The need to know what tomorrow would bring

The decision, bold to the point of insanity, had been made. They would venture into Hollow Earth, into the very heart of Cthulhu's power, following the desperate logic of the surviving Lireans. The exact how and when were still debated in urgent whispers between Merlin, Quetzal, and Enki, but the intention was a loose arrow.

Exhaustion, after days of cataclysmic revelations and supernatural battles, finally began to take its toll on humans and mages. One by one, those not directly involved in the immediate planning or surveillance retreated to the safest corners of the base to try to rest. The laboratory lights dimmed, letting the tropical night claim its dominance.

Only the vampires remained fully alert, a silent and lethal guard in the darkness. Dracula, from the highest point of the damaged structure, gazed out at the Caribbean Sea, his red eyes fixed on the horizon where an unnatural, greenish glow betrayed Cthulhu's active presence. Malakor and the Punishers, empowered by the ritual blood, patrolled the perimeter, their "accursed force" now a controlled but ever-present current beneath their skin, a promise of annihilation for anything that dared to approach.

Aria couldn't sleep. The weight of the world, the imminent journey to an underground hell, the truth about her own magic, and Eleonora's betrayal all swirled in her mind. She stepped out onto a damaged terrace overlooking the sea, seeking respite in the immensity of the night sky. The stars, normally a comfort, now seemed like distant, cold eyes, witnesses to cosmic wars that dwarfed human existence.

Kaelen found her there, leaning on a broken railing, the sea breeze playing with her flame-colored hair. He joined her in silence, both of them gazing at the dark, diamond-studded canvas.

"It's strange, isn't it?" Aria said finally, her voice barely a whisper. "A few months ago, my greatest concern was not accidentally setting fire to the Umbrian library. Now... the fate of humanity, and perhaps the entire planet, seems to depend on decisions made in rooms like this, by people like us."

Kaelen nodded, his eyes reflecting the stars. "Life... has truly taken a turn no one could have foreseen. It's as if we've been thrust into a saga too vast, a legend written with our blood and our fear."

There was a long silence, filled only by the murmur of the waves and the distant, barely perceptible psychic pulse emanating from the sea.

"Sometimes," Kaelen began, his voice unusually low and tinged with a melancholy Aria had rarely heard from him, "I wonder what my parents would think of all this. If they'd be... proud of me. Or just terrified." He looked at Aria, and she saw a vulnerability in his eyes that made him seem much younger than the brave wind mage he usually projected. "I never knew them, Aria. I grew up in a special orphanage Umbria maintained for children with 'gifts.' The teachers always told me my parents were powerful mages, who died on some secret, heroic mission for the school, defending our world."

A sad smile curved his lips. "I always clung to that story. But there are nights, like tonight, under these stars that now seem so full of threat, when I wish... I wish with all my soul that I'd had someone, a mother, a father... who had held me and told me everything was going to be okay, no matter how crazy or scary the world was. Or that they'd simply... supported me, believed in me, even when I didn't."

Aria turned to look at him, surprise and a deep empathy softening her own tired features. His confession was an echo of her own loneliness, her own unanswered questions.

"Kaelen..." she said softly. "I never knew mine either. I have no idea who they were, or why my magic was so... chaotic, so different. I grew up feeling like a mistake, a danger, until Umbria found me. Until Eleonora..." Her voice cracked slightly at the mention of the name, the wound of betrayal still fresh. She swallowed and continued. "I understand that longing. That... lack. It's like a hole in your soul that never quite fills, isn't it? A constant whisper asking you where you come from, who you truly belong to."

Their gazes met in the gloom, and in that instant, beneath the vast and terrifying cosmic sky, they felt a strange and profound connection. It wasn't romantic, not yet, but it was something equally powerful: the silent recognition of two orphaned souls, thrown together into a war beyond their comprehension, carrying a weight no young person should bear. The universe, with its mad gods, fallen angels, and star wars, seemed to shrink for a moment, content in their mutual understanding. of that shared longing to belong.

In that vast canvas of chaos and terror, that tiny spark of human connection was, perhaps, the most real and challenging magic of all. It was a silent promise, not of victory, but of not being completely alone as they delved into the deepest darkness the world, or any other, had ever known. The need to know what tomorrow would hold, and the journey to the Hollow Earth, was now a question that throbbed with an almost unbearable urgency in the heart of the Mexican night.