Twilight of the Gods
Prologue: A Bloody Entrance

- Virgil

Translation: The descent to hell is easy.

Daeva's second life began when the wind pried her eyes open and she found herself thousands of feet above the ground, plummeting to her death. Looking back, she thought it was funny how she felt no fear at the moment. It was ironic how her life could've ended just as soon as it began. All she could think of then was how dreadfully cold the night was and how beautiful the city lights were.

But reality caught up with her in no time when her body collided with the temple, crashing through the tiled roof. The impact of her fall shattered the stone tomb beneath her. She tried to get up, but the shrapnel cut into her skin, causing rivulets of black blood to trickle down her arms. Any mortal would've died in seconds because of shattered bones and ruptured organs. But Daeva wasn't mortal, at least, not anymore.

She was a God, a powerful immortal being that could topple empires and bring kings to their knees. But at the moment, she was rendered immobile, her body pinned down by roof parts and stone. Even newborn Gods feel excruciating pain.

A true God would have bitten their own tongue and used their strength to brush the debris off, gritting their teeth through the pain. But Daeva was unaccustomed to her new body and had little knowledge of how to use her new abilities. She could only lie there, bleeding on the ground. But she wasn't alone among the rubble. A corpse rested next to her.

At first glance, the body was still, a mere bag of bones and dust. But upon closer inspection, if the viewer happened to look at the fingers of the body, they would see that the corpse was twitching. It started out as little tremors, something Daeva mistakes for the shifting rubble. But those tremors turned to spasms and the corpse convulsed next to her as if it were alive and going through a seizure.

Horrified, she tried to move away from the body, but it was as if the corpse had a magnetic hold on her. This was partially true. The corpse was attracted to her not because they had polar opposite fields, but because it was sucking the blood out of her. Dizzy from the bloodlessness, she fainted and collapsed beneath the debris.

Daeva was no stranger to blacking out. She had spent longer than most people should have in Limbo, her soul caught between the strings of life and death. And she had spent even more time being tortured by the Elysians, forced to entertain their whims to earn her place with the living. So when she regained consciousness, she expected to be greeted with something painful and humiliating. Instead, she found herself in the sturdy arms of an angel, comforted by the warmth that emanated from his body. She took in his glowing bronze skin and his shiny gold wings, dazzled by his brilliance.

"Am I dead?" The question slipped out of her mouth before she could even register it.

"No, Master," he said, a small smile gracing his perfectly sculpted lips. "If you were dead, your blood wouldn't have brought me back to life."

That was when she noticed that his skin was slick with her ichor. Knowing that he was the corpse that was sucking the blood out of her just moments ago added a horrifying edge to his beauty. She pushed herself out of his arms, getting to her feet.

"Who are you?" She asked her question sternly, hoping that it would put some authority behind her voice.

"Uriel," he said, kneeling before her. "Angel of Repentance and Sword of Vengeance. At your service, God of Chaos."

She regarded him warily, unsure if he was telling the truth. She reached out to touch his shoulder, making sure he wasn't a mirage or some illusion conjured up by the Elysians. Her fingers met his warm skin, sliding down his arm to the cool metal of his prosthetic hand. He grabbed her hand, stopping the movement of her arm.

"I'm real," he said, reading her mind. "You gave me your blood. Now I'm bound to you." He kissed her palm to show his allegiance.

She pulled her hand away, unsettled by his automatic devotion. Rather than being put off by her revulsion, he grabbed a handkerchief and methodically wiped the blood off her limbs. She stood still, knowing better than to put up a fight against the persistent angel.

He will be a good servant, the voice in her head said. It's no coincidence that we fell here. The Blood Bond we formed with him will ensure his obedience.

She stiffened, still not used to the man - no, God - that was living inside her body. Daeva didn't like that he was using her as a vessel, a veil of normalcy with which he could navigate the Mortal Realm. But she had little choice in their possession and she tolerated the invasion because they had a common goal: destroy the Elysians.

It wasn't just that those pretentious celestial beings had tortured them together and humiliated them to the point they lost all sense of self-respect. No, the Elysians were so thorough in their work of breaking them that they also had to rob them of things that mattered the most to them.

For Anhel, the God inside her, it was his primordial powers. For Daeva, it was the reason she chose to come back to life. And the cruelest thing of all? They had given those things to each other with no way of returning them. She had his powers and he had the memories of her past life. They may have shared a body, but they were still two souls clamoring for their own autonomy, each unable to give the other the thing that mattered to them the most.

Perhaps the worst mockery of all was sending them to the Mortal Realm. It was as if the Elysians wanted to tell the people, "look at this thing we created! Can you believe it exists?"

You've got it all wrong, Anhel said. They sent us here so that they could weaken us and deprive us of all the luxuries of Otherworld. But those foolish Elysians have forgotten how the universe works. They sent us right back to the birthplace of all magic.

She examined the broken temple. It didn't seem magical at all, with its crumbling fixtures and faded tapestries. But she trusted what Anhel said. After all, he was a God who had existed before the concept of time.

Let's destroy those bastards, she thought.

A/N: This is my first shot at writing on Ebookex.com. Hope you enjoy!