Chapter 2564: Story 2565: The God Beneath the Crimson Ark

The deepest gates of the Crimson Ark opened.

Something enormous moved within the darkness.

At first, Victoria Kane saw only two burning eyes.

Then a massive hand emerged.

Black armor covered its body, but unlike the Crimson soldiers, its armor appeared ancient—scarred by countless battles and engraved with symbols that seemed older than language itself.

The being stepped from the Ark.

The desert trembled beneath its weight.

Even Azrakar stopped struggling.

Nox’Rath stared upward.

His expression became pale.

"No..."

Cassian lowered his spear.

"The God-Eater."

Cole looked at him.

"You’ve got to stop giving everything terrifying names."

Cassian did not smile.

"That name is accurate."

The creature continued descending until it stood above the battlefield like a living mountain.

Its armor opened slightly, revealing a body made entirely from swirling crimson darkness.

Around its neck hung fragments of shattered stars.

Dr. Evelyn Brooks opened Elias Crow’s journal.

The pages remained completely blank.

For the first time since the journal had awakened...

It had nothing to say.

Evelyn whispered,

"It doesn’t know what that thing is."

Nox’Rath answered quietly.

"Because nothing should remember it."

The creature raised one enormous hand.

Every Crimson soldier immediately knelt.

Valerius appeared above the Ark.

"Behold."

"The first weapon of the Crimson Throne."

Victoria hovered beside Azrakar.

"What is it?"

Valerius smiled.

"Something your precious First Dawn could never defeat."

The creature opened its mouth.

No sound emerged.

Instead, every star above the desert suddenly disappeared.

Darkness swallowed the sky.

Lucas looked upward in terror.

"The stars..."

"They’re gone."

Nox’Rath shook his head.

"No."

"They’re still there."

"They’ve simply been consumed."

Victoria tightened her grip on the Dawnblade.

The Living Dawn inside her heart suddenly weakened.

For the first time since becoming the Keeper...

Her light flickered.

Valerius noticed.

"Now you understand."

"The Crimson Throne does not fight light."

"It starves it."

The God-Eater moved.

Its enormous fist descended toward Victoria.

She raised the Dawnblade.

Golden light exploded across the sky.

The impact shook the entire universe.

Victoria was thrown backward.

She crashed through three layers of golden clouds before stopping herself.

Cole shouted her name.

"I’m fine!"

Victoria looked at the Dawnblade.

A crack had appeared along its radiant edge.

She stared in disbelief.

"The Dawnblade..."

"It can break?"

Nox’Rath flew toward her.

"Not because the weapon is weak."

"Because that creature consumes the source of its power."

Below them, Azrakar suddenly roared.

The ancient guardian tore another crimson chain from its body.

Then another.

Thousands of forgotten memories erupted from its skin, filling the heavens with visions of lost civilizations.

Victoria understood.

The God-Eater was feeding on light.

Azrakar was protecting memory.

And memory could preserve what light alone could not.

She turned toward Cassian.

"Can Azrakar fight it?"

Cassian looked at the awakening guardian.

"If you free him completely."

Victoria nodded.

"Then we finish the chains."

She flew toward Azrakar.

The God-Eater reached for her.

Nox’Rath intercepted the enormous hand.

Darkness collided with darkness.

The impact sent shockwaves across the desert.

Cole, Lucas, and Evelyn began destroying the remaining crimson chains from the ground.

Selene and Roland led Asterion’s forces against the Crimson soldiers.

Cassian charged toward the Ark.

"I’ll stop Valerius."

Victoria shouted after him.

"Don’t fight him alone!"

Cassian glanced back.

"I won’t."

He pointed toward the soldiers now standing beside him.

"For the first time..."

"...I have an army worth believing in."

He disappeared into the crimson gates.

Victoria reached Azrakar’s heart.

There she saw millions of memories compressed into a single golden sphere.

She placed both hands upon it.

"I remember."

The Living Dawn answered.

Every forgotten civilization flashed across the heavens.

The dead were not resurrected.

Their stories were.

Their names.

Their sacrifices.

Their dreams.

The God-Eater suddenly screamed.

The consumed stars began returning.

Valerius’s smile vanished.

"What have you done?"

Victoria opened her golden eyes.

"I reminded creation..."

"...that forgetting is not the same as destroying."

Azrakar’s final chain shattered.

The ancient guardian rose to his full height.

Its roar became a thunderous declaration across the universe.

The God-Eater turned toward it.

For the first time...

It stepped backward.

Valerius clenched his fists.

"Impossible."

Azrakar opened its enormous jaws.

Inside burned a light older than the stars.

And Victoria realized the truth.

The guardian had not been imprisoned because it was dangerous to the world.

It had been imprisoned...

Because it was the one creature capable of defeating the God-Eater.

The battle for the seven hundred thirteen worlds had just changed forever.