The journey to the final convergence point felt like walking through a waking dream. Reality warped and twisted - ancient trees reversed their growth into saplings before their eyes, rain defied gravity to fall upward, and time itself stuttered like a skipping heartbeat. The revelations from the black waters weighed on each brother, their newfound truths settling into their souls with the finality of stones sinking in deep water.
Vali led them forward, Ra'd's hooves striking sparks that hung suspended in the distorted air. The mark pulsed steadily on his arm, its crimson light cutting through temporal distortions like a blade through silk.
"Something's changing," Kol observed, his scholar's instincts alert to the shifting patterns. "The distortions... they're becoming more ordered, more purposeful. Almost as if-"
"As if they're being directed," Elijah finished, noting how the chaos now flowed with deliberate intent. "We're entering his direct domain."
"Gadreel," Mikael confirmed, touching the tooth that pulsed rhythmically at his neck. "Freya's presence grows stronger. Whatever binds her, we draw near."
The landscape opened suddenly into a vast clearing that defied mortal comprehension. Three waterfalls dominated the space - one surging upward toward an impossible sky, another flowing horizontally through the air like a liquid bridge, and a third that seemed to pour from nowhere into everywhere simultaneously. At their mind-bending intersection stood a figure that radiated ancient power.
Gadreel, the Fallen Angel, appeared as if carved from living light. His wings, partially translucent, stretched across multiple moments in time simultaneously, each feather containing reflections of different ages. His eyes, when they opened, held the weight of millennia.
"The sons of Mikael," his voice resonated through reality itself, making the air vibrate with power. "You've passed the first trials. The waters have shown you truth." His gaze fixed on Vali. "Though some truths were... unexpected."
The mark flared as Vali urged Ra'd forward. "We've come for our sister," he stated simply, his black eyes meeting the angel's ancient gaze without hesitation.
"Have you?" Gadreel's wings shifted, sending ripples through time itself. "Or have you come seeking power? The witch-child sleeps in waters older than your kind, bound by magic you cannot comprehend."
"Cannot?" Vali's smile was sharp. "You've seen what I am. What makes you think anything lies beyond my comprehension?"
The angel's expression remained impassive, but the waters around them stirred. "Pride," he observed. "Even after the black waters' revelation, you cling to it like armor."
"Not pride," Vali corrected. "Certainty. The waters showed each of us truth - mine simply happened to be exactly what I've always claimed."
Gadreel's wings spread wider, their light casting shadows that moved independently of their sources. "And what of your brothers? What of their truths? Do you think their revelations make this journey easier or harder?"
Klaus stepped forward then, his voice steady despite the power radiating from the angel. "We came for family. Whatever truths we learned, whatever masks were stripped away, that hasn't changed."
"Hasn't it?" Gadreel questioned. The waters began to rise around them, forming scenes from their recent trials:
Klaus accepting the darkness in his love for Aurora, understanding that their shared madness was both their greatest strength and potential downfall. The waters showed him ruling beside her, their combined chaos bringing both destruction and rebirth to everything they touched.
Elijah embracing the elegance of his savagery, his perfect control transforming violence into art. Visions showed him orchestrating elaborate schemes spanning centuries, each death a carefully placed note in a symphony of power.
Finn understanding the cost of his judgment and finding wisdom in acceptance rather than condemnation. The waters revealed him becoming a bridge between their darkness and the light they sometimes needed, no longer denying his nature but learning to guide it.
Kol discovering that his loss of magic had given him unique insight, his understanding transcending mere ability to cast spells. Future scenes showed him unraveling the deepest mysteries of power, his knowledge making him more dangerous than any witch.
"You stand changed," the angel noted. "Each of you carrying new weight, new understanding. Yet you would still challenge powers beyond your grasp?"
"Beyond our grasp?" Vali's laugh carried dark amusement. "You guard these waters, fallen one, but you don't understand them any better than we do. You're just another exile, playing at divine authority."
The air grew heavy with tension as angel and demon regarded each other. The waters swirled faster, responding to their confrontation.
"You think because you've accepted your nature, you're beyond judgment?" Gadreel's voice carried warning. "These waters are older than your mark, older than your kind. They judge all who enter."
"Then judge," Vali challenged, the mark blazing brighter. "But know this - we leave with our sister, regardless of your waters' verdict."
