**Athens, Greece – Dawn After the Battle**
The cavernous forge still reeked of molten Stygian iron and scorched earth. Ujjwal knelt beside Karim's unconscious form, the divine fire from Hephaestus's shattered anvil swirling around him like a cyclone of gold and crimson. The flames seeped into his pores, burning away exhaustion, *transforming* him. His muscles tightened, sinews reforged with celestial strength—sleeker, denser, a panther's lethal grace fused with a god's wrath. The *Jyoti Mukta* blazed in his chest, its light no longer a flicker but a supernova contained in flesh.
Anika staggered back, shielding her eyes. "Ujjwal—your *skin*—"
He looked down. His veins pulsed with liquid fire, his scars erased, his body humming with raw, untamed divinity. "It's… the forge's energy," he said, voice deeper, resonant. "Hephaestus's fire. It's *alive*."
Leo hefted his cracked Aegis shield, eyeing Ujjwal warily. "**Can you control it?**"
Ujjwal flexed his hands, tendrils of flame dancing between his fingers. "I have to."
---
### **The Reforging**
The divine fire roared in his veins, demanding release. He turned to Leo's shield—the ancient *aspis*, its Medusa emblem cracked by Nikolas's hammer. "Give it to me."
Leo hesitated, then tossed it. Ujjwal caught the shield midair, divine fire erupting from his palms. The metal *screamed* as it melted, reforging itself under his will. Golden filigree spiraled across its surface, the Gorgon's face shifting into a hybrid of Greek and Hindu motifs—serpents coiled around a lotus, eyes blazing with solar fire.
"**What… is that?**" Leo whispered.
"Aegis **and** Kavacha," Ujjwal said, his voice echoing with dual timbres—his own and something older. "It'll deflect divine and mortal strikes. Even Stygian iron." He tossed it back. The shield snapped to Leo's arm like a living thing, its edge sharpening into a blade.
Leo slashed the air, the movement tearing a gash in reality itself. "**Furies' breath…**"
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### **Anika's Spark**
The fire in Ujjwal dimmed, its last embers sputtering. He turned to Anika. "Your turn."
"Wait, *my* turn? I don't want superpowers—"
He pressed a burning hand to her forehead.
Light exploded.
Anika gasped, her irises flashing with circuitry patterns. The discarded Talos automaton shuddered, its parts levitating toward her. Wires and gears snapped together, forming a drone with wings of Stygian iron and a core of molten gold.
"**I… I can *see* it,**" she breathed, touching the drone. It whirred to life, projecting a hologram of the Acropolis's underground tunnels. "The machines… they're *talking* to me."
Ujjwal slumped, the divine fire spent. "Now you can talk back."
---
### **Karim's Revival**
Karim's breaths were shallow, his skin gray. Amunet's voice crackled through Anika's comms: "**Is he—?**"
"Not yet," Ujjwal said. He placed his hands over Karim's chest, the pearl's light merging with the fading embers of Hephaestus's fire. Golden threads stitched Karim's wounds, purging Stygian poison from his veins.
Karim jolted awake, coughing obsidian sludge. "**The Helm… Nikolas sent it to Delphi. To corrupt the Oracle.**"
Leo cursed. "**The Council's digging up more than relics.**"
---
### **The Price of Power**
Safehouse Alpha, a crumbling villa in Psirri, buzzed with tension. Ujjwal stared into a cracked mirror, tracing the faint golden veins under his skin. *Temporary*, the pearl whispered. *For now.*
Anika dismantled a toaster, her fingers moving with mechanical precision. "I can *feel* electricity. Like it's a language." She rebuilt it into a handheld scanner, its screen displaying mythic energy signatures. "This could track Godshards."
Leo polished his reforged shield, its edge gleaming. "**Sparta would've burned you as a witch.**"
"Good thing we're in Athens," she shot back.
Karim sat cross-legged, testing his strength. "**The fire… it didn't just heal me. I can *see* the dead.**" His gaze fixed on a shadowed corner. "**There's a man here. Says his name is… Theseus?**"
Ujjwal's veins cooled. *The divine fire's gifts came with curses.*
---
### **The Road to Delphi**
The jeep sped through the Peloponnese mountains, Delphi's ruins looming ahead. Anika's drone scouted the path, dodging Silent Council patrols.
"**The Oracle's chamber is a labyrinth,**" Leo said. "**Old magic. Traps. And the Helm's not just a relic—it's a key.**"
Ujjwal's pearl pulsed, the voice clearer now—*his grandmother's.* *"Delphi is where the Prism first shattered. Finish what I could not."*
Anika glanced at him. "You okay?"
He flexed his hands, the golden veins flickering. "We'll see."
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