Chapter 13: The other world is here.

The world had changed.

Three days since the Celestial Convergence, and the Earth no longer felt like home.

In New York, towering skyscrapers lay drowned beneath an unforgiving sea. Sharks swam between buildings. Limbs floated like driftwood. Birds perched atop drifting human torsos, tearing flesh from bone with merciless precision.

In Venice, the city had vanished entirely — consumed by rising tides and dragged into the abyss.

In Brazil, the Amazon burned relentlessly.Trees screamed as they cracked, devoured by flames that did not flicker orange but bled an unnatural violet.

And above it all, the sun and the moon still hung in perfect alignment — frozen in time like the calm before an unending storm.

The sky itself shimmered, warped like a cracked mirror — jagged, alien, wrong. As if this world no longer belonged to itself.

Newcastle, England 

Jordan woke up gasping.

She blinked, disoriented, lying in a makeshift cot. Her skin was sore, covered in faint burns that shimmered like silver tattoos, beneath the dim light-shifting faintly as though it had a life of it's own.

She sat up slowly. Pain laced her ribs. Her fingers trembled as she touched her shoulder — remembering the explosion, the light, the voice.

“Was it real?”

The silence outside was uncanny. Not peaceful. Hollow.

She rose to her feet and stumbled to the door, barefoot and cautious. Her essence flickered faintly — that strange light still pulsing within her.

Outside, there was a narrow hallway, where voices & footsteps could be heard.

She followed the sounds.

When she stepped through the doorway, the world greeted her like a stranger.

The sky above was fractured — stained glass over a dying sun. The sun and moon remained locked in their unnatural union.

“Three days…” she whispered.

The air tasted like metal and ozone.

“Hey! Sun Girl!”

She turned to find Megumi, tall and wiry, waved from the corridor behind her. Her hoodie was torn, blood dried across one sleeve, but she looked relieved.

“You’re awake,” she said. “Come. There's someone you need to meet.”

 Megumk led her through the underground compound — somewhere old, maybe a bunker. Fluorescent lights buzzed weakly. They turned a corner and entered a large room.

Richard stood by a large screen. His expression was unreadable.

Beside him: a younger man with dark skin and nervous eyes — Jason, a rookie Hunter.

And at the center: a calm, imposing presence. A man in his early 30s, arms crossed, wearing a black long coat and a relaxed expression. His presence was magnetic & commanding.

Mr. X.

He turned and gave a slight bow. “You must be Jordan. I’ve heard... interesting things.”

Jordan nodded stiffly. She was still processing the sky.

“Three days ago,” he began without delay, “the Celestial Convergence took place. An event foretold since ancient times — when the sun and moon align perfectly,  the veil between worlds thins to nothing.”

Richard’s eyes narrowed. “The veil?”

Mr. X didn’t look at the screen as he spoke — his eyes lingered on Richard.

 “The spiritual realm, according to the prohecies, is where everything began. Ancient texts speaks of this world as false. And that the spiritual realm is trying to rewrite the physical realm.”

Jordan clenched her fists. “Why now?”

“My grandfather told me a story as a child — ‘When the sky cracks, the world will be engulfed.’” He turned to the display. Footage played silently behind him: cities crumbling, monsters roaming, storms forming unnaturally across continents.

“My family, the Baldwyn’s, has studied the coming of this event for 3,000 years..”

Jason perked up. “Wait, the Zodiacs are real?”

Megumi pointed towards Richard & Jordan.

The room fell into silence.

Richard stepped forward. “What about AZO? What’s their part in this?”

Mr. X sighed. “In 1999, during the Nostradamus Panic, the world’s governments created AZO — a united force for supernatural threat response. What began as a research initiative turned into something else. Political & dangerous.”

Jason added, “They have more firepower than most nations now.”

“Exactly,” Mr. X said. “Some say AZO’s thirst for control created the imbalance that opened the veil. Others blame the Order. But in truth? There is no good side in this war. Only the will to survive.”

Jordan frowned. “So what now?”

“You survive. You train. Because The Order, AZO, and Aries will all be hunting you soon.”

The name hit like a slap. “Who’s Aries?”

