Persephone smiled gently at Sylvia, her hand extended as if wanting to touch the shoulder of her adopted daughter. The air at the peak of Olympus felt increasingly heavy, filled with the residual vibrations of the Underworld goddess's power that had just forced Gaia to flee. Sofia, Stacia, Alicia, and the little treant stood behind Sylvia, their eyes gazing around with a mixture of awe and caution. This sacred mountain, now even more majestic after the fusion of worlds, seemed alive on its own marble columns pulsed like veins, satellite antennas blinked like the eyes of modern gods keeping watch.
"But remember, my child," Persephone said softly, her voice like a whisper of wind from the river Styx. "This new world is full of dangers. Even for you."
Sylvia nodded again, but before she could reply, a strange vibration arose not from the ground, not from the sky, but from within themselves. As if the space around them cracked invisibly, and in an instant, everything changed.
