Starcaller

The air was filled with tension.

Fire exploded through the clearing.

A wave of scorching heat surged toward Orion as Sekhmet exhaled a monstrous breath of fire. Heracles dashed towards Orion by the collar and grabbed him behind the Lion Clock. The divine pelt shimmered with golden light as it absorbed the force from the inferno.

Orion coughed through the heat haze, his eyes watering, heart pounding. He could barely see anything because of the blaze.

Then-movement. Sekhmet leapt through the flames, her bronze gauntlets glowing red-hot. Her clawed foot connected with Hercules' chest mid-leap, sending him skidding through the dirt and ash.

Orion stumbled to his feet, gripping his bow.

"How do I help?" He thought. I can't fight her hand-to-hand. I'd get torn apart instantly.

But doing nothing wasn't an option.

Orion pulled the bow from his back, breath ragged, he circled the fight, keeping low, moving through the trees like a shadow. He knew outpowering Sekhmet wasn't an option, but outthinking her was.

Heracles lunged again, swinging his club wide. Sekhmet ducked, flames dancing from her shoulders as she countered with a flurry of strikes- claws slashing like blades. Heracles blocked most of them with his cloak, but one slice hit him across his arm. Blood hit the dirt.

"You're slowing down," she taunted. "Where's the legend I heard so much about?"

Heracles growled and slammed his foot into the earth, sending a quake forward. Sekhmet staggered. Orion's opening was here.

He loosed an arrow, aiming for her thigh.

Thunk.

IT hit.

She hissed and spun towards him, eyes bright red.

"You again."

Heracles tackled her before she could charge, kicking both of them to the ground in a whirl of fists and fury. Sekhmet kicked off his chest and twisted in mid-air, sending a stream of fire towards Orion.

He dove behind a tree. The fire burned the bark, missing him by inches.

Gotta be quicker, he told himself, rolling out and drawing another arrow.

Sekhmet and Heracles clashed again- this time, Heracles grabbed her wrist mid-swing and pulled her in close. 

"Careful, Hercules. You keep manhandling me like that, and I might start thinking this is foreplay." Sekhmet smirked.

On is other hand, he drove his forehead into hers. Bone cracked. She shrieked, furious and headbutted him back with twice the force.

Orion tried to aim, but they were too close together.

Then he saw it- Sekhmet pinned Hercules' arm and began charging a fire blast from her mouth, inches away from his face.

"No!"

Orion sprinted from his cover, drew, and loosed his arrow.

The projectile sliced through the firelight, finding its mark.

THUNK.

The arrowhead was buried deep into Sekhmets' left shoulder.

She screamed- a true, pained scream- she staggered back from Heracles, who punched her square in the ribs, sending her tumbling.

Sekhmet rolled, clutching her wound. Her divine blood glowed hot on the arrow shaft.

For a second, everything went still.

She rose slowly, shaking with fury. Her rippled like a living flame.

"You.." she growled, pointing at Orion. "I think I'll rip out your soul and wear it like perfume."

She took one step forward.

Her eyes narrowed.

She looked at Orion again, longer this time. Something in her expression shifted.

Not fear.

Calculation.

"I'll be back," she hissed. "I'll make sure you scream last."

Like a flame snuffed out by the wind, Sekhmet vanished, leaving behind scorched ground and smoke.

Orion collapsed to one knee, his breath ragged, the last rush of adrenaline ebbing like a dying tide.

Heracles looked at the arrow lodged in the earth nearby. "You got her pretty good."

"It was luck," Orion muttered.

"No such thing in a fight," Heracles said, offering him a hand. "Only moments you survive or you don't. And you survived."

He helped Orion to his feet, then looked around. His eyes narrowed.

"She wasn't here by accident."

"You think she was looking for us?"

"I think we're close to Nyx."

Heracles, still catching his breath from the fight, looked at Orion, his expression unreadable- but serious.

"We need to move," He said flatly.

Orion tilted his head. "Why? She ran off."

Heracles shook his head. "Exactly. Which means she'll be back. I've just realised two things." He raised two fingers. "One- Nyx is near. Very near. Two- if we stay, we are both going to die."

Orion didn't argue. His body ached, his head was spinning, and adrenaline danced in his veins. But there was a clarity to Heracles' tone, a weight that told him that the god was being serious.

So they moved.

Nearly an hour passed.

The forest began to thin as they walked, becoming quiet. No birds. No crickets. No breeze.

Only night.

Orion's eyes scanned the horizon as he walked beside Hercules. The sky was painted with stars, but too many. He could tell instantly. The constellations seemed warped. Stretched to continue endlessly.

Orion broke the silence.

"Shouldn't the sun have risen by now? he asked, voice hushed. "I swear we've been moving all night."

Heracles didn't stop moving. "It has," he said, " you just can't see it."

Orion frowned. "What do you mean?"

Heracles exhaled, eyes fixed ahead. "After centuries of wandering, you start to feel the world in strange ways. I can tell when dawn is coming- I can almost hear it. But tonight..." He glanced up at the sky. "This one has no end."

They stepped out of the trees into a clearing- they both stopped dead in their tracks.

In the centre of the field stood a structure.

It looked like a Byzantine observatory- a massive dome made from obsidian, black stone, veined with glowing lines of violet. The walls shimmered faintly, as if they were not fully in this world. The roof spiralled upward like a blooming flower of glass and starlight, open to the sky... or what should have been the sky.

Above the building, there was only a void.

Pitch-black nothingness stretched out like an inverted sea, pulling stars inward and warping the light. A living shroud of eternal dusk.

Orion frowned. Something about the sight unsettled him—not just the darkness, but the way the stars bent, disappeared, stolen from the sky.

He didn't know why, but he hated seeing stars taken. Moved. Changed.

It felt… wrong. Like something precious was being tampered with.

Guarding the doors of the temple stood two armoured figures.

Each wore ancient Roman centurion armour; however, they appeared spectral and twisted. Their bodies were made of a smoke-like essence- deep violet and inky black, constantly shifting with their armour like something struggling to hold its form. Their helmets bore no faces, only empty darkness. From their backs flowed capes made of mist and silence.

They held spears in their hands, jagged, long and cold.

Orion instinctively reached for his bow.

"Are they... alive?" he whispered.

Heracles nodded slowly. "Guardians of the threshold. Shades, bound to the will of Nyxs. They won't speak. Won't move. Not unless you try something stupid."

Orion swallowed, "So this is her place?"

Heracles took a few steps forward and gazed into the temple.

"No," he said. "This is her shadow. Her true domain lies behind those doors. Until the seal is fully removed. This is all that can slip through- Just a fragment."

"... And the sky?"

Heracles looked up again. "That's not the sky. That's her presence leaking out into the world."

Orion's skin prickled.

It wasn't fear-not entirely. It was awe.

Standing beneath a god who didn't need to shout or strike or scream to be terrifying.

Just being was enough.

"You ready?" Heracles asked.

Orion nodded, tightening the strap on his quiver.

"AS ill ever be."

They walked to the doors.

The guardians slowly raised their spears- not to block, but to part.

Allowing passage.