The heavens had never been silent before.
They were a realm of constant radiance, endless sound, and the quiet hum of divine order. Stars moved in perfect paths. Laws of existence flowed like unseen rivers. Nothing strayed. Nothing broke.
Until the day one god did.
He stood at the edge of the celestial platform, robes dark against the blinding white light that stretched in every direction. Below him, the mortal world trembled beneath storm clouds and fire. War consumed the land. Cities burned like dying embers scattered across the earth.
In his arms lay a human.
She was small. Fragile. Too fragile for a world that devoured its own. Blood stained her clothes, warm against his palms, far too warm. Her breathing came in shallow pulls, each one weaker than the last.
Around him, the other gods watched.
They did not descend. They did not interfere. Their eyes shone like distant stars, detached and unblinking.
This era has ended, one of them said. Their voices did not travel through air. They rang directly through existence itself.
He did not look at them.
His gaze remained on the girl in his arms. Dirt streaked her cheek. Her hand clutched weakly at the fabric over his chest, as if even in fading consciousness she refused to let go.
You are the Authority of Ruin, another god spoke. Your role is to end. Not to preserve.
Lightning split the clouds below. The battlefield where she had fallen disappeared beneath collapsing earth. The world was already unraveling, the era reaching its appointed end.
He knew the law. He had enforced it countless times.
When corruption spread too deep.When imbalance grew too heavy.When civilizations rotted from within.
He ended them.
Not in anger. Not in cruelty. But because ruin was necessary for something new to begin.
That was his purpose.
The girl's fingers twitched.
Her eyes opened slightly, unfocused, but searching. She looked at him not with fear, not with awe, but with simple human confusion.
You came back, she whispered.
He did not understand the warmth that spread through his chest at those words. He did not understand why his hand tightened around her.
She should have already been erased.
This world's cycle is complete, the first voice said again, firmer now. Release the mortal. Fulfill your authority.
He had erased continents without hesitation.
He had watched kingdoms crumble and stars fade.
But the thought of letting go of this single life felt like something inside him was being torn away.
If he intervened, the law would fracture.
If the law fractured, the balance would break.
If balance broke, the consequences would echo beyond one world.
He knew this.
He had always known.
Still, he drew power into his palm — not the cold force that dissolved existence, but something gentler, something forbidden. He pressed his hand lightly against the wound in her side.
Light flared.
The heavens shuddered.
Below, the storm halted mid-roar. The collapsing battlefield froze as if time itself had stumbled.
What have you done.
This time, the voices were no longer calm.
Cracks of blinding light spread across the celestial floor beneath his feet. The authority that flowed through him twisted, rejecting his command. His domain — ruin — had been turned against its nature.
The girl's breathing steadied. Color returned faintly to her face.
She was alive.
He had chosen.
Chains of radiant light shot from the sky, wrapping around his arms, his shoulders, his throat. His authority shattered like glass struck by a hammer. Power bled from him, scattering across the heavens in fragments of dark light.
You have defied divine law.
You have placed emotion above balance.
You have corrupted your authority.
The platform beneath him broke apart. Stars dimmed. The perfect harmony of the heavens faltered for the first time since their creation.
He did not fight.
His eyes remained on the girl, now unconscious but breathing, alive in a way she had not been moments ago.
If saving her leads to ruin, then so be it.
The chains tightened.
Light swallowed his vision. The heavens opened beneath him, not upward, but down — toward the mortal world.
Toward fall.
As he was cast from the divine realm, his authority tearing away piece by piece, one final decree echoed across existence.
From this moment on, your name is stripped.
You are no longer a god.
You are ruin unbound.
Darkness closed around him.
And far below, in a world that did not yet know it, the cycle of destruction began to turn once more.