She looked around—at the thousands, still emerging from the rifts, still lost, still breaking.
They had all lost their worlds.
The tremors had not just shattered her realm—they had shattered countless realms.
And the ones that remained?
"They are merging," Aria said. "Collapsing together. Becoming one."
Sofia's breath hitched.
"Why?"
Aria's gaze flickered. Just for a moment.
Hesitation.
"We do not know."
Her blood turned cold.
Not the mortals. Not the gods.
No one was in control of this.
Something higher than the gods had done this. Something greater.
"Then what are you for?" she whispered.
Aria did not answer.
Her hands trembled. Her vision blurred. The faith she had carried her entire life collapsed within her like the world she had lost.
She had prayed.
She had believed.
She had been abandoned.
Her goddess stood before her. But she wasn't a savior. She was just another witness.
Something deep inside her cracked.
She pressed a hand against her chest, but it wasn't her body that hurt.
It was everything.
The screams, the void, the silence—it all lived inside her now.
For the first time, she understood.
There was nothing to believe in anymore.
The gods were not salvation.
The gods were just waiting to fall like everything else.