The dome shattered.
The being of fire and chains struck the ground like a falling star, splitting stone and sending molten fractures rippling through the temple's base. Its form pulsed with radiant heat, neither beast nor man, wrapped in molten bindings that twisted and reformed with every breath.
Ryu collided with it mid-descent.
The impact rocked the mountain shelf below the sea, sending shockwaves through the ocean above. Blades clashed. Space