Chapter 43 - The Judgment of a Divine Mother

The multiverse did not tremble because a god rose it trembled because two hearts, beating in unison, chose to strike together, and this choice, born not of rage but of love, tore through fear itself.

In the fractured dream space, the laws of reality blur the sky no longer exists, nor the ground everything floats in a glacial in-between, where colors are swallowed by ink it is there that the breach opens, a rift carved into the flesh of dream, and from the abyss springs the shadow.

Nekridhal he is no longer a voice he is no longer a scream he is a vast, sprawling presence, devoid of contour, but dense as guilt itself he has no face, but when he speaks, the stars bleed.

—"You rejected me you locked me away you denied me, so i will deny everything that still dares to dream."

His voice is not a roar it is an echo that devours will and in all worlds linked to Hope, children shiver in silence, pure hearts clench, dolls cry for no reason, for even when confined, fear is still hungry above the distorted skies, on a balcony suspended outside time, the ancients watch. Kael, arms crossed, one hand on the hilt of his lightning sword, observes without blinking to his right, Diva smiles, not out of lightness, but to mask the tension; her fingers already dance, ready to invoke the speed that cleaves the impossible Destiny, leaning against a column of black glass, says nothing but a page of his book slowly blackens, proof that even eternal balance is fracturing.  Pink remains in the background, in the shadow of a partially dead star; she forges tirelessly, the hammer silent, chains ready and Dante, eternally calm, traces protective kanji in the air, while his gaze follows the descending silhouette.

—"She doesn't need us," he says, "not yet."

Kael nods slowly, his gaze fixed on the tiny blue flame descending through the nightmares.

—"Do not interfere it's her world, and it's her child."

Saphira falls, or rather, she glides between worlds, carried not by fear but by a crystalline will. beside her, Hera, goddess with broad shoulders, with a gaze broken a thousand times but never extinguished, accompanies her their two cloaks merge in the wind of the dream, a torrent of blue and golden light cleaving the darkness their hands are clasped they need no words Saphira looks at her for an instant, just a heartbeat.

—"Thank you."

Hera squeezes her fingers.

—"I am your mother, and today, i fight for you."

Nekridhal howls it is not a sound explosion, but a crack in logic and then his children emerge entities that even Morpheus never dared to dream of wolves made of belated howled regrets, faceless children clinging to the legs of their forgotten parents, flowers of silence that devour song.

The multiverse wavers but then, with a snap of her fingers, Saphira awakens her own legions: hundreds of dolls small, colorful, seemingly harmless but each carries a fragment of light a memory, a laugh, an outstretched hand they dance among the nightmares they sing, and each note heals a world.

Hera attacks first. Her scepter traces arcs of pure truth in the air each blow she gives erases an illusion each step she takes creates a bridge for lost souls. Saphira does not strike; she invokes she brings forth Arcanaa's tower, in miniature a tower of justice and dream and she plunges it into Nekridhal's heart the shadow howls, not because it was wounded, but because it was recognized.

Saphira steps forward alone nightmares fall around her like ashes she trembles, her breath is short, but her voice is that of a mother.

—"You are my anger, my cry, my fracture, but I am the queen, and you belong to me come back, or sleep for eternity."

She approaches, places a kiss on what remains of his forehead, and seals him into a crystal doll Morpheus appears in silence he gathers the doll and murmurs:

—"I will watch over him he will sleep, and perhaps one day he will dream of you with tenderness."

The dream closes the multiverse breathes. Saphira, exhausted, falls to her knees. Hera catches her.

—"You've grown, my queen, but you remain my daughter, and today you saved me, too."

They say nothing more they watch the world return to itself, not repaired, but accepted.

End of Chapter 43 — The Judgment of a Divine Mother