Night had settled quietly over the palace.
For once, the sky was calm.
The strange watchers still lingered in the distant stars, but they no longer shifted restlessly. They simply observed.
Inside the ancient library chamber of the palace, Celestia stood beside a long obsidian table covered with old texts and relics from different realms.
Lucien leaned against a pillar nearby, arms folded.
"You're thinking again," he said.
Celestia glanced at him.
"I'm preparing."
Lucifer had made it very clear—ancient forces were waking.
And if the First War truly stirred again, they could not afford ignorance.
The Spirit Guide appeared beside her in a ripple of silver light.
"There may be a way to learn what we need."
Lucien sighed.
"That sentence has never led to anything simple."
Celestia turned to the Guide.
"What do you mean?"
The Guide's voice lowered slightly.
"The memories of the First War still exist."
Lucien frowned.
"Memories?"
"Yes," the Guide said. "Time does not forget. It only hides."
Celestia's eyes sharpened.
"You can take us there."
The Guide nodded once.
"To observe. Not to change."
Lucien straightened immediately.
"No."
Both Celestia and the Guide looked at him.
"That sounds incredibly dangerous."
Celestia stepped closer to him.
"We need to know what we're facing."
Lucien hesitated.
"I don't like you traveling through ancient cosmic history while pregnant with the most hunted child in existence."
Celestia placed a gentle hand on his arm.
"I won't go alone."
Before Lucien could respond, a familiar voice spoke from the doorway.
"Good."
Naamah stepped into the chamber with her usual confident grace.
Lucien groaned.
"Oh no."
She smiled sweetly.
"Yes."
Naamah—Lucien's step-sister—was dressed in dark silk robes, her crimson hair flowing over one shoulder, her eyes gleaming with the mischief and power that had made her infamous across the infernal courts.
"Someone needs to keep Balance from walking directly into disaster," she said casually.
Lucien looked at Celestia.
"You're bringing her?"
Naamah placed a hand dramatically on her chest.
"I'm wounded."
Lucien stared.
"You once started a war because someone insulted your shoes."
"They were rare," she replied calmly.
Celestia hid a small smile.
But the Spirit Guide spoke again.
"Naamah's presence may be useful."
Lucien rubbed his temples.
"Of course it will."
Naamah walked closer to Celestia, her expression becoming more serious.
"The First Ones are older than Heaven and Hell," she said. "If we're digging through the past, I want to see what scared even the angels."
Lucien sighed deeply.
"Fine."
He pointed at the Guide.
"But if anything dangerous happens—"
Naamah interrupted.
"Oh relax, brother."
She smirked slightly.
"We're just going to watch the apocalypse, not cause one."
The Spirit Guide raised its hand slowly.
Silver light expanded across the chamber.
"Prepare yourselves," it said.
The room dissolved into glowing fragments.
—
Cold wind.
Endless sky.
Celestia blinked as the world reformed around them.
They stood on a vast black plain beneath a sky that looked… wrong.
There were no stars.
Instead, massive glowing shapes floated across the heavens like living constellations.
Naamah slowly turned in a circle.
"Well…"
She whistled softly.
"This place is unsettling."
The Spirit Guide appeared beside them again.
"You are witnessing the world before celestial law."
Celestia looked across the landscape.
The ground was covered with strange crystalline formations and ruins that looked impossibly ancient.
"What happened here?"
The Guide answered quietly.
"This is where the First War began."
A distant sound echoed across the plains.
Not thunder.
Something larger.
Naamah narrowed her eyes.
"Oh good."
In the distance, enormous shapes moved along the horizon.
They were not armies.
They were entities.
Colossal beings made of flame, shadow, light, and shifting cosmic matter.
Each one was larger than mountains.
Each one radiated power that bent reality around it.
Celestia's breath caught.
"The First Ones."
The Spirit Guide nodded.
"Yes."
Naamah stared, fascinated.
"They look like walking disasters."
Celestia noticed something else.
Between the massive entities…
smaller figures moved.
Lucien's people.
Early demons.
Primitive angels.
Other ancient races long extinct.
They were fighting.
Not in organized formations.
In chaos.
Energy storms tore across the sky.
Entire mountains shattered with single blows from the massive beings.
Naamah watched one of the colossal entities sweep its arm across the battlefield—erasing thousands of warriors instantly.
"…Okay," she muttered.
"Now I understand why Heaven created laws."
Celestia studied the battlefield carefully.
"This wasn't a war between angels and demons."
The Guide nodded.
"No."
"It was a war between the First Ones themselves."
Another thunderous sound shook the land.
A massive being of pure starlight rose into the sky and clashed with a towering shadow entity.
Their collision cracked the heavens like glass.
Naamah leaned closer to Celestia.
"If our child wakes those things again…"
Celestia finished the thought quietly.
"…the realms won't survive."
The Spirit Guide pointed toward the center of the battlefield.
"Look there."
Celestia followed its direction.
At the heart of the war stood a single figure surrounded by blinding golden light.
A man.
Powerful.
Radiant.
Unmistakable.
Naamah's voice dropped to a whisper.
"The Father of All."
Celestia stared at the glowing figure.
Her father.
This was the moment before he ended the war and created celestial law.
The Guide spoke softly.
"This is where everything changed."
Celestia felt something strange then.
A faint warmth from within her.
The child reacted again.
Naamah noticed immediately.
"Oh… that can't be good."
Celestia looked down at her abdomen.
"He's reacting to the past."
The Spirit Guide's light flickered suddenly.
"That should not be possible."
Far across the battlefield—
one of the enormous First Ones suddenly turned its head.
Directly toward them.
Naamah froze.
"…Tell me they can't see us."
The Guide did not answer immediately.
Because the massive ancient entity began slowly moving in their direction.
Celestia whispered quietly.
"They can feel him."
Naamah grabbed Celestia's arm.
"Okay."
Her voice was calm—but urgent.
"Maybe it's time we leave the ancient war zone."
But the Spirit Guide's voice had grown tense.
"We may already be too late."
And across the battlefield of the First War—
an ancient power had just noticed the heir of Balance.