SSS Awakening: I Can Devour Gods to Evolve My Goddesses

Chapter 5: My F-Rank Grave Hid a Divine War Road

The Sunscar Revenant was dead.

The road it had used was not.

Cassian stood inside the reopened eastern Chain Gate and watched the last thread of golden heat retreat through the cracks in the floor.

It was growing thinner.

Not Divine Essence.

Not something he could still devour.

A trail.

The creature had found a way into his territory.

Now that it was dead, that way was disappearing with it.

Cassian lifted the bent chain blade.

"Not yet."

A metallic snap came from behind him.

CLANG!

Cassian turned.

The shadow of the Eclipse War Banner had appeared behind Veyra.

No one had summoned it.

The incomplete black-gold banner turned toward the eastern passage on its own.

Then every Eclipse Chain around the divine seat pulled tight.

Veyra’s right wrist slammed back against the arm of the throne.

The banner shattered.

"Third Formation, face the sun—"

She stopped.

Silence filled the Shrine.

Cassian stared at her.

Veyra’s hand still gripped the edge of the divine seat.

For once, the words seemed to have escaped before she chose them.

Cassian’s eyes dropped to her wrist.

The chain ring had pressed against the old abrasion.

No fresh blood.

Good.

Then his attention returned to the passage.

"Third Formation?"

Veyra said nothing.

Cassian waited.

Still nothing.

"You knew this road."

Her gaze remained on the fading golden trail.

"I saw it burn."

"That’s not a no."

"It’s the answer you’re getting."

Cassian’s mouth moved slightly.

There she was again.

Five words and a locked door.

"The Broken Sun Reliquary?" he asked.

Veyra gave a small nod.

"An outer battle road."

Cassian looked east.

Battle road.

Not a burial tunnel.

Not a crack the Sunscar had dug into his mausoleum.

A real road.

Built for soldiers.

Hidden behind his wall.

"Where does it lead?"

Veyra looked at him.

Cassian sighed.

"Right. Another locked door."

He turned toward the passage.

"I’ll ask the road."

"Cassian."

He stopped.

"If you see dawnlight beneath the earth," Veyra said, "do not step into it."

Her tone had changed.

No sarcasm.

No annoyance.

A real warning.

Cassian looked back.

"Dawnlight. Underground."

"Yes."

"What happens if I touch it?"

"Don’t."

"That’s not an explanation."

"It’s enough to keep you alive."

Cassian considered that.

"Fair."

He stepped through the Chain Gate.

Then glanced back once.

"When I return, I’m asking about the Third Formation again."

"You do not need to announce every future question."

"I’m giving you time to prepare better answers."

Veyra’s eyes narrowed.

Cassian turned away before she could decide whether that deserved a response.

Her voice followed him into the passage.

"Then live long enough to ask them."

Cassian’s steps slowed for half a beat.

Then continued.

That sounded more like a challenge.

He preferred it that way.

—

The Sunscar trail was fading.

Cassian followed it east.

He scored one short mark into the floor where the Shrine’s light ended.

One was enough.

His right shoulder still hurt whenever he lifted the chain blade too high.

His knee was worse.

Neither stopped him from walking.

The passage changed as he went.

Burial marks disappeared from the walls.

So did the small alcoves.

In their place were rows of holes melted into black stone.

Regular spacing.

Both sides.

Some were narrow.

Others were large enough to fit an arm.

Cassian touched the edge of one.

Burned smooth.

He looked farther ahead.

Another row.

Then another.

"Weapon positions."

No answer came from the darkness.

He didn’t need one.

This place had not been built for corpses.

An army had once moved through here.

Cassian’s grip tightened around the blade.

Better.

A military road was worth more than another tomb corridor.

The golden trail led him forward.

Then stopped.

A wall of black stone blocked the passage.

Cassian stared at it.

"No."

The Sunscar had not come through solid stone.

He stepped closer.

No door.

No handle.

No visible crack.

The fading golden line ran directly into the wall.

Cassian placed the bent tip of the chain blade against the stone.

Nothing.

He moved left.

Still nothing.

Then right.

Half a foot.

The blade caught.

Cassian froze.

There.

A seam.

So thin he would have missed it without the Sunscar’s trail.

He leaned closer.

Something divine lay on both sides.

One trace belonged to the dead Revenant.

The other was older.

Hotter.

Buried beyond the wall.

Cassian did not know what it was.

He didn’t need to.

He had found the place where they joined.

Yesterday, he had taken a new skill from the creature that came through this road.

Now he had something to test it on.

Cassian smiled.

"So that’s what you’re for."

He placed the bent tip directly against the seam.

"Divine Rend."

Black-gold heat rushed through his palm.

Pain pulled at his injured shoulder.

Cassian ignored it.

The power ran down the blade.

Straight into the seam.

CRACK!

The line split.

Cassian’s eyes lit up.

"Found you."

For one heartbeat, nothing else happened.

Then a piece of black ash fell.

Another followed.

A crack raced upward.

Cassian stepped back.

The entire wall began peeling inward.

It wasn’t stone.

It was ash fused together by ancient divine heat.

Once Divine Rend cut the force holding it in place, yards of blackened ash lost their support.

CRRRRK.

The wall collapsed.

