The winds outside the Frost-Heart Temple had stilled, but the storm within had only just begun.
The newly awakened vessel stood silent at the altar's shattered remains. His skin, once pale as frost, was now laced with threads of abyssal black. His eyes shimmered with flickers of blue and violet, as if caught in an eternal struggle.
Selene circled him warily, blades ready.
Darius clenched his weapon tightly. "This… thing. Can we trust it?"
Oscar stepped forward. "He's not a thing. He's a relic. A memory. And right now, he's ours."
The vessel's voice was low and distant. "My name was Vaelion… once. I was the Voice of the Frost. The Winter God's chosen."
"And now?" Oscar asked.
Vaelion lifted his hand. Shadows coiled with frost.
"Now, I am unbound."
---
Between Divinity and Damnation
Back in the abyssal fortress, the generals assembled.
The news of Oscar's return—and of the temple's fall—spread swiftly through the ranks. Whispers of the 'Frozen Godspawn' reached every corner of the corrupted legions.
Some called it a gift.
Others, a curse.
Ethan sat upon the abyssal throne, listening to Vaelion speak. The vessel stood before him like a monument to forgotten power—serene, yet trembling with instability.
"The Winter God is no more," Vaelion explained, eyes distant. "Her essence shattered when she gave her last blessings to the Ice Queen. I was left in stasis… a failsafe."
"And now that failsafe is ours," Selene added.
Darius still eyed Vaelion with suspicion. "He's a remnant of a god. A being of pure control. What happens if he remembers his old loyalty?"
Oscar answered instead.
"Then we remind him what power really feels like."
---
A City on Edge
Meanwhile, in the kingdom of Fravendis—an independent frostbound nation between the Abyssal Lands and the Holy Kingdom—panic stirred.
The auroras above had dimmed, replaced by blackened streaks across the skies. The priests wept. The seers screamed of visions.
"A god has returned," they cried. "But it is not our god."
The king of Fravendis, a hard and frost-bitten man named Lord Veyric, summoned his war council.
"We've maintained neutrality long enough," he growled. "The abyss encroaches. The Holy Kingdom weakens. We must choose where we stand."
Some urged alliance with the Light.
Others, more daring, whispered a dangerous idea:
"What if we served the abyss instead?"
---
Training the Godspawn
Back in the black spires of the abyss, Oscar led Vaelion into a chamber of warped mirrors and whispering stone.
Here, abyssal soldiers trained endlessly—shadow-forged, tireless, merciless.
"You've been asleep too long," Oscar told him. "If you're to walk among us, you must fight like us."
Vaelion raised a hand, and a spear of frost formed in his grip. He hurled it across the chamber, impaling one of the abyssal dummies. The corpse disintegrated into frozen dust.
"I remember how to fight."
"But not why," Oscar replied.
Vaelion turned, staring at him. "What is your why, abyss-wielder?"
Oscar's voice was calm.
"To end a world that no longer deserves gods."
---
The Holy Kingdom Reacts
Far across the frozen sea, the Seraphim Knights had begun to move.
Armored in celestial fire, wings of golden flame stretching behind them, they were divine incarnate—beings reborn from holy martyrs.
They marched under the command of Seraph Alundra, the First Blade of Heaven.
She stood upon a hill overlooking a valley blackened by the abyss.
"The darkness has gained a foothold in the north," she said. "But we will burn it away."
Beside her, paladins knelt in prayer, their weapons glowing.
The Holy Kingdom was no longer fighting to survive.
They were preparing to cleanse.
---
Whispers in the Dark
That night, as Oscar stood at the spire's peak watching the stars fade behind clouds of abyssal essence, he felt something.
A whisper.
Not from the abyss.
Not from the gods.
But from beneath.
A voice older than time, speaking through the void between realms.
"You awaken what should have stayed buried."
Oscar's eyes narrowed.
The abyss… was no longer the only thing stirring.
Something ancient had sensed Vaelion's awakening.
And it was watching.
---
The Sleeper Beneath the Ice
The wind howled like a dying god.
