The throne room pulsed with a sickening glow, saturated in the aftershock of what could only be described as sacrilege against Divinity itself.
Aivion's scream echoed through the fabric of space. His once-pristine form convulsed violently as the divine beams struck him again and again with Soul Energy. He writhed, clawing at his own skin. Anamorsia didn't move. She stood above the others.
"This is the cost of cleverness."
Aivion's eyes burst into molten gold, the sockets hollowing out as the Soul Energy devoured them. From his chest, a visible outline of his soul tried to escape but it couldn't. The moment it tried, black and blue chains of light wrapped around it, tighter than iron, infused with the essence of Anamorsia's Overwrite.
Her voice remained calm and methodical.
"Let me explain something to you all, Mopherian Pantheon included. After all, all of you are listening so intently."
Every eye in the throne room were now trained on her with horror and awe. They had known Anamorsia as one of the kinder siblings, the one with too much empathy for her own good. But standing here now, with her expression blank and uncaring as an entire god being melted down to shrieking soul-debris in front of her, none of them could recognize her anymore. Anamorsia could feel other pairs of eyes from Mopheria looking at her.
She raised her hand.
"My Overwrite is called Eclipse's End. And like all World Overwrites, it augments my Divinity. In this case, the Divinity of Vows and Soul Command. It has five functions. Let me be generous and explain four."
The room was dead quiet, save for the agonizing gargles of Aivion, whose body was now hunched over, blackened bone visible where muscle had once been divine.
"First, it traps any being's soul, regardless of Divinity, within my domain. Once you're caught, your soul cannot leave. Not by death, not by will, not even by a god."
A second finger rose. "Second, I compel the trapped soul to make a vow. The wording is chosen by me and they can't lie. The moment they exist inside Eclipse's End, they are Spheraphase's to command. Not even the Mopherian Laws can bypass that."
"Third, if they ever try to break the vow or better yet, circumvent it with a loophole, exactly what the Last Phalanx did, then all the Soul Energy I embedded into their souls and their own multiplies violently. It doesn't dissipate. It detonates from the inside."
Aivion's soul began to swell, glowing white-hot as cracks split across his incorporeal form. He screamed. A god was pleading for death in front of others now.
"Fourth, duration. My Overwrite never leaves, not when you die. It embeds itself in the soul and lingers forever. It means that all nine Divines of the Last Phalanx who broke the vow... well, their souls each held enough of my Soul Energy to level a continent. Combine all of that in one blast…"
She gestured behind her as the explosion finished echoing, the final reverberation shattering the divine armies that hung. Outside the palace, the sky was empty. The clouds that had once held a rift of Mopheria had vanished into a thin mist of ash.
The eight gods, the parents of the Last Phalanx, once impossibly strong beings, were nothing more than divine charcoal. Their souls were ripped apart at a molecular level. There was no resurrection, no return and not even memory.
They were permanently erased.
"And now," Anamorsia exhaled, lowering her hand, "we come to the part where I warn you. Because this was the backup plan. If they hadn't broken the vow, we would have had seven years of peace and preparation. But they chose to end it. And now, Spheraphase answers."
Aivion, or what was left of him, was crumpled on the floor. He was a burned-out husk with a soul that was disintegrating by the second. His mouth still moved. No sound came out.
"You tried to weaponize a loophole, egoistic god. You wanted war. You wanted fire. Then burn with it."
In that final second, Aivion exploded in absence. His body and soul were devoured by a black tear in space. Silence consumed the throne room. Only Anamorsia sighed. Her siblings behind her didn't speak. Even Adelasta had nothing to say. Asenane was shaking.
They all knew now Anamorsia had just killed nine gods and this was only her fourth function. The fifth... she hadn't even revealed. Anamorsia staggered. Her breath shuddered and a river of deep gold poured from her lips. She coughed violently. Her knees buckled. Her wings evaporated into nothingness. Asenane and Adelasta rushed forward, catching her just before she hit the floor. The coldness of her body was startling. She raised her head. Her eyes swept across the throne room.
Her voice echoed.
"Six years."
They blinked and she continued.
"That's the fifth function of my Overwrite. It is eternal. Even if there's a loophole, even if you think you've escaped its noose, the vow remains, bound by the will of Spheraphase. If they move again within the next six years…"
She paused, her lips curling upward.
"They will suffer for it. All of them."
No one spoke. Even the boldest of the Sentina Erideae stood still. Anamorsia stood, pushing herself upright with shaking hands. Her gown was soaked in her own blood. She didn't look like someone who had just shattered an army of gods. She looked like someone who had already seen the future and won.
"Now it's clear that even gods can die. I just killed nine. My Overwrite has a backlash. I can only use it once every few years so don't think I'll pull that again tomorrow."
She paused, turning her gaze toward the remnants of the Divines from the other Dynasties and kingdoms who had watched everything unfold.
"But don't mistake that for weakness. I'm still a Sixth Enlightenment Divine with the Soul and Vow Divinity. And trust me, those are powers made for war."
Anamorsia tilted her head and smiled. It wasn't sweet.
"Welcome to the alliance against Mopheria. You've made the right choice. We just won a war so enjoy yourselves. You've earned it."