The earth had forgotten how to beat.
Time could no longer remember his name.
But he was still there.
His ribs reached upward like cracked towers, his hair tangled with dry leaves.
Flesh hung from his side.
One of his eyes still held resolve.
And the silence...
It wasn't emptiness.
It was peace — deeper than death.
And when it felt his breath again, it trembled.
"Why... did you wake me?"
It wasn't a command.
It wasn't a cry for help.
It was a quiet disappointment.
He hadn't sealed the gods for glory.
He'd done it so they...
would never reach his mother.
That day, a soul had burned.
And this silence had become its grave.
His skin still ached.
He reached for the scorched parts of his soul, but found nothing.
Ashes.
He had awakened in his own ashes.
As he took a step, the ground moved with him.
Not welcoming him.
Not rejecting him.
Just... acknowledging him.
He looked down at his feet: one still human, the other marked by the god he had destroyed.
Then a shadow passed in front of him — a reflection that didn't recognize him.
"Who woke me?"
No answer.
No gods.
No children.
His bare feet touched the ground.
It was quiet.
Every step didn't tell him where he was —
but what had been forgotten.
The air stood still.
There was no wind.
But the pale mist around him felt like it was waiting for him to breathe.
He looked up.
There was no sky.
Only a great ring turning slowly above him —
a broken seal,
spinning like an ancient oath barely holding itself together.
"Who broke this seal?"
He pressed his fingers into the ground.
It didn't respond.
Once, this place bowed at his presence.
Now, it only watched.
To his left, a broken pillar stood.
The symbols once etched on it were now erased.
But he remembered...
his children's names had been there.
This place had been his only peace,
far from pain,
far from everything.
And now,
even that was gone.
At the base of the pillar, he noticed a small stone shard.
Words had been scratched onto its surface:
"If you want to go back to your boring nap...
Find everyone holding a piece. Catch me, handsome."
The writing vanished.
Silence returned.
He knew.
There would be no rest.
No sleep.
No peace.
Not until he finished this.
He knelt.
Lowered his head.
Didn't close his eyes.
He whispered:
"I'm here... Mother."
The ground warmed.
Light rose from deep within him.
A door formed before him.
It didn't shine.
It didn't command.
It simply existed.
Waiting.
The door opened.
He stepped through.
And disappeared within.