Adrean alucard's Arc

Chapter 16 of 28

Adrean walked the mortal roads for a month. His face was young and plain, his power buried deep. People smiled at him. They shared bread and told him secrets. But his new class quest hung in his sight day and night. The system read the same cold words: gather five wives and a trillion followers. He was stronger than any god now. He no longer needed the raw divinity he had torn from Yahweh years ago. That stolen power sat in his blood like a stone. So he made a choice. He would give it back. He climbed to a carved stone temple on a quiet hill. Broad steps rose to golden doors. Inside, an old man knelt at the far wall, white beard spilling to the floor. Yahweh Christ. The god who had turned Adrean into a vampire in an alley, then hunted him across the world. Now he was thin and dim, drained of the light Adrean had taken. He did not rise. "You found me small," Yahweh said. "Come to finish it?" "No." Adrean pressed his palm to the old god's chest. "I don't need what I took." He pushed. The stolen divinity flowed out of him and back into Yahweh. Light climbed the old god's arms. His beard blazed white. He stood taller, straighter, his eyes sharp again. Adrean stepped back, lighter than he had felt in years. His own strength stayed whole. He had built new power that owed nothing to this gift. Yahweh flexed his hands and stared at them. Then he stared at Adrean. "You give a god his throne back and ask for nothing?" "I ask for one witness," Adrean said. "When the council names me a thief, you'll say what I did here." The air went cold. Two more shapes stepped from the temple shadows. Shiva, blue-skinned, a snake coiled at his neck, arms folded. Beside him crouched Megalom, small as a child, dried blood on his white cheek. Megalom had beaten Adrean for forty years and then taught him to stand alone. His red eyes were wide now. "You felt him drop the power," Megalom said to the others. "Every god in creation felt it flow back." He turned to Adrean. "You just told them where you are. And you gave up your loudest proof of strength." Adrean's stomach tightened. He had traded his divine anchor for a clean name. But the trade cut both ways. His suppression had hidden him. Returning Yahweh's power had lit a beacon across the heavens. Shiva's snake lifted its head. "The chamber summons early," the destroyer said. "They will not wait six years now. They come tomorrow." Yahweh looked at the man who had once been his prey. "I will speak for you," he said slowly. "But I cannot speak fast enough to stop what you've called." Adrean squared his shoulders. His time to charm the mortal world was gone. The gods were coming to the temple by dawn.