Saanvi felt hot, very hot. Even though the shower was nothing but cold water, her body felt like it was on fire. What was worse was the constant whispering in her ear, one that sounded both close by and yet distant, so distant she couldn’t make out the words. In the moment before she was about to pass out though, she felt a sensation of cool serenity move through her, one that was like a gentle feeling of a spring breeze that helped cool her down more so that the freezing cold water did.

Laz was standing on the other side of the wall from her, stretching out his spiritual sense just enough to reach her and used his black flames to remove the impurities in her body, allowing the burning sensation to leave her body. This wasn’t new for him to do, but with his strength, he didn’t even need to be in the room anymore to help her. While showering, he had sensed that she was suddenly going through her awakening and it was most likely his fault that the process had sped up as being in close contact with him would cause some of his energy to mix with her body.

As she lay panting on the floor, the awakening took place, but the rush of energy was funneled by Laz, making sure to keep the entire process quiet and undetectable. He didn’t want those sleeping gods to sense what was happening if he could help it. As such, he used some of his own energy to help her awaken along with the energy in the surroundings. While it was lacking, that was just compared to other places. For a newly awakened, it was more than enough.

’It seems like the energy here should be more, but it seems to be contained within the underground lair of those giants. Strange...’ Laz thought and he finished helping Saanvi through her initial change. With his help and guidance, she didn’t experience even a hint of deviation in her awakening.

Leaning against the cold tile, Saanvi opened her eyes, only to see a faint outline of Laz in the mist caused by her cold water mixing with the warm water of the showers Shelly and Jun were taking. But even then, the vision faded quickly, even as she tried to reach out to it.

When she finally felt well enough, she warmed up the water and washed her body before getting out and drying off. Shelly and Jun were waiting for her and couldn’t help but comment,

"Didn’t think you were ever coming out."

"Did you get a good time in there after having some close contact with that boy lass?"

"I don’t feel so well. I’m going to bed..." Was Saanvi’s only response as she quickly retreated to her room before they could say anything else.

’What is wrong with me?’ Saanvi, laying the darkness of her room, asked herself more than once. Her body no longer felt like it was on fire, but she could still hear the voices and see visions. In it, ancient gods roamed the skies, deities of immense power and size fought constantly, against each other and against outsiders wielding the elements as though they could control the world itself. Landmasses crumbled, fires ravaged the land, floods swept away entire cites and winds ripped apart buildings and forests, turning the ground into barren desert.

Saanvi opened her eyes and sat up in bed, panting and sweating. Her head pounded and she could barely open her eyes as even the dark seemed to make things worse. She tried calming herself, taking deep breaths, but the beat of her heart wouldn’t slow, nor would her body stop twitching. In that moment, she felt like her chest would explode.

’Am I having a heart attack?’ She couldn’t help but ask herself, even if it seemed crazy considering her age and fitness level. She gripped the edge of the frame of the bed and effortlessly bent the metal with her hands, before pulling away quickly.

’Impossible...’ She said as she tried to look at it. The beds weren’t comfortable really, but they were too bad either considering the circumstances. And the frames were metal, tubular, designed to last forever even if they did creak loudly. But feeling it, the tube had compressed in on itself as her four fingers and thumb marks could be clearly felt and seen.

"What’s happening to me," She said out loud, but only to herself. She considered waking up Dr. Anton and asking him for help when a sudden figure appeared in her mind.

"I must find... the boy...." She said then, in a daze. She put on a robe over her tank top and panties she had worn to bed, slid into her crocs and made her way to the door, opened it and took off down the hall way, only half aware of what she was doing. No one else was awake, but there was several alarms and monitors that kept things tracked just in case. But for some reason, there was nothing that could register that she was up and walking around. Even the cameras in the halls malfunctioned when she walked by.

So although no one knew she was coming, Laz opened the door the moment she stepped outside of it as he had felt her coming.

The moment she stepped inside she almost collapsed and Laz caught her, bringing her over to his own bed. After removing the crocs, he moved his hands to her head and touched both sides of her heads gently. Infusing his spiritual sense into her, he could silently enter her spiritual space and sense and see what she was seeing.

Even while awake, the war within her head raged on causing her to be on the edge between reality and dreams.

In her dreams, she was like a bug floating among the destruction of the world. Massive beasts tore apart the lands as they charged towards the gods battling in the distant. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

A massive four headed man fought with a fat demon, larger than a mountain with fire red skin and massive horns, wearing only a loincloth and it’s massive and grotesque junk dragged along the ground.

Far away and yet still so very close, another being with with four arms and blue skin holding four items battled four skin thin beings of disease and destruction, their rotting flesh and miasmic breath causing the land to fester and die with every footfall they took. Around them, ten smaller beings fought hordes of wing devils crawling up from the very pit of hell.

And further away, a massive women, blue skin so dark it appeared black with a necklace of skulls and six arms fought several female demons who naked pink skinned bodies caused waves of mortal men to plunge themselves into the abyss in their attempt to reach her.

All around the massive figures, armies of men and women fought hordes of horned demons and winged devils of smaller size as the land was bathed in bloods of different colors.

When her drifting soul finally came to rest on the ground, Saanvi saw death and destruction all around her as bodies were trampled by stampeding beasts looking like massive elephants and hounds the size of houses and the men that rode on top of them charged into the throngs of enemies.

Each death rang in her ears, causing her soul to be ripped apart, bit by bit as she was carried into this world, feeling her consciousness fade.

Right before everything became unending black and red, a soothing feeling washed over her as a man with grey skin, reddish white hair and golden eyes landed beside her, looking out over the destruction. Even with his demonic look, she reached out to him and grabbed his arm as her soul, like a candle flame in a strong wind, finally regained some strength.

He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her in close as she leaned against him, feeling the gentle warmth of her body embrace her. With him by her side, she felt stability and comfort and as such, turned her attention to the battle raging all around them.

With him here, both sides avoided them as though they were a massive rock that none dared to get near, leaving them alone to watch the end of times.

"All over this planet, pantheons of gods are waging wars against these beings seeking to invade this place, and up there is the cause of it all," Laz said, point to a distant point in the sky.

Saanvi looked up and saw, to her horror, several suns, moving back and forth in the sky, fighting other beings that looked more like distant lights, as though stars themselves.

Once she saw this, Saanvi had a feeling that such a battle was playing out all over the galaxy and what she witness here was nothing but a tiny part of it.

Even as the bodies piled up and blood rained from the sky, the fighting continued on for an eternity.

Just as Saanvi wanted to close her eyes, a massive woman fell down in front of her, only one arm left as the other five were nothing more but bleeding stumps.

That great god then reached that final hand towards Saanvi as darkness took her.