Mike slid down the rocky cliff face, his claws carving silent grooves into the stone. The fire beneath his skin had grown unbearable, thrumming in rhythm with the heartbeats of those below. He hit the jungle floor with barely a whisper, crouched low, eyes gleaming.
The village was close now. Each step forward was a pulse of hunger, the sensation of standing on the edge of something sacred and forbidden.
The first villager he passed didn't see him. A woman carrying a basket of roots paused when the shadows lengthened. By the time her eyes lifted, Mike was behind her. One hand snapped her neck before she could scream. The corpse hit the dirt with a dull thud.
He kept walking.
Binyai looked at the woman's corpse and a look of anger took over his primate face. "Interfere or push your council morals on him in this moment and I will erase the djinn." Bahamut's voice filled Binyai's mind. A cold chill overtook his small body as he glanced upward.
The square opened before Mike, the fires crackling, the villagers moving in their rhythm of daily life. Then the air changed. Four figures stood apart from the others, motionless, their gazes already fixed on him as if they had been waiting.
Mike stopped, baring his teeth. He felt it instantly, their presence heavier than the air itself, crushing and endless. Primordial Chosen.
The first stepped forward. A woman with dark, earthen skin, her hair braided with vines and stones that seemed to grow from her scalp. Her eyes glowed with the weight of mountains, and when she spoke, her voice was soft but stern.
"I am Amara, chosen of Gaia. You tread on the body of our Mother."
The second moved next, a tall man with pale skin and hair the color of storm clouds. His gaze was distant, yet piercing, like the horizon itself. His cloak rippled though no wind stirred.
"I am Caelus, chosen of Ouranos. The sky is my domain, and you will not darken it."
The third figure emerged from the shadows of the huts, and for a moment Mike's vision blurred. The man seemed half-formed, his edges dripping like smoke. His skin was the color of midnight, eyes glowing faintly red from within the void of his face.
"They call me Norn," he said, though his voice was barely more than a whisper. "Chosen of Erebus. I am the darkness that existed before light. You cannot consume what has no form."
The last one stepped forward, unlike the others. He was young, almost boyish, his frame slender but his presence undeniable. His golden hair glowed faintly, and his eyes carried a warmth that pressed into Mike's chest, unwanted and invasive.
"My name is Lysander, chosen of Eros. Love binds the cosmos, and even you are not beyond its pull."
Mike laughed, the sound low, rolling, edged with fire. "Love? Darkness? Earth? Sky? You've all been hiding down here while your gods sent armies at me. Running your fucking mouths with nonsense when you're just cowards." he flexed his claws, fire splitting across his shoulders.
The ground trembled as Amara stomped her foot, roots and stone erupting upward in a wall of jagged earth. Caelus raised his hands, and lightning cracked from the clear sky above, slamming into the ground around Mike. Norn dissolved into smoke, shadows crawling outward to suffocate the light of the fires. And Lysander's voice boomed, a warmth that struck Mike's chest like a hammer.
"Submit, and you may yet be forgiven!"
Mike roared, fire boiling out of his mouth in a torrent that split the night. His body surged, skin ripping as black scales erupted down his arms, his tail lashing out and smashing through the first wall of stone. His grin was nothing but teeth and bloodlust.
"Forgiveness?" he spat, eyes blazing red. "No. I came here to eat you."
The battle for the valley began.
Mike's claws dug into the dirt, the glow of fire running jagged across his shoulders. His eyes burned red as he took in the four chosen, their presence heavier than any chosen he had faced before.
He tilted his head, saliva already dripping from his teeth where it had welled up as hunger filled his mind. The grin that spread across his face was nothing short of savage.
His voice was a growl that shook the torches. "Shut the fuck up and come at me. All of you."
The villagers scattered instantly, screams echoing into the jungle, but the chosen didn't move at first.
Amara, Gaia's chosen stood with her arms folded, her gaze rooted and unshakable, as though the earth itself anchored her to place. She didn't flinch. She didn't blink. She simply watched.
Beside her, Norn, Erebus's chosen tilted his head, eyes glowing faintly in the hollows of his smoke-shrouded face. His tone was measured, indifferent, the cadence of a man speaking to something already beneath him.
"You believe hunger makes you powerful," he murmured. "But to devour nothing is to become nothing."
Mike spat blood into the dirt, his grin splitting wider. "More rambling. I'll eat your after these cowards."
Nyxen didn't react. He simply folded his arms into the darkness of his cloak, calm and unbothered, as if Mike's promise meant nothing at all.
But Caelus and Lysander moved.
The chosen of the sky lifted his arms, lightning ripping down from the heavens though the night was cloudless. Bolts carved into the ground in rapid succession, forcing Mike to lunge sideways, his claws cutting trenches in the soil as fire boiled off his back.
Lysander's voice followed, warm and commanding, his eyes glowing gold. The pressure pressed into Mike's skull, invasive and heavy, an overwhelming pulse of emotion. "Yield, Michael. Even you are bound by love. Even you—"
"Shut. The fuck. Up!" Mike roared, flame ripping from his throat in a jet that lit the entire valley red.
The fire hit the lightning head-on, exploding in a storm of molten sparks and thunderclaps that sent shockwaves rolling through the village. Huts shattered. Trees bent until their trunks split. Villagers fled in blind terror.
And in the center of it all, Mike barreled forward, straight through the storm.
His claws caught Caelus's spear of lightning mid-strike, the raw current searing his flesh. He laughed as his palm burned, forcing it aside and smashing his forehead into the chosen's face. Bone cracked. Caelus staggered back, his storm faltering.
Mike didn't stop. His tail whipped around, smashing into Lysander's ribs. The chosen of love flew across the square, crashing through a hut in a spray of splintered wood and fire.
"Pathetic!" Mike bellowed, fire crackling from his wounds. "You think lightning and whispers are going to stop me?"
From the edge, Erebus only watched, calm and silent, his form barely more than shadow. Gaia remained unmoving, her gaze locked on Mike like a mountain waiting to see if the storm could weather it.
Mike licked blood from his lips, chest heaving, laughter bubbling out like fire. "Good," he growled, his eyes cutting back to the two who had dared strike him. "Now it's a fight."