Chapter 318: He had to be their savior
Theo’s breath hitched sharply, a spasm of pure agony racking his large frame as Alias’s light tried to close the deep laceration in his gut.
"I wouldn’t have, Alias," Theo whispered, a tear of his own mixing with the blood on his cheek. "I just... He’s my son. I fought... but there were too many... they dragged him off."
The hand gripping Alias’s tunic lost its strength, sliding back down into the red mud. Theo’s eyes closed, his breathing flattening into a terrifying, silent line.
"Theo! Theo, open your eyes!" Maya screamed, pulling at her hair, her face smeared with dirt and her brother’s blood.
Alias didn’t look back at her. He kept his hands pressed to the wound, his silver hair falling forward, veiling his face as he poured did his best to keep Theo’s heart beating.
But inside his mind, Norx’s words were echoing over and over again like a sickening taunt.
"I will show you that when a human is pressed, the love they claim to have is nothing but a frantic effort to save their own skin. We shall see which side weighs more."
Norx had set the scale. He had sent the bandits to force Theo into the ultimate selfish choice—to sacrifice the ’stain,’ the unwanted child, to save his own sister and his paradise with Alias.
But Theo hadn’t broken. He hadn’t chosen his own skin. He had bled out in the dirt to protect the son he had only just learned to love and his sister who was his whole family.
Alias looked toward the eastern ridge, where the wind was already blowing sand over the heavy tracks of horses and dragged feet.
The sanctuary was broken. The water was foul. But as the silver light continued to hum beneath his palms, a cold, unyielding finality settled into Alias’s chest.
Humans weren’t bugs. And Norx was going to learn exactly what happens when an Architect stops measuring the stars and starts hunting.
It was also time to stop hiding. He looked down at Theo who had gone unconscious, the way the wound wouldn’t close up because he kept using only minimal divine power.
He was scared that they would look at him differently once he revealed himself. He was scared that his divinity would draw a line that he could not cross.
But... he had to be a savior. He had to be their savior. So he threw out his fears and worries.
After he saved them, he would worry about the rest later.
Alias turned to Maya, his voice steady but carrying an undercurrent that brooked no argument. "Maya. Go to the lake. Gather as much clean water as you can bring back."
Maya blinked through her tears, her hands still trembling and slick with her brother’s blood. She looked at Theo’s deathly pale face, then up at Alias.
The sheer desperation in her chest gave her no choice but to nod. She scrambled up, grabbing a wooden bucket with slippery fingers, and ran toward the bank, her vision blurred by an endless stream of tears.
The moment her back was turned, Alias looked down at his own bloody hands. His heart felt as though it were fracturing into a thousand pieces, the raw, heavy ache of human grief tearing through his chest. But within that shattering, something else hardened. A cold, unyielding finality took root.
This went far beyond just trying to live like a human. He was a god. He was a creator.
And even if he had willingly walked into the dirt to understand the pieces of a mortal’s heart, he still held full access to the divine authority of the heavens.
As Maya stood by the water’s edge, weeping silently as she tried to scoop from a part of the lake that wasn’t yet clouded with blood, Alias closed his eyes. He pressed his palm firmly back into the jagged, gaping wound in Theo’s abdomen.
Live, his mind commanded and he broke the restraint of his human body, letting his divinity flood out.
Instantly, a warm, blinding golden light spewed out from the point of contact. It wasn’t the faint, struggling glow of white light he had been using to keep Theo’s heart beating; it was the pure, unfiltered essence of creation.
The light wrapped around Alias’s arms in brilliant, pulsing coils, radiating a heat that defied the midday sun. The sheer pressure of the divine energy caused his silver hair to lift, floating around his shoulders in a halo of glittering, ethereal sparkles.
Maya caught the glare from the corner of her eye and turned around. The bucket slipped from her fingers, clattering into the water.
She stood entirely speechless, her breath trapped in her throat, her eyes wide with a terror and awe that normal humans could only ever describe as a miracle.
The man who had kneaded dough with her, the man who had gently guided her fingers to count stones—he was no normal human.
By the time she found her feet and ran back over with the water, the blinding light was already fading, the divine healing concluded.
The deep wound that had threatened to drain the last of Theo’s life was gone. The flesh had knit itself back together perfectly, smooth and unblemished, as if the rusted blade had never even touched him.
Theo’s chest gave a sudden, massive heave, his lungs greedily pulling in a deep chestful of air as the ghostly gray tint began to leave his skin.
Alias stood up slowly. The look in his silver eyes had completely solidified into something ancient and terrifyingly focused. He didn’t look at Maya’s stunned face.
"We will burn the bodies," Alias told her, his voice devoid of its usual soft curiosity. "But first, search them. Grab whatever seems useful—tools, coins, maps. Anything."
Maya could only nod, her mind completely blank as she forced her legs to move toward the dead bandits. While she frantically searched the tattered leather clothes, Alias raised his hand.
Without a single physical touch, the four heavy bodies of the dead scavengers lifted from the grass, levitating high into the air. With a fluid sweep of his arm, Alias huddled them into one massive, broken pile far from the house, near the edge of the dunes.
Maya watched the corpses float and stack, her hands shaking so violently she could barely hold the few iron coins she had found. Just what is going on? Her mind screamed. Who truly is Alias? What is he?
