Loki froze mid-stretch, eyes snapping wide as a low pulse of divinity rolled over Orario- one that didn't quite feel truly divine.
Not in the way it should have. it felt like no other divinity she had felt before. ethereal and muddled yet extremely potent. she should have been able to parse the god who was responsible's domain but for all she knew what she just felt was a divinity from a god of... curses.
She stood slowly, brows furrowed, her smile gone.
"That wasn't… us," she muttered.
Riveria entered moments later, her elven senses already on high alert.
"Something touched the city's divine layer," the high elf said. "But it wasn't a god I don't think."
Loki's expression darkened. "No… It felt divine, but not fully. Like someone took the essence of a god and steeped it in something other."
"It came from Ishtar's ward," Gareth rumbled. "Want us to check it out?"
"Yeah," Loki said quietly. "But be subtle. If that wasn't a god, it was still close enough to ruffle some feathers."
She rubbed her temple, uneasy.
"It didn't feel wrong… just like it didn't belong here."
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Freya stood in silence, hand lightly gripping the railing.
Her eyes were fixed on the horizon- on where the pulse had come from, the red light district.
"That wasn't a god," she said softly, to no one in particular.
Allen appeared behind her, sharp-eyed. "But it was something like one."
"Not even that," Freya murmured. "It was like a single ray of divinity cast through tinted glass."
She turned, hair flowing behind her like moonlight. "There's something in this city now… something that shouldn't exist."
Her smile returned- but with an edge.
"And if it walked into Ishtar's temple, I will know who or what it is."
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"I AM GANESHA—and I did not like that!"
The colorful god stood on the balcony of his stone-carved fortress, arms crossed over his broad chest. Despite his dramatic tone, his voice carried a genuine note of concern. His own divinity did not what he had just felt.
It was divinity, yes—but twisted. Murky. Something about it spoke of shackles and rage.
"That was divine pressure," his captain confirmed beside him, "but… muddy. Faintly hostile."
He gestured grandly. "Deploy the patrols! I want names, faces, physical descriptions! If someone unusual entered the city from the Dungeon recently, we need to know where they've gone."
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Hermes twirled his feathered hat as he felt the lingering tingle of something pass overhead.
Divine? Close. But more like…
"…A foreign echo," he murmured.
Asfi was already taking notes. "You think it came from the Red-Light District?"
"Definitely," Hermes said. "And I'll bet a whole wine cellar it wasn't Ishtar herself."
He stood and started walking. "Send word to our people in the Guild. Anyone see a giant come up from the Dungeon? That'll be our missing piece."
He stopped briefly and turned back toward the skyline.
"Whoever- or whatever- that was, they didn't belong in this world. But I'm pretty sure they didn't come to destroy it, didn't feel malicious in that way."
His smile flickered, just slightly.
"Not yet, anyway."
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In the deep gloom beneath Babel, Ouranos sat motionless as the wave passed overhead.
He opened one eye.
"…So. It has emerged." even with Caelun's subtle divinity, Ouranos had sensed a disturbance in the lower floors of the dungeon, 1st spatial and then a flicker of foreign divinity, then nothing.
Fels, already watching, stepped forward. "That wasn't a god's divinity."
"No," Ouranos rumbled. "But it was divine. The thread of godhood twisted around something ancient. Something not born in this realm."
"And dangerous?" Fels asked.
Ouranos closed his eyes again.
"Possibly. But more importantly… untethered."
He leaned forward slightly.
"Find it. Quietly."