Three Divine Wishes: Yes, I'm OP!

While events in the Orin Star System were at last inching toward the resolution Akasha had long sought...

Elsewhere, matters involving one of the most powerful factions in the Star Cluster were starting to stir with a restlessness that was becoming harder to ignore.

In a Star System far away from Orin, that hung in a dark so complete that ordinary night would have looked pale beside it.

Its stars burned with a dim black radiance, each one like a coal pressed under glass, light reduced to a flicker that never quite reached warmth.

Amid the dim stars, a stronghold loomed in the form of a castle, its towers and walls carved from deep black stone.

Inside, emptiness reigned, broken only by the rare passage of a Dead Kami... beings with pale skin, dark hair, even darker eyes, and black wisps curling off them like smoke.

Deeper within the castle lay a secluded chamber, likely the chief cause of the building’s haunting emptiness.

Inside, row upon row of tubes filled with healing fluid and potent elixirs suspended countless Dead Kami, their slack faces frozen in stillness.

The only sign of life was the slow, steady rise of bubbles drifting through the dark liquid, marking the painstaking pace of their recovery.

HUMMMMM!!!!!

CCRRRRAAAACCKKK!!!

At the far end of that vast room, a single tube stood larger and more exquisite than the rest, its glass etched with seals, its contents a dense black fluid that finally split open with a wet, decisive crack.

In that moment, a bare foot stepped forward first—arched and sure against the chill of the stone.

Then came the rest of her, a slender frame moving with quiet certainty.

There was a gentle curve at the hip, a petite shape at the breast, and a face sculpted to the standard of a goddess who had never needed softness to command obedience.

Her skin was pale, swallowing what little light the chamber offered and giving almost none back.

Her black hair hung in a sleek, unbroken cascade, and her eyes—pure black—swept over the room as though it were the one under scrutiny.

She was the perfect embodiment of herself, every detail fitting exactly who she was.

Izanami, the Goddess of Silent Endings.

A faint smile played at her lips as she tilted her head and rolled her neck once, the long stillness breaking with a series of quiet, personal pops along her spine.

"Ah~ Finally," she murmured with a deep, satisfied sigh.

"Those two bitches, Amaterasu and Nara, really did a number on me."

For just a fleeting moment, fragments of her memories surfaced.

For over a decade, since escaping the Land of Yomi after the final battle of the Great Severance War, Izanami hadn’t seen her defeat as a true loss—at least not now.

In the end, even if it had taken her more than ten years to return to her peak, their original mission had been accomplished.

The Celestial Sun were no longer the rulers of the Orin Star System.

With that thought lingering, she strolled down the rows of lesser tubes, a quiet satisfaction in her steps, fingertips brushing the cool glass once.

As she moved, a black dress wove itself around her from pure death affinity, seamless fabric settling against her waist and thighs until she was draped in darkness that shifted fluidly with her every motion.

She left the healing chamber and strolled through the corridors ahead.

They stretched on in silence, lit only by a soft, fading glow in the stone, each step drawing her deeper into the stronghold’s core.

----

The vast hall accepted her presence without ceremony.

As she entered the room, heat without light breathed from the black flames that turned around the man suspended above the floor.

Pale, ghostly skulls drifted in a slow, unhurried orbit within the flames, their empty eye sockets fixed in eternal stares, jaws parted as though frozen mid-whisper.

Suspended in midair, the man sat cross-legged, his dark robes falling in heavy, unmoving folds around him.

His face bore the tranquil creases of one who had long ceased to reckon time by mortal measures, eyes remaining peacefully closed.

"My daughter," he spoke, his voice gliding effortlessly through the heat and the circling skulls, "you’ve at last returned to yourself."

Izanami paused a few steps past the doorway, her black dress falling neatly into place as she dipped her head—respect in the gesture, but with impatience already flickering at the edge of her lips.

"Father." She let the word hang in the air for a moment before continuing. "You’re right—I’m healed, and I’m ready to move forward with our plans. So, tell me, how have things been since the war ended?"

One of the skulls tilted a little closer to his shoulder, but the man still didn’t open his eyes.

"...My daughter, things have been rather strange lately," he said, before falling silent for a moment as he reflected on all the oddities that had followed what should have been a success.

"Since the war... the Celestial Accord has been silent. Even after we weakened the Celestial Sun... no one has acted against us—at least, not directly."

After his words, he paused briefly before continuing.

"The Accord of Assimilation, however, has gained a new enemy. One that needs to be dealt with before it becomes a real problem."

In that moment, Izanami was already frowning, realizing that all her effort over the past 150 Eras—maintaining a fragile facade of peace with Amaterasu—might have been entirely pointless.

If the Celestial Accord hadn’t retaliated, it meant their focus had remained completely undisturbed.

Even though the Celestial Sun had been weakened, the Accord of Assimilation’s real objective was to stall the Celestial Accord’s conquest of the Star Cluster.

Hearing this, and now realizing there was a new enemy, the words hit her hard.

"A new enemy, huh?" Izanami said, her pure black eyes narrowing as she shifted her weight to one foot.

"And... who might that be?"

"I’m not sure," the man replied. "All we know is that someone in the Orin Star System has stripped away every thread of influence we had there. None of the branch pantheons remain, nor do they hold any control over the worlds."

Izanami folded her arms under her chest, fingers pressing into the black fabric.

"That’s... definitely strange," she said, then added, "Is there anyone out there strong enough to take on four whole pantheons? Even the Celestial Sun couldn’t manage that outright."

Her father’s head tilted slightly, the first sign of movement since she’d arrived.

As the black flames sent another wave of heat through the hall, he spoke.

"Once again... I’m not sure. Nothing’s given me a clear idea of what’s really happening."

He went on, watching the skulls rotate in their slow, steady orbit.

"But there’s a mountain there, and I’m sure that’s at the center of it all."

Izanami met his closed-eyed stillness with her steady, unblinking gaze for what felt like an eternity.

Finally, she gave a single, deliberate nod.

"Then I’ll begin with the mountain."