The Night the Banshee Became Something Else
The war was over.
Or at least that is what the surviving empires told themselves.
The Cataclysmic War had burned across Earth and Malduk like a cosmic wildfire. Cities had turned to glass. Oceans had boiled. Entire species had vanished beneath the violence unleashed by the Ancient Valhallan Empire.
And now the Valhallans were gone.
Exiled.
Cast into deep space by the combined power of the Annunaki and Ennead Empires.
The battlefield world of Malduk lay silent beneath a red sky.
Ash drifted like snow.
And in the ruins of a shattered citadel stood Rua Venus.
She looked small against the broken towers of Valhallan architecture, but the storm swirling above her seemed to bend around her presence.
Before her lay something enormous.
A body so vast it stretched across the broken valley floor.
A serpent.
Not a normal serpent.
A titan.
Its scales were the size of fortress shields, shimmering with ancient cosmic energy.
Its body coiled through the wreckage of mountains.
Its eyes—once burning suns—had gone dark.
Jormungandr.
The Serpent Titan of the Valhallan Empire.
And Rua’s lover.
Rua knelt beside the colossal head of the fallen titan.
Her hand rested gently on one of the massive scales.
“You were not supposed to die,” she whispered.
The wind howled through the broken city.
The titan did not answer.
For the first time in centuries, the sorceress who had helped engineer the war felt something unfamiliar.
Loss.
But the feeling did not last.
Rua slowly stood.
Above her, thunder cracked across the sky.
“You promised me eternity,” she said quietly.
She looked down at the titan’s body.
Her violet eyes began to glow.
“Well then.”
“If the universe will not give it to me…”
Her voice lowered.
“…I will take it.”
Rua raised both arms.
Ancient runes ignited around her feet, forming a massive arcane circle across the shattered battlefield.
The ground trembled.
The clouds above Malduk began to spin.
Green lightning tore through the sky.
Deep within the corpse of the serpent titan, something began to move.
Energy.
Ancient.
Primordial.
The life force of Jormungandr.
Rua stepped forward onto the titan’s massive head.
Her three tails lifted into the air like living serpents.
The magic circle blazed brighter.
“Valhallan blood… serpent titan essence… primordial life force…”
Her voice echoed like a chant.
“I claim you.”
The titan’s body began to glow from within.
Cracks of blazing green energy spread across its scales.
The air filled with a deafening roar.
Then—
Rua opened her mouth.
And screamed.
But it was not a normal scream.
It was the Banshee Wail.
A sound so powerful that the ruins around her began to crumble.
The energy inside Jormungandr exploded outward in a massive column of light.
Instead of escaping…
The energy bent toward Rua.
The titan’s life force was being consumed.
Absorbed.
Drawn into her body like a storm collapsing into a single point.
The serpent’s massive body began to wither.
Its scales turned black.
Its bones cracked like breaking mountains.
Rua’s body lifted off the ground.
Her eyes burned with terrifying brilliance.
The energy of a god poured into her veins.
The sky split open with lightning.
Across the battlefield, the bones of fallen soldiers began to rattle in the dust.
The magic surged.
Her scream rose higher.
Then—
Silence.
The storm stopped.
The sky cleared.
Rua slowly descended back to the ground.
Where the titan’s body had once stretched across the valley…
Nothing remained.
Not flesh.
Not bone.
Not scale.
Only ash.
Rua stood alone in the ruins.
Her breathing was calm.
But something about her had changed.
Her skin shimmered with faint serpentine patterns.
Her pupils had become slitted like a predator’s.
And behind her…
Three scaled tails slowly unfurled.
Rua Venus smiled faintly.
The war had taken everything from her.
But she had taken something in return.
Power.
Power that no empire now possessed.
Power that would one day reshape the fate of Amadonnia itself.
Far above the battlefield, the stars watched silently.
And somewhere in the void of deep space…
The exiled Valhallan fleet trembled.
Because the woman they had once called ally…
Had just become something far more dangerous.