The sky of the Veil ignited without warning.
At first, it was light—gold and violet flames streaking across the stars like brushstrokes from a mad god. Then came the sound, not heard but felt—a deep, thunderous pressure that cracked the trees of Hope's imagined garden and made the very air shimmer.
"He's here," Diana said, already unsheathing her sword.
Sarive stepped forward, chest rising, fists clenching.
"I can feel him," he muttered, his voice low. "He's not like the others. He's part of this place."
Hope didn't move. She stared up at the sky, her small hands curling into fists. The light above twisted and tore, forming a gash across the heavens.
And from that rift, he descended.
The Forgotten God.
He Came Wearing Night
His body was a cathedral of collapsing matter, galaxies suspended in his ribcage like dying stars. His eyes were twin voids—bottomless, old, hungry. As he floated downward, the Veil bent to him, like a child recognizing its parent.
"At last," he whispered, his voice like a choir of broken mirrors. "The power returns to where it began."
Sarive leapt.
A sonic boom cracked the ground behind him as he soared upward, fist blazing with white-blue energy. But the Forgotten God caught him mid-strike—barely raising a hand.
With a flick, Sarive was hurled through three layers of the Veil, crashing through spirit-trees and sky-temples before slamming into a crystal mountain.
Hope screamed. Diana stepped between them, lasso glowing with celestial fire.
"You will not take her," she said.
The Forgotten God looked at her, expression unreadable.
"You fight well, daughter of clay and divinity," he said. "But I have not come to fight."
He looked past her—to Hope.
"I've come to teach her... what she truly is."
Asgard – War Council Chamber
Odin's spear gleamed as the realm shook.
"It has begun," he said.
Tyr, still nursing wounds from the last god-duel, growled, "Is it true? The First God—he lives?"
"Not lives," Odin replied grimly. "He returns. There is a difference. He was not merely forgotten. He was buried. His existence was a scar on the face of all creation."
"And now that scar bleeds," Frigga said.
The halls groaned. Thunder rolled. And all across the nine realms, war banners were lifted.
Back in the Veil – The Lesson
Hope stood alone.
Time had stopped around her. Diana and Sarive—frozen mid-motion, caught in a breathless moment.
Only the Forgotten God moved.
"They don't understand you," he said softly, almost kindly. "You were not born of fate. You were born of function. A correction."
Hope narrowed her eyes. "I'm not a weapon."
"No," he said. "You're the answer to a question the gods are too afraid to ask: Why do we exist at all?"
He reached forward, gently touching her forehead.
And in an instant—Hope saw everything.
Visions of the First War
She saw a cosmos still forming, gods birthed from primal energies, chaotic and directionless. Among them stood him—the First, the only one who did not take his power from the void... but from something deeper.
The Energy of Gods.
He had shaped stars. Written the first laws of physics. Given the concept of time to the multiverse.
And the other gods?
They grew afraid.
So they bound him. Erased his name. Burned his temples from the walls of reality. And buried the truth of his power within a future child.
A failsafe.
Hope.
Back to the Moment
Hope staggered back as the vision ended, her hands glowing.
"Why show me this?" she demanded.
"Because the gods will never stop hunting you," he said. "But I... I can make them kneel. Join me, and we rewrite this multiverse. Not with war. With order. You will never be afraid again."
Sarive groaned behind them, rising slowly, bruised but burning with power. Diana followed suit, blood trickling down her cheek.
Hope looked between them.
"You already had your chance," she said to the Forgotten God. "You were like me once. But you let your pain become your purpose."
She stepped back, standing between Sarive and Diana now.
"I still have hope."
The sky roared.
And for the first time, the Forgotten God's expression changed—faint surprise... then fury.
"So be it," he whispered.
He raised Nullfang, and the sky cracked open again.