The morning dawned with a cold, gray light and cast Neo-ilka in the soft glow of waking neon. And in this city, always alive, it pulsed with the quiet hum of technology as her people went quietly through the streets like ghosts in the haze. This was the day when everything changed for Zypher and his crew; it was just the beginning of something that they didn't even come close to understanding. No, they weren't hunting fragments anymore; they were on a journey where their futures would be forged.
Packing up the last of their equipment, Zypher looked over his crew with a quiet resolve. Kiera made fussing motions over her hacking gear, her eyes bright with focus. Orion ran checks on his arms. The glint of steel within his palms reflected his grim determination. And then there was Nyra, the digital siren, the way her face was bathed in the dim glow of her console, over which she ran diagnostics on their route. All of them carried with them their reasons, reasons that had brought them together, molded them into a team, and heaved the weight of those onto his shoulders.
"We are entering unknown territories," Zypher said, his voice unwavering. "Once we leave Neo-ilka, it's us. No backup, no allies. Just us and the Divinitas pieces.".
Kiera nodded her head, not breaking gaze. "We have come this far, Zypher. We can't begin to take a step back now. Anyway," she was going on, smiling slightly now, "we're only just starting to realize what Divinitas really is."
Orion cracked his knuckles into his palms, a savage grin spread across his face. "About time some real action. See what the gods left on the ground for us now.".
They moved out just as the city's automatic streetlamps flickered off and dawn cast shadows of high-rise skyscrapers across them. Their course took them through the fringes of the city, beyond shining, sleek towers into industrial wastelands stretching toward the unknown.
As Zypher walked, he couldn't avoid feeling the magnitude of what they did. This was no mission; it was a call, something older and more powerful than he could explain, something from the gods themselves. He felt it with every step, the weight of the different pieces in his pack, each one pulsing with its own energy, its own personality. Not part of a weapon, but pieces of some living thing.
Before them, the landscape began to change-from the endless wasteland of Neo-ilka's industrial zones to the desolate outskirts where only the remains of failed projects and forgotten experiments lingered. Air clotted with rust and decay coexisted with the faint smell of distant rain.
Ever so curious, Kiera strolled along beside him with her head cocked sideways to scan the ever expansive sky. "Don't you ever wonder whether the gods, themselves walked these roads or are tied to some kind of fate like every Neo-ilkan is?
Zypher considered it. The weight of his body rested on the Ares fragment in his pack-that was a constant reminder of the war god's presence, lingering. "If they were, then I think they scattered parts of themselves here. Like echoes in the ruins."
Orion snorted, his tone thoughtful. "If they were here, they probably all created this destruction. Gods don't exactly tip-toe through people's lives.".
Before them, Nyra's form flickered, her digital essence merging with the sensors in the air as she projected a small holographic map of their route. "The Oracle said next that fragment is to be found in the Obsidian Wastes," she murmured. "A place even the gods avoid .".
The Obsidian Wastes were leftovers from a botched attempt at a tech corp - miles of broken glass and blackened sand, where only the hardiest type of life could survive. I was told it was a place haunted by the past, where memories clung to it like shadows, and the very earth itself seemed to reject human presence. It sounded like the perfect hiding place for something ancient, powerful, and long forgotten.
As they crested the edge of the Wastes, a heavy silence fell over the team. The air was cold, and a low, otherworldly wind skittered across the landscape, picking up tiny whirlpools of ash. The ground beneath was dark, glossy, and brittle underfoot, like a field of shattered onyx that stretched out before them to infinity.
Orion frowned, kicking a rock that crumbled into dust. "This place feels wrong. Like something's watching.".
Zypher looked down at the map, the weak signal of the next fragment of Divinitas pulsing just out of their reach. "The Oracle said that each fragment contains a challenge. A test of worthiness. This place is probably no exception."
Nyra shivered, her digital projection flickering slightly as if disturbed by some unseen force. "It's not just a test. There's a presence here. Old. and angry.".
They continued, stepping into a maw of the Wastes one by one, their feet echoing through an endless silence that devoured them piece by piece. The horizon stretched and warped and twisted to impossible degrees within the land itself, a dark labyrinth. They moved in silence, their step slower than the last under an unseen pressure pressed upon them.
The ground shook. A figure formed out of the darkness ahead—a huge, ghostly shape robed in armor and flames, as if the very air around him burned with a silent rage.
Orion set his face and raised his fists. "Another guardian? Or perhaps… a memory?"
The figure spoke, its voice deep and reverberating, as if drawn from the depths of a forgotten age. "Only those who carry the strength of the gods may pass. You seek the Divinitas, yet you don't know what the burden is.".
Zypher felt the weight growing with the fragments; feverish energy slid through them like some lavish machinations. He stepped forward and met the guardian's eyes. "We know the risk. We faced the wrath of Ares and took one of his fragments. We will face whatever test you have for us.".
The figure regarded them with its shape dancing like a flame on the wind. "Power is acquired at a cost, I suppose. The Divinitas was designed to hold the gods back, but it binds as much by the hand that wields it. If you're inclined to take it for yourself, then you have to understand that you'll never be free of it."
With that, the figure disappeared, leaving nothing at all but the silence and a distant throb of pulsing light to mark the site of the next shard.