Mr. X stared at them. “The Zodiac of Aries. Self-named after the god of war.  He's the oldest Zodiac alive — and the most dangerous. He’s been orchestrating events behind the scenes for the last 400 years. But now that you two have awakened, he’ll come to the forefront.”

The revelation hung in the room like smog. Jordan and Richard both seemed to deflate under the weight of it.

Then, softly, the door opened again.

Megumi entered, holding paper bags. “Food.”

He placed them down without a word.

Mr. X smiled. “Eat. Rest. You’ll need it. Tomorrow, your real journey begins.”

 AZO HQ-Geneva 

The hum of halogen lights flickered above Miloslav’s head, but it was not their buzz that roused him—it was the dream.

His breath was unsteady. His eyes, wide open. Sweat clung to his skin like a second layer. 

He sat up slowly, the image still vivid in his mind: stones arranged in a spiral, language older than language, and that half-formed sentence that had haunted him for decades.

“The original sin was that Ri…”

Miloslav stared at the wall. The fragments of the past were reassembling themselves again, uninvited.

2001 — Limpopo, South Africa

The ruins had been uncovered by a drought—unseen for thousands of years beneath the cracked earth of a forgotten land. They called it Yihizo Ye Yihizo-the Echo of the Sun.

John Smith stood in front of the stone circle, fingers tracing the smooth carvings weathered by time. 

The arrangement was unnatural—twelve stones in a perfect ring, the thirteenth standing at the center, twice as tall, and marked with a spiral. “Hieroglyphics." John muttered. His voice trembled—not in fear, but in awe.

Miloslav squinted. “What does it say?”

John narrowed his eyes, speaking slowly, carefully: “The original sin was that Ri—” His expression shifted — almost guilty.

 Then, forcing a cough, he tapped his radio as if interrupted by static. “Another time,” he muttered, turning away before Miloslav could press. 

Present — Geneva Base

Miloslav blinked, returning to the now.

He dragged himself into the shower, steam curling upward as water pounded against his back. 

The past refused to loosen its grip. Even after all these years, John’s unfinished sentence lingered like a thorn in his memory.

He dressed quickly and stepped into the hallway. A pair of guards saluted, but he barely acknowledged them. His eyes locked onto a group of new recruits gathered in the courtyard near the observation windows.

Luna was among them.

She sat cross-legged, eyes distant, posture tense. Around her were others—men and women who had awakened spiritual abilities during the Celestial Convergence. They were barely stable, some trembled. Others were too calm, others were too aware. Something in them had changed.

Miloslav stood quietly, watching her. She didn’t notice him.

His thoughts drifted—back to that day.

Two Days Ago — Cape Town CBD

Smoke curled from the craters in the ground. The sky had split open, pouring shadow and fire into the earth.

 John Smith had vanished, but the damage remained. Buildings lay in pieces, and spiritual energy still crackled in the air like ozone.

Luna was at the center of it all, eyes wild, breaths ragged. Her hands were shaking. She clutched her arms, trying to keep her skin from peeling off, her voice from screaming.

Kevin stepped forward, reaching out. “Luna—”

“No.” Miloslav’s voice stopped him cold. “That’s not your friend anymore.”

Kevin looked at him, furious. “What the hell do you mean—”

“She’s a Zodiac.”

 Miloslav moved forward cautiously. “Luna,” he said, voice calm. “You need to breathe. You’re not dying. You’re being reborn.”

Luna staggered back, raising a trembling hand. The air around her warped, shimmering like cold vapour. “Don’t come any closer,” she whispered. “I’ll— I’ll lose control.”

“You’re not alone in this,” Miloslav said. “But this city isn’t safe anymore. None of it is. You need to come with me. I’ll explain everything… just not here.”

Present — Geneva Base

He watched her from afar. Her breathing had steadied. Her aura was dimmer now, more contained—but the storm inside her hadn’t passed. Not fully.

Miloslav turned away.

There was no time left.

He entered the briefing room.

Screens lit up, showing fires raging in Brazil, cities submerged in Europe, monsters devouring flesh off bones in Times Square. The planet was being rewritten- slowly & painfully.

But the sentence still echoed louder than it all:

“The original sin was that Ri…”