Page 303 of The Gods Order

My gaze scans the remaining futures in front of me, and my attention snags on a special someone attempting to sneak through the throng of bodies.

Not this time, you motherfucker.

My power shoots from my hand, freezing Mellcom in his steps.

I send the smallest nudge in Thayla’s direction, just enough that she shifts her attention to the left a breath before she was going to.

Her eyes find him.

I stroke my soul, and she whirls around. The glow in her gaze is breathtaking, but what captivates me even more is the smile she offers me.

The moment lasts a second, then she spins back around.

Chains slither around Mellcom’s body from his neck to his ankles and her palms shift from the yellow of Creation to the white of Boundaries. I’m not sure what she whispers in his ear, but I know it isn’t the promise of a happy future.

My attention shifts back to everything happening around me.

More futures, more possibilities.

I follow the path that calls for the least number of lives lost and time wasted, yet it has to be the one that leads us where we need to go.

This confrontation has been building for years.

Thiry-five years, technically, between our father and us. But millennia longer between my father, his corruption, and the realm.

It’s time for it to come to an end.

I don’t have to question Thayla’s command. I don’t have to question what she went through in the moments her body floated in the air.

I feel it in my power. Something changed. A direction, a path…

Something shifted in the foundation of the realm enough that it doesn’t rely on Kirabaddon and Sabelline to stay alive.

Now we execute it. As fast as we can.

The battlefield isn’t a battlefield anymore.

It’s a puzzle.

A thousand tiny moments balancing against one another. Every choice creating another. Every heartbeat threatening to become the wrong one.

I understand my power now better than I ever have. I understand I can’t use the ability sitting at my fingertips however I please, or however it benefits me.

I have to protect the right future.

An Oblirian roars as he swings his sword toward my head.

I catch the shaft with one hand, and age splinters through the wood. It rots in my palm, collapsing into dust.

His eyes widen. I drive my sword through his heart.

One life.

To preserve hundreds.

I hate that it still comes to this.

But if this is the future the realm needs…