Deep within the ruined depths beneath the Frost-Heart Temple, Oscar descended alone—leaving even Vaelion and Selene behind. The corridors were ancient, carved not by mortal hands but by something far older. The air itself grew heavy, laced with frost and dread.
Every step he took down the spiraling abyssal staircase felt like it echoed through eternity.
Then he heard it again—
Whispers.
Not from the abyss. Not from memory.
From something else.
Something that had been buried beneath the ice for millennia.
---
A Prison of Forgotten Divinity
Oscar stepped into a grand chamber sealed by enormous crystalline doors, encased in chains made of frozen star-metal and bound by ancient runes of both holy and abyssal origin. It was a paradox—divine and damned.
He raised his hand, and the abyss within him pulsed. The seals hissed.
The runes glowed in protest, resisting, trying to hold him back.
And then…
They shattered.
The doors groaned as they opened, revealing a vast, spherical chamber. In its center hovered an orb of frozen light, black veins pulsing within it like a corrupted sun.
It was alive.
Not awake.
Yet.
"What are you?" Oscar whispered.
And the voice came, not spoken, but felt—like cold fingers wrapping around his spine.
"I was the first god. The unspoken one. The root of Light… and the womb of the Abyss."
---
Origins of the Divine
The entity called itself Nyzareth—The Sleeper, The Veiled Flame.
Before the gods of Light and Dark. Before time fractured. Nyzareth had ruled all things. Neither cruel nor kind. Neither creator nor destroyer.
It had simply been.
Then the pantheon shattered it—splintered it into fragments, birthing gods and demons alike to replace what they could not understand.
What remained of Nyzareth was sealed… deep beneath the ice, forgotten by all.
Until now.
Oscar stood before the frozen heart of the world.
And it whispered to him.
"Break the last seal, abyss-bearer. Let me rise once more."
---
Above the Surface
In the citadel above, Selene felt the tremor in her bones.
A pulse.
A presence.
She turned sharply to Darius. "Something's wrong."
Vaelion, standing by a balcony of blackened ice, went rigid.
"Something ancient has stirred. Something older than the gods."
He knew.
And he feared it.
---
Visions of the End
Oscar staggered as visions poured into his mind—worlds consumed by shadow and flame, stars collapsing into bleeding suns, oceans boiling under storms of screaming fire.
The voice of Nyzareth echoed through it all:
"Let me awaken… and I will burn the gods from the sky. I will make you king of a world reborn."
Oscar fell to one knee, gritting his teeth. He saw everything—his rise, the Holy Kingdom's fall, the abyss consuming all…
But he also saw something else.
A choice.
If he awakened Nyzareth, the war would end swiftly—no Light, no Abyss, only silence.
But at what cost?
---
A Dangerous Bargain
Back on the surface, Ethan gathered his generals. Word of Oscar's descent spread. Selene paced like a caged beast.
"He's been gone too long," she growled. "He went alone. Whatever's down there—he's facing it by himself."
Vaelion's voice was calm, but grim. "He faces the source."
"The source of what?" Darius asked.
"The source of everything."
---
The Last Seal
Oscar stood before the final rune.
All it would take was a single word—one command—and Nyzareth would awaken.
The ice cracked.
The abyss throbbed.
The voice whispered: "Free me…"
He raised his hand…
And stopped.
"I am not your pawn," he growled.
He turned away.
But the frozen chamber groaned as if reality itself was in pain.
"You dare deny me?" the voice bellowed.
Oscar's abyss flared.
"I don't deny you," he said. "I postpone you."
With a surge of abyssal power, he reforged the broken runes, reforged the chains—but left the last seal fractured… incomplete.
Not fully locked.
Not fully open.
"Sleep, old god," he whispered. "Your time is not yet."
---
Return
When Oscar emerged from the depths, he looked different.
Eyes sharper. Aura heavier. His abyssal essence crackled with power and something else… ancient.
Selene rushed to him, relief mixed with concern. "What did you find?"
Oscar didn't speak for a moment.
Then: "The war we're fighting… is just the prelude."
Darius stepped forward. "To what?"
Oscar turned toward the sky, where even the stars seemed to flicker uncertainly.
"To the awakening of the true god."
---
End of Chapter 26.