The throne room was silent, and the air was thick with an ominous atmosphere. The giant firelight flickered, casting an eerie, shimmering glow across the room. Everything around us seemed wrong somehow. The palace had been rebuilt, almost as if it had never been destroyed. But the shadows darkening the walls told a different story.

I knelt before the water basin where the Ophiotaurus—the mysterious, mythical creature whose sacrifice was supposed to grant the power to destroy the gods—lay motionless. Its massive body was lifeless, yet the sheen of its scales and the immense, shimmering eyes made the creature seem unnaturally alive. But the Ophiotaurus was dead. Its power, its gift... they now belonged to me.

I could feel Luke's gaze on me, but it wasn't the question in his eyes that occupied me. It was the constant pressure, like an invisible band tightening around my heart. What had I done? And why had I done it? Was this really what I wanted?

"Thalia," Luke said quietly, his voice hesitant. "Are you sure?"

I didn't look at him. "I have to do this," I answered, the words flowing like a mantra from my lips. I couldn't take it back—not now.

"This is the only way," he murmured, almost as confirmation. "You know what it means."

I didn't know. But I couldn't undo it. I had made my choice.

With a jerk, I reached for the Ophiotaurus, still motionless in the water. The cold, slimy water dripped from its massive body as I pulled it from the basin. It was surprisingly heavy, but I held it firmly, as if it belonged to me. The unnatural cold of the creature felt almost alive as I held it in my arms.

"What will you do?" Luke asked again, this time with a touch of desperation.

I didn't answer. What did I know? I had no idea what would happen next. No one had told me what it meant to sacrifice the Ophiotaurus. No one knew what would happen when I threw it into the magical fire. After all, this had never happened before.

Slowly, I walked toward the altar with the Ophiotaurus's corpse. The room seemed to grow quieter around me as the flames in the firepit increased in intensity, as if they were waiting for the coming sacrifice. The fire was enormous, an eternal, seemingly unquenchable inferno, spitting its flames high into the air.

I stopped. The fire flickered before me, and I hesitated. What would happen if I took this step? What if I caused something irreversible?

"Thalia, you have to do it," Luke said from behind me, his voice calm, but a trace of worry in it. "You know there's no other way."

I nodded, even though I didn't know. What did I know? But the decision had already been made.

I lifted the Ophiotaurus's body over the fire and let it fall into the flames. The moment it plunged into the fire felt both unreal and overwhelmingly real. The sizzling and crackling of the flames as they consumed the Ophiotaurus's body made the room tremble.

I stood there, staring at the flames as they engulfed the creature. The Ophiotaurus was dead, but what had I done? What was happening now?

The heat of the fire suddenly became palpable, enveloping me like a firestorm. My skin burned, but the pain didn't feel like it should. I tried to scream, but no sound escaped my lips. The flames seemed to penetrate me, as if they were absorbing me.

A sharp pain shot through me, but it was different from anything I had ever felt. I felt it, as if something inside me was changing, something that separated from me but was still a part of me. Something that made me stronger.

I fell to the ground, barely able to breathe. My hands were burning hot, as if the fire was running through my veins. And then, suddenly—the pain was gone.

I slowly rose to my feet. The fire still raged, but inside me, everything was quiet. I was... different. Something had changed. Something that couldn't be undone. The Ophiotaurus was burned, its body now just ash, but something else burned inside me now—a power I had never expected.

I slowly turned to Luke. He looked at me with his mouth agape, as if he didn't know what to think.

"What happened to me?" I asked softly. My voice sounded almost foreign in my own ears.

"You... you're..." Luke stammered. "Thalia, you're..."

I could feel it inside me. This infinity. This change that had lifted me beyond the human. I was no longer like the others. Something had awoken in me that set me apart from everything I had once been. Something that now made me more than ever a force to be reckoned with.

"I did it," I whispered, and the words echoed in my thoughts. "I am... immortal."

The realization came slowly, but when it settled, I felt, for a moment, like a child of the gods, crossing the boundaries of mortality. And then, as I looked at Luke, I knew this was just the beginning.

"And now?" he asked cautiously. "What will you do?"

I looked at the blazing flames before me, feeling the power within me pulse. The answer was simple, yet so heavy I couldn't yet put it into words.

"I will finally take control of my destiny," I said, walked toward him and kissed him.