The angel's wings flared with sudden light, and reality seemed to bend around them. "Very well," he said softly. "Let the final trial begin."
The waters erupted around them, forming a sphere that encompassed all six. Unlike the black waters that had tested them individually, these waters moved with unified purpose.
"Your final trial is simple," Gadreel's voice echoed through the sphere. "Face what you truly are - not individually, but together. The waters will show you your combined nature, your shared destiny.
What your path truly leads to," As Gadreel spoke, his wings spread wide with the waters rising around them. "See the price of your pride, of your unending hunger for power."
The waters shifted, forming scenes of devastating clarity:
A battlefield stretched endlessly, corpses of both mortals and immortals littering the ground. The sky burned crimson, reflecting the mark's light as Vali and Silas clashed in their final battle. Cities lay in ruins around them, civilizations reduced to ash in their wake.
But it wasn't the destruction that made the brothers' hearts clench - it was the familiar bodies scattered among the dead:
Klaus lay broken beside Aurora's corpse, their final embrace frozen in death. His hybrid nature hadn't been enough to save him from the crossfire of gods.
Elijah's noble features were twisted in final anguish, his perfect control shattered as he died trying to protect Rebekah, who lay just beyond his reach.
Kol's body was surrounded by grimoires turned to ash, his vast knowledge useless against powers that transcended understanding.
Finn had fallen trying to shield Henrik, both brothers now still in death's embrace.
Even Mikael lay defeated, his warrior's spirit finally broken by the loss of all he'd sought to protect.
The vision showed Vali standing victorious over Silas's corpse, the First Blade dripping with the blood of the first immortal. But his victory was hollow. The mark burned brighter than ever, yet its light illuminated only a dead world.
"Alone," Gadreel's voice echoed. "Forever alone. The immortal king of a rotting realm, your family forever beyond your reach. Your strength, your pride, your endless hunger for challenge - this is where it leads. Your very nature dooms them."
They watched as vision-Vali walked through centuries of solitude, his power absolute but meaningless. Cities rose and fell, but he remained apart, the mark's immortality becoming his prison. Each year, each decade, each century stretched into an eternity of isolation.
Klaus recoiled from the vision, his hand reaching instinctively for his siblings. Elijah's perfect composure cracked, horror seeping through. Kol's usual mischief died in his eyes, while Finn's breath caught in his throat.
Vali stood motionless, his face a study in transformation. Shock flickered first across his features, then rage - pure and terrible - made his black eyes blaze. But then, something shifted. His expression cooled, becoming more dangerous than any fury.
"No," he said softly, his voice carrying such certainty that the waters trembled. "You dare show me false futures? You dare suggest I would let them fall?"
The mark pulsed, and cracks appeared in the water's surface.
"This is truth-" Gadreel began, but Vali cut him off.
"You dare call this truth?" Vali's laugh was cold enough to freeze the ancient waters. "I, who have walked through death's domain, who command darkness itself - you think I wouldn't recognize manipulation dressed as prophecy?"
The mark blazed like a crimson star as reality shuddered beneath his words. "I am not some mere beast ruled by pride, fallen one. Every death, every drop of blood, every moment of violence - all of it calculated, all of it measured. I am the architect of my own monstrosity."
Reality cracked as Vali's power surged through the waters. "My strength? My endless hunger for worthy challenges? You think these rule me?" His black eyes reflected something that made even the ancient waters recoil.
"They are merely tools, weapons I've forged in the fires of purpose. My family isn't my weakness - they are the very reason I've refined myself into something that makes even angels bleed."
The mark flared crimson, and suddenly the waters fractured. Gadreel stumbled, blood spurting from his lips as an invisible force crushed one of his lungs.
The waters began to fractured even more as he stepped forward, each word carrying the weight of absolute truth.
"You show me solitude as if isolation could break me? I reject it. You present their deaths as inevitable?" His voice dropped to a whisper that somehow carried more threat than any shout. "Now who decided that?"
His final words came like a death sentence, cold and utterly certain: "I don't just reject your vision, angel. I reject the very possibility of a reality where I fail them.
Let Heaven weep, let Hell tremble, let Earth itself shatter - reality will conform to my will. For throughout Heaven and Earth, I alone am the Honoured One."
