The stars trembled over the Refuge.
Since Sarive spoke the word "Zi'Vakar," things had changed. Magic responded to him differently. His training weapons now glowed even when untouched. And when he closed his eyes, he heard whispers in a language that didn't belong to mortals—or even gods.
The gods had noticed.
But someone else had noticed, too.
Hope's Vision
Hope stood alone in the courtyard, her eyes glowing pure white. Around her, time had stilled. Raindrops hung motionless in the air. Even the wind had paused.
Zatanna and Diana rushed to her—but could not cross the invisible barrier Hope had summoned in her trance.
"Another vision," Diana said grimly. "Brace yourselves."
Hope began to speak in two voices—her own, and something deeper, older.
"I see a mountain of broken gods...I see Sarive kneeling in chains of starlight...I see Diana on fire, screaming the name of a child not yet born...And I see the Eye That Watches—above all, behind all."
The energy around her cracked. She collapsed.
Sarive caught her before she hit the ground.
Hope looked up at him, weak but calm.
"She's coming," she whispered."The one who knows your end."
Arrival of the Mirror Spiral Stranger
That night, the sky bent sideways.
A hole opened—not a portal, but a wound—and out of it stepped a woman in a silver cloak, her eyes veiled in shadow. Her boots hovered above the ground. Her presence pulled at reality, like gravity around a black star.
Diana and Zatanna drew weapons immediately.
But she raised her hands.
"I am Selari Vynn," she said. "I am from the Mirror Spiral—a future that no longer exists."
She turned her gaze to Sarive.
"And I was your wife. In one of the timelines that died."
Truth from the Broken Future
In the war room of the Refuge, Selari stood before the firelight. Her hood removed, she had pale gold eyes—haunted, hollow.
"I come from a branch of time where Hope was taken," she explained. "The gods broke her. They fed her power into a machine called the Celestial Prism. The multiverse bled."
Sarive stared. "You said you were my—?"
"In that timeline, yes," she said. "You saved me once. Then I saved you. Then we failed."
She looked to Diana, her gaze softening.
"But in this timeline… it's her."
Diana raised a brow.
Selari smiled faintly. "I'm not here to stop you. I'm here to stop what's coming."
She dropped a crystal shard onto the table.
Within it was an image frozen in time—Sarive, but older, eyes burning gold, kneeling on a battlefield of dead gods. His hands... soaked in blood. Hope's blood.
A Dangerous New Power
Sarive stormed out of the chamber.
He stepped into the forest alone. His hands were shaking.
"In every future... do I become a monster?"
He clenched his fists.
A pulse erupted from his body—golden, thunderous, filled with wrath. The earth cracked.
Miko appeared beside him, calm.
"You're beginning to awaken the Infinity Within. That's your true power. But it's tied to emotion. The more you feel... the more you lose control."
He fell to his knees.
"Then I'm a danger to Hope. To Diana."
Miko placed her staff beside him.
"No. You're her shield. That's why the gods fear you."
Meanwhile: Olympus Moves
On Mount Olympus, Zeus gathered with Odin and Highfather under a sky of shifting constellations.
"They've already repelled Veylak," Odin growled. "That boy has awakened Zi'Vakar. That word belongs to the First Tongue—the divine language before division."
Zeus's eyes crackled with lightning. "It doesn't matter. Send the next one."
"And who do you propose?" Highfather asked.
Zeus smirked.
"There's one god who obeys no rule but hunger."
He lifted a scroll bearing a name carved in flame.
GOR'THAN—The Eater of Eternities.
In the Shadows: Selari and Diana
That night, Selari found Diana on the rooftop of the Refuge.
"You don't trust me," Selari said.
"I don't trust anyone who steps out of a dead timeline claiming they once wore his ring," Diana replied flatly.
Selari looked at the stars. "You'll see it soon—the part of him that even he doesn't understand."
Diana's tone turned sharp. "What part?"
Selari's eyes glowed faintly.
"The god in him. The one that isn't Sarive."
Closing Scene: Hope's Drawing
Hope handed Sarive a crayon drawing.
It showed him with a glowing sword and Diana beside him, holding her lasso. Behind them, Selari, Zatanna, Miko… even Theonix. And in the sky—something huge, winged, and horrible. Watching.
Sarive looked at the drawing.
"Is that the enemy?" he asked.
Hope nodded.
"I call it the End-God."