Three hours later, they were sitting in a dingy motel room on the outskirts of Chicago. The space was crowded with people who looked like they'd been plucked from ordinary lives and thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
Elena—the real Elena—sat in the corner, her eyes haunted. She'd escaped Nyx's takeover by sheer luck, managing to force a separation when the entity had been distracted during a feeding. The process had left her weak and traumatized, but alive.
"Nyx consumed twelve people before finding my network," she said, her Czech accent thick with exhaustion. "Twelve innocent people, just gone. Their memories, their personalities, everything that made them who they were—devoured."
Beside her sat David Kim from Tokyo, a quiet man in his thirties who hosted Prometheus. The ancient Titan's presence was subtle but unmistakable—there was something about David that suggested hidden fire, carefully contained power.
"The same thing happened in my region," David said. "Three of our people compromised. We thought it was coincidence until Elena reached out."
Maria Santos had flown in from São Paulo, bringing with her the gentle but formidable presence of Gaia, the Earth Mother. Her connection to the natural world was so strong that plants in the motel room actually seemed to perk up when she entered.
"They're not just hunting individual hosts," Maria said. "They're systematically dismantling our entire network."
"But why?" asked James Wright from London, who carried the essence of Apollo. "If they wanted us dead, they could have killed us outright."
"Because they need us alive," Marcus realized. "Or at least, they need our passengers alive."
Elena nodded grimly. "Nyx let slip something before I escaped. They're planning some kind of... convergence. A way to forcibly extract all the loyal divine essences and bind them to a single host."
"A single host?" Dario asked. "That's impossible. No human could survive containing that much divine power."
"Unless," David said slowly, "the host isn't entirely human anymore."
The room fell silent as the implications sank in.
"Alex," Marcus whispered. "He's not just possessed by Lucian. He's been transformed into something that can contain multiple divine essences."
"A divine battery," Maria said with disgust. "They plan to use our own power against us."
Dario felt Cassius recoil in horror. That's not possession, that's... abomination. To force multiple divine essences into a single vessel would drive any host insane. And the power it would create...
"Could destroy reality itself," Dario finished aloud.
"Or remake it according to their desires," James added. "With that much concentrated divine power, they could rewrite the fundamental laws of existence."
Elena leaned forward. "Which is why we have to stop them tonight. Not just to save your Sarah, but to prevent cosmic catastrophe."
"Six of us against who knows how many of them," David pointed out. "The odds aren't great."
"Seven," came a new voice from the doorway.
Everyone spun around to see a young woman with silver hair and eyes like starlight. She looked barely out of her teens, but the presence she carried was ancient beyond measure.
"Luna," Marcus breathed. "I thought you were dead."
"Nearly was," the newcomer said, stepping into the room. "Maloch's people found me in Romania. My host... didn't make it."
"But you did."
"Barely. I'm currently sharing space with a local college student who was kind enough to volunteer when she understood the stakes." Luna's expression hardened. "They killed my previous host just to send a message. A sweet grandmother who'd never hurt anyone in her ninety-three years."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees as Luna's anger manifested.
"So yes," she continued, "I'll help you storm their stronghold. I have some debts to collect."