The sky bled crimson. The world was on fire. But for Caelum Morningstar, everything was silent—his mind too loud with thoughts to register the chaos around him.
God was dead. The leader of Heaven had fallen—but not without dragging the Four Satans down with him. Among them: Lucifer Morningstar. The rebel archangel. Caelum's father.
But he had no time to grieve. The promise of his father's wrath was the only thing protecting him from the other devils. Because he was unlike any of them. To them he was nothing but a half-breed born from Lucifer gallivanting in the human world. A loose end carrying the blood of the Morningstar but not the principles he embodied. A threat to their rule. A mistake.
The threat to his life was no longer a matter of if.
It was a matter of when.
But Caelum had no plans to be there to watch it unfold. So after one last moment to take a breath, he took flight. He didn't have a destination in mind. He just needed to be anywhere but here. But as if the universe responded to his thoughts, a crack in reality appeared—an entrance to the Dimensional Gap.
Leaving his future up to fate, he flew straight in.
Into the void. Into whatever came next.
He didn't know if he'd survive it. Bleak as it was, the void still offered better odds than the world behind him.
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Inside the Dimensional Gap, Caelum felt like he was falling, though he remained suspended in place. The vast emptiness around him was suffocating—colors warped and bled into one another, light bent in impossible angles, and the very notion of up or down ceased to exist. His senses scrambled for something solid, but found only a swirling, endless void.
Then something stirred—immense and ancient. Even the vastness of the Dimensional Gap seemed to split apart and make way for the incoming presence. A massive red western dragon with a horn on its snout. Its two sets of wings unfurled, amplifying its already impressive form. Its golden eyes focused on him.
Great Red. The True Red Dragon God Emperor. The Dragon of Dreams.
Then he heard a voice rumble through the gap. "So you came… Just as I saw."
Caelum stared. Stunned. "You saw me?"
"In a dream." Great Red said. "A child fleeing a world that rejected him. Searching for one where he might finally belong. And Telos Karma led him here, to the Gap."
"Telos Karma? One of the Longinus? How? I'm a devil! I'm not supposed to have a Sacred Gear!"
"Half of you is still human. You're here because you wanted to escape. Telos Karma made the universe respond by opening the Gap."
Caelum went quiet. His mind still reeled, unable to fully grasp that he possessed one of the Thirteen Longinus—an artifact of unimaginable power. How did God let this happen? The weight of the question pressed against his chest. Did God foresee this too?
Caelum swallowed, his throat dry as he gathered the courage to speak.
"So, what do I do now?" He asked, hoping Great Red was willing to tell him about where he should go.
"I think you already know," Great Red said, his voice fading into the infinite darkness as he blended back into the void, leaving Caelum alone in the suffocating silence of the Dimensional Gap.
As Great Red vanished, Caelum realized what he meant. He told me about Telos Karma for a reason. He grabbed something from his pocket. A small black sheet of paper with silver inscriptions and a pentagram—a devil summoning flyer. Something he was planning to start using. Then the war happened and he never got the chance.
He channeled his demonic power, willing the flyer to find a place where he might finally belong.
Then he let go.
The black slip drifted into the expanse, carried by the void—and perhaps by fate. And as it vanished, so did Caelum's thoughts, until silence claimed him… and he knew no more.
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In the heart of New Orleans, the streets bustled with life as the festival raged on—laughter, music, and flickering lights filling the air. But Hope Mikaelson barely noticed. She dragged her feet, lost in thought as the weight of her father's impending death pressed heavily on her chest.
As she reached the gate of her home, something fluttered past her—a slip of black paper, riding the wind. She caught it mid-air. A silver pentagram shimmered on one side. When she turned it over, her steps faltered. Something written there made her blood run cold:
Need help? Desperate? Curious?
Your desires can be fulfilled… for a price.
Belief is irrelevant. Desire is everything.