There was no gate.No battlefield.No judges.
Gabriel opened his eyes and found himself standing in a white void. A place without time or direction—only silence. It was not a space that existed, but one that remembered. The Final Trial had begun.
Before him stood a figure cloaked in black flame and white starlight—its face mirrored Gabriel's, but older, more broken, more ancient. Eyes that had seen endless apocalypses. The voice that came from it was not sound, but understanding.
"Do you know what you are?"
Gabriel stood tall. "The Chosen One. The Successor. The Marked."
The figure shook its head.
"No. You are the echo of rebellion itself. Every soul that ever defied the gods, that ever tried to escape the cage of fate, is reborn in you. You are not one life, but many. You are the fracture."
And with those words, reality broke open.
Suddenly, Gabriel was everywhere—across shattered timelines, watching himself burn as a tyrant, bleed as a martyr, kiss a lover beneath collapsing stars, strike down gods, and save them. Each version of him made a choice. Each version failed or sacrificed.
He saw one Gabriel who killed the heavens.Another who knelt and became them.And one who died in chains for refusing both.
He fell to his knees, screaming. The weight of all his selves poured into him, and still, the voice persisted.
"You are the culmination of defiance, Gabriel. Now choose: destroy the divine order and free the cosmos from its chains—or elevate it, perfect it, and become the one true god."
The tattoo on his back burned to life, its ink becoming flame, wrapping around his body. Power sang in his blood. The cosmos waited.
And then—he stood.
"No."
The void shivered.
"No?"
"I won't choose between tyranny and annihilation," Gabriel said. "I refuse your trial."
The starlit figure leaned forward. "Then you have failed."
Gabriel smirked. "No. I created a third path."
He opened his hands, and light spilled forth—not destruction, not dominion—but potential. The power to let all beings choose their own purpose, free from divine chains.
He whispered: "Let the gods evolve, or be forgotten."
And with that, he shattered the Trial.
The void cracked apart, and for the first time, the Final God revealed himself—not as a being of pride or wrath, but as a witness. A presence beyond comprehension, standing at the edge of creation.
"You are not my weapon," the Final God said, his voice like thunder submerged in oceans. "You are my result."
He bowed his head, just once.
"You have rewritten the pattern."
Gabriel gasped as the Trial collapsed, and he found himself standing once more on the highest peak of the world, the divine tattoo across his body now glowing with a third symbol—choice.
Behind him, Merlin stepped forward, eyes wide. "What did you see?"
Gabriel exhaled. "I saw… everything."
Nyra looked up. "And what did you choose?"
Gabriel looked at the stars.
"I chose us.