All the wartime preparations have been completed. Both the ethereal and mortal realms were finally prepared. The troops have been training almost nonstop and are as ready as can be. The buildings and structures that the gods had planned have been completed. The weapons plant completed their production of the weapons for all the troops. The supreme being, whom they named Persephane, went through multiple different types of training in the ethereal realm, which was taught by her parents, the gods. Now that she is fully grown, her parents sent her down to live on Centuri in order to better acquaint herself with the inner workings of mortal life. She met with the demigods, her aunts and uncles, for specialized training in those regions. She took part in combat exercises with those regions' troops too. She was taught magic, combat skills, medical training, and science and engineering to make sure that she was fully prepared for the fight to come since she was their savior. 

# 

“Juliabethal our little Persephane is by far your best work yet!” said Luciansys. 

“Thank you for the compliment brother. It means a lot to me that you all feel this way. I love you all,” Juliabethal said while choking back her tears. 

“You’re very welcome. We love you too. Thanks to you, our baby grew up to be strong and beautiful. I’m looking forward to starting her training and seeing how she progresses in her life,” Claudeleous said while pulling her in for a hug. 

#  

Juliabethal had a look of pride and accomplishment plastered on her face over the compliment that he gave her regarding all her hard work pertaining to Persephane. Over the past several years, they watched over her while she was doing her work, studies, and training. Everyone was relieved now that their tasks were completed ahead of schedule. However, there was a new concern they had after observing Persephane nearly every day. Vivianetta noticed that she was getting close to one of the commanders of the land region. This made them uneasy. Her parents worried that her involvement with this warrior could jeopardize her mission and mess up all their carefully crafted plans. 

# 

“Man, I can’t believe how time has just passed by. It’s been peaceful here and on Centuri. Come to think of it, it seems a little peaceful. Now I'm wondering if this is the calm before the storm,” said Luciansys. 

“Nah I just think you are being a little too paranoid my dearest brother. Honestly, we should enjoy this peace while we can. Since we have no idea how long this is going to last,” Claudeleous teased. 

“Whatever. Maybe you are too carefree baby brother. You should keep your guard up in case anything should happen,” Luciansys teased back. 

“I’m not your baby brother. We are the same age! Why are you starting? Can’t you handle a little joke? Sheesh. But if you want to go at it then let’s go at it!” Claudeleous yelled at Luciansys. 

“Sure. We can throw it down right now. Come on!” Luciansys shouted back. 

“Come you both stop acting so childish. I don’t see why we can’t have a balance between being a little careful and enjoying this peace while we still have it and still being able to keep our guards up. I mean, is that our purpose in life? To create peace and harmony,” Juliabethal chided. 

“The voice of reason has spoken. Now will you two knuckleheads please cut it out? We still have work to do. If we must work into the night because of you both, I will be extremely cross. So quit screwing around and get back to work,” Vivianetta said grumpily.  

“You see what you started?” Luciansys quietly said to Claudeleous. 

“I don’t see how any of this is my fault. You're the one who was being a jerk,” Claudeleous snapped back. 

Vivianetta quickly whipped around to glare at them both. “Didn’t I just say to stop? Man for a couple of grown men, you sure do act like children. If I have to tell you to stop one more time, I will make you both regret making me upset.” 

Luciansys and Claudeleous both hung their heads looking ashamed about how they acted. Both brothers said at the same time, “We’re sorry Vivianetta. Please accept our apologies. We’ll stop and get back to work.” 

She turned back to look at them both and simply nodded her acknowledgment. 

“Come along you two. If we finish early enough, we can head home and get some good sleep,” Juliabethal said in a calm tone. 

The two brothers reluctantly went on their way to their respective duty stations. 

# 

Several months have passed and Juliabethal, Luciansys, and Claudeleous noticed a change in Vivianetta. All of them have taken stock of her spending an increased amount of time staring through the portal down at Centuri. On this particular day, Vivianetta was at the portal a total of five times. Now nighttime, Juliabethal concerned for her sister, approached her from behind and stood next to her to see what she was so fixated on. 

“Vivianetta, it’s really late at night. What are you doing back at the portal? Especially at this late hour? Is there something wrong?” 

“Allow me to answer your question with my question. Have you been watching Persephae lately?” Vivianetta asked. 

“Yes, but not to the extent that you have,” Juiabethal replied. 

“During the times you have watched her, have you noticed anything off about her behavior?” she asked. 

“No, I can’t say that I have. Why do you ask? Have you seen something that we have missed or overlooked somehow?” Juliabethal asked her sister worriedly. 

“It’s the oddest thing. And I can’t be certain, so there is a possibility that I might be mistaken. Lately, I have seen her spending more and more time with this one particular warrior. Her behavior and the amount of time that she spends with that mortal is different in comparison to how she is with the other mortals. I hope that this isn’t the case, but to me, it looks like she might have feelings for this warrior. Ugh...,” Viviannetta annoyingly griped. 

“Maybe you are being a tad overprotective. That can cause you to see fault when there isn’t. To me, it just looks like she is having a good time and enjoying living on Centuri. Now, even if Persephane were to have feelings for this man, isn’t that part of her purpose? She was made to love. So in that sense, isn’t Persephane just following her prime encoding? I really don’t see the harm in any of this,” said Juliabethal. 

“You would say something like that. We don’t know what kind of impact her involvement with this mortal will have on her completing her mission. What if he ends up corrupting her, causing her to abandon what she was born to do? I think that is a risk we cannot afford to take right now. Especially when Darkness could show up out of nowhere at any given time, I think we should do something about this. And we should do it immediately. We need to nip this in the bud now before things get worse,” Vivianetta said frantically. 

“Alright, my sister. Tomorrow we will hold a meeting with our brothers and let them know of your concerns and get their opinion on the matter. But for now, let’s head back inside the room and get some sleep. Come on. It’s pretty late.” 

Reluctantly Vivianetta left the portal and followed her sister back inside the castle to go to her room and sleep. She trusted her sister. She knew that when Juliabethal said that she was going to do something, she does it. That somewhat put her mind at ease, knowing that her sister would help her out.