At his declaration, the waters shattered, with the world itself recoiling from the absolute certainty in his words. Gadreel's scream of agony echoed through realm as an invisible force crushed his wings to powder and pulverized every bone in his celestial form.
The fallen angel, who had stood guard over these waters since before human memory, crumpled like paper in a storm.
The waters reformed around them, but they moved differently now - not with judgment but with reverence, showing the true vision that even they could no longer deny.
Here was their destiny, not as a warning but as an inevitability: their combined power, their unified purpose, their absolute dominion over all that dared to stand against them.
They saw Klaus and Aurora ruling from shadows, their shared madness becoming a force that shaped civilization itself. Their love, dark and eternal, created beauty from chaos rather than destroying it.
Elijah stood at the heart of their influence, his perfect control transforming their family's power into something elegant and unstoppable. Every move calculated, every action precise, their darkness refined into terrible majesty.
Kol's understanding of magic deepened beyond what any witch could achieve, his knowledge making him more powerful than if he'd retained the ability to cast spells. His insights guided their family through supernatural waters no others could navigate.
Finn found his true role - not as their conscience, but as their wisdom. His understanding tempered their power without weakening it, showing them how to use their nature rather than fight it.
And at the center of it all, Vali stood not as a solitary force, but as the lynchpin that held them together. His power didn't isolate him - it anchored them. The mark's darkness didn't consume their light - it gave it definition.
"These," Vali gestured to the new visions, "these are truth. Not because they show victory, but because they show us as we are - together.
My power exists to ensure they survive. My hunger for challenge exists to make me strong enough to protect them. Even my battle with Silas will end differently - not with solitude, but with family."
Gadreel straightened, his wing curling around his injured side. "You saw through the test," he acknowledged. "Few have ever rejected a vision so completely they broke its power."
"Because few understand what true power is," Vali replied. "It's not about strength alone. It's about purpose." He looked at his brothers, his black eyes reflecting something almost gentle. "And my purpose has always been clear."
"And what purpose is that?" Gadreel asked, though blood still stained his lips from his crushed lung.
"To perfect what we are," Vali replied, the mark pulsing steadily. "Not just myself, but all of us. You showed me a future where my strength led to their doom. But strength without purpose is meaningless. Power without direction is waste."
Gadreel, broken and bleeding, managed one final nod of acknowledgment before collapsing entirely. The waters parted before them, no longer offering resistance but flowing in harmony with their purpose.
The path to Freya was clear now - no more tests, no more trials. The waters that had once sought to judge them now seemed to guide them, leading directly to where their sister slept suspended in her temporal prison.
Vali approached first, the mark's crimson light illuminating the strange magics that bound her, now clearer than ever with his harmonized state of mind.
With a single touch, the First Blade severed Dahlia's spells as if they were nothing more than spider's silk. Time itself seemed to hold its breath as Freya's eyes opened for the first time in years - to her centuries.
She took in her brothers with a smile that held no surprise - only joy and fierce pride. Through her cursed sleep, she had watched them all, had seen every moment that led to this one.
"My brothers," Freya's voice carried centuries of longing as she stepped from the waters, each drop falling from her like years of separation finally ending. "You've kept me waiting long enough."
"Freya..." Mikael's whisper held all the weight of a father's grief, hope, and love. He took one hesitant step forward, as if afraid she might dissolve like morning mist, before something in him broke. With a sound that was half sob, half cry of joy, he rushed forward and pulled her into his arms, holding her as if he could press all the lost years between them into nothing.
Tears streamed freely down the mighty warrior's face as he cradled his firstborn, his fingers threading through her golden hair just as they had when she was a child. The brothers watched with quiet smiles, something tight in their chests loosening at the sight of their father's walls crumbling in the face of pure joy.
Freya was now back with her family.
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(Author note: Hello everyone! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!
So, Freya is back, finally we can be done with this arc. Hopefully you all enjoyed it, personally, it became a bit tedious to write towards the end.
Also, for those curious why Gadreel lost so easily, well, its because of the unique circumstances. The waters are ancient, and have their own power, but since he manipulated them, had to connect to them to do so, which when they shattered by Vali's absolute certainty, Gadreel faced the brunt of the damage.
Not that Vali wouldn't have been able to beat Gadreel otherwise, but it would've been far more difficult since he's still very inexperienced with his powers.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, please do comment and review if you haven't and I'll hopefully see you all later,
Bye!)