Ash poured into the darkness beyond.

Cassian waited for it to hit the floor.

One second.

Two.

Three.

Nothing.

His smile slowly faded.

He stepped to the new opening.

And stopped.

There was no room behind the wall.

There was an abyss.

A vast underground space opened beneath him.

An ancient stone road stretched across the darkness.

It was wider than the central hall of his mausoleum.

Wide enough for soldiers to march shoulder to shoulder.

Wide enough for wagons.

Maybe more.

And it was broken.

The nearest section ran out from Cassian’s feet before ending over empty space.

Farther ahead, shattered pieces of road hung over the abyss.

Every piece pointed toward a ruined golden gate in the distance.

Then Cassian saw the light.

Gold rose from below.

Thin streams crawled through cracks in the road and along its broken edges.

No sky.

No sun.

Yet it looked exactly like dawn.

Cassian took one step back.

"Dawnlight."

Veyra’s warning suddenly felt much less dramatic.

He wasn’t going to touch it.

Not today.

Instead, he looked at everything else.

Broken road.

Shattered gate.

Huge column bases.

Metal rings melted into stone, each large enough to hold a war banner far bigger than anything inside his Shrine.

Broken weapons lay scattered farther out.

All pointing forward.

Cassian slowly exhaled.

This wasn’t a hidden corridor.

A real army had fought here.

And all of it had been behind one wall of his F-rank mausoleum.

He looked back at the narrow passage.

Then at the ancient war road.

A laugh escaped him.

"They called this F-rank?"

His voice vanished into the abyss.

Cassian laughed again.

Rowan’s A-rank Awakening had filled half of Crownspire Square with lightning.

Everyone had known immediately what Rowan possessed.

Cassian had received a grave.

No soldiers.

No population.

No protector god.

Only broken stone and things trying to kill him.

Apparently the grave had forgotten to mention the buried military road.

Cassian looked toward the distant golden gate.

His smile returned.

Good.

He liked assets other people had priced incorrectly.

He stepped onto the first section.

Carefully.

The stone held.

No dawnlight touched his boots.

Cassian walked toward the first break.

Ten steps.

Twenty.

Then he stopped at the edge.

The gap was wide.

Very wide.

He measured it once.

Predator Step could launch him into the middle.

After that, gravity could finish the journey.

Cassian looked down at the golden light below.

"No."

He crouched instead.

The stone near his side was cracked but solid.

A melted iron ring sat several steps behind him.

Possible anchor.

Across the gap, part of an old column rested beside the next road section.

Another possible anchor.

Cassian looked between them.

The problem became smaller.

Not an impossible abyss.

A gap.

A dangerous one.

But still a gap.

He needed cable.

A proper anchor.

Maybe a winch.

Cassian tapped the road with the chain blade.

"That’s it?"

He had expected the divine battlefield to demand blood.

The first obstacle wanted equipment.

That he could solve.

Cassian stood.

He had already opened the wall.

He would cross the gap after he found something better than confidence to throw across it.

Then the dawnlight changed.

Cassian immediately stepped back.

The golden glow beneath the road grew brighter.

Nothing attacked him.

No divine presence appeared.

The light simply moved beneath the shattered spans.

One section.

Then another.

Until it climbed a distant pillar beside the golden gate.

Something black-gold appeared on the burned stone.

Cassian narrowed his eyes.

A long scar stretched diagonally across the pillar.

Then widened near the top.

Like a banner caught in the wind.

Cassian went still.

He knew that shape.

"The Eclipse War Banner."

Yesterday, Veyra had forced a broken version of it into existence.

The mark in front of him was different.

It was enormous.

Its lower half had been destroyed, but the upper edge still pointed forward.

Not falling.

Not retreating.

Forward.

Cassian stared at it.

Veyra’s current banner was still only a broken projection.

Whatever had left this scar had once covered a battlefield.

He remembered the words that had escaped her.

Third Formation, face the sun—

Not a story.

An order.

Cassian looked at the width of the road.

At the giant flag mounts.

At the weapons lying in one direction.

Then at the black-gold scar.

For the first time, it was easy to imagine.

Veyra standing here.

A complete war banner above her.

Soldiers behind her.

An entire road moving when she gave the order.

Cassian’s expression slowly changed.

He had already seen what one Evolution could do.

Half an inch of freedom.

Predator Step for him.

A stronger divine presence.

And that had only been the first step.

He looked at the ancient banner scar again.

"So that’s how far you used to stand."

The thought came next.

Simple.

Greedy.

How much Divine Essence would it take to put her back there?

Cassian smiled.

"You’re going to be expensive."

The distant banner gave no answer.

He could already imagine Veyra’s expression if he said it to her face.

That made him want to say it more.

But first—

The road.

The gate.

The route an enemy had used to enter his territory.

He wanted all of it.

Good.

Cassian hated empty territory.

He looked down at the first gap again.

A cable.

An anchor.

Something strong enough to trust with his weight.

That was the next problem.

Not whether he would cross.

How.

Cassian rested the chain blade against his shoulder.

"I need a cable."

Then he looked past the gap, toward the ancient road and the black-gold banner scar.

The smile stayed.

"This road isn’t mine yet."

A beat passed.

"It just doesn’t know that."

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