The city did not sleep that night.
The crimson sky remained, jagged lightning cutting through the clouds, shadows twisting unnaturally across the streets.
Daniel stood in the center of the gathering crowd, golden light still flickering around him.
The people he had awakened were now quiet, hesitant, as if waiting for guidance.
Miriam’s voice broke the silence.
“Daniel… you have given them a spark. But a spark alone cannot withstand the coming darkness.”
Elara stepped forward. “Then we teach them. Show them. Let them stand.”
Daniel nodded slowly, closing his eyes.
The Listener’s gift pulsed stronger than ever.
He could feel each person’s potential—dormant powers, hidden instincts, courage buried under fear.
“Who wants to see what they are truly capable of?” Daniel called softly.
Hands lifted tentatively at first, then confidently.
A teenager with trembling hands discovered he could sense lies from others.
A young mother felt the pulse of fear leave her child.
A man who had been crippled by doubt suddenly stood taller, sensing courage he had never known.
Daniel smiled through the exhaustion.
“It is not me you follow,” he said. “It is truth. It is God’s presence. It is obedience to Him that awakens the gifts in you.”
⸻
The False Prophet’s Counterattack
Above the city, on the roof of a once-proud office building, the false prophet gathered her followers.
Their eyes glowed red, their bodies tense and trembling.
“You have seen their lights,” she hissed.
“They are weak. Frightened. Unaware of the true power that is rising.
I will show them the throne… I will make them kneel.”
Her voice echoed across the empty streets, amplified unnaturally.
A wave of shadows surged downward, twisting and writhing, moving like living serpents toward Daniel and the awakened.
Jonah cursed under his breath. “Great… here we go again.”
Daniel closed his eyes and breathed deeply.
The Listener’s gift whispered in his mind: the shadows carried fear. But fear was not truth.
He extended his hands. Golden light flowed outward, and the shadows recoiled like smoke from fire.
The people watched, awe-struck.
Then they began to raise their own voices, many of them speaking truth aloud for the first time:
“We are free.”
“We will not bow.”
“We are not afraid.”
The shadows shrieked, but Daniel’s light held.
The crowd began to glow faintly, each one amplified by his obedience.
Together, they formed a beacon that pierced the red darkness overhead.
The false prophet shrieked in frustration.
“Impossible!” she screamed.
“They are nothing without him!”
Daniel’s voice rose calmly above the chaos.
“They are everything with Him.
And you… are defeated by your lies.”
⸻
The Creature Tests Daniel
From beneath the city, the earth began to shudder again.
The first physical manifestation of the creature began to rise fully—its molten wings stretching wide, shadows coiling like serpents around its legs.
It spoke—not with words, but with a presence that sank into Daniel’s mind, testing him, probing him:
“You cannot win.
Your obedience is fragile.
Your gifts will fail.
And the people you protect… they will die.”
Daniel staggered, clutching his chest. The weight of the threat was unbearable.
Then a whisper—soft, steady, intimate:
“Fear not. I am with you.”
He steadied himself, golden light blazing from within.
“I do not fight alone,” he said, voice calm, resolute.
“I obey.
And through obedience, there is victory.”
The creature roared in rage and slammed a massive claw into the street. Asphalt and stone shattered, sending the crowd flying backward.
⸻
The First Heart-Wrenching Loss
Amid the chaos, Daniel’s eyes caught sight of one of the children—a small boy, no older than six—pinned beneath falling rubble.
“Elijah!” Daniel shouted.
Elara raced forward, pulling him free just in time, but the boy’s chest was crushed. He gasped, eyes wide, and then… went still.
Daniel fell to his knees, hands trembling.
“No… Lord… no…”
Miriam laid a hand gently on his shoulder.
“Obedience is not without cost,” she whispered.
“The first loss is the heaviest. But it shows what is truly at stake.”
Daniel closed his eyes, golden light dimming slightly in sorrow, but he whispered softly over the boy:
“You are loved. You are remembered. And I will continue the fight—for you, for all of them.”
The crowd wept with him. The awakened felt his grief, and it strengthened their resolve.
⸻
The Gathering of the Awakened
Daniel rose, chest aching, eyes glowing brighter than ever.
“Look around you!” he shouted, voice carrying through the trembling city.
“These are the ones who will stand against the darkness.
They are not afraid, because God is with us!”
The awakened, emboldened by his words, began to step forward, taking positions in the streets, at intersections, around the edges of the city.
Even Jonah found courage, standing beside Daniel, fists clenched, ready to act.
Elara held the children close, whispering encouragement, and the others took up positions with Miriam guiding them.
The angel spread its wings wide above them, casting a golden glow over the city, a promise of protection and divine power.
Daniel’s golden eyes met the first fully risen creature.
It loomed over the city, massive, molten, furious, and yet for the first time… hesitant.
Because the Listener was no longer alone.
The awakened were gathering.
And obedience, faith, and courage were forming a shield that even the throne itself could not easily break.
⸻
The red sky trembled.
The false prophet hissed.
The creature bellowed.
But Daniel stepped forward, golden light blazing, voice steady:
“We follow the One True Light.
And He is with us.”
The city, the awakened, and the children held their breath…
For the first true battle against the throne had begun.
Divine Revelations 
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