Theurgy: A Journey's Dawn

Chapter 52 Gray's Resolve

Hephaestus, emerging from the smoldering crater he had just created, looked upon the world he was alien to. A world so different yet so familiar. Like a replica of some ornament, a fake relic with just enough blemishes and imperfections that it was innoticeable. But he could see the intent. This world, at a glance, seemed unblessed by the presence of the gods, untroubled and unburdened by the calamity that had plagued it once before. The trees had grown in vibrance, the land unscarred and teeming with life. But he knows better. He could see it, the remnants of his old empire. He could see it in the turbulence in the winds. The land had been scarred and torn apart again and again. It doesn't even resemble what it once was underneath the façade. It was a fake of the most disgusting kind, a plight upon what had come before it. It was like they completely tried to erase what had come before it.

He climbed out of the rubble that had been the mountain of his birth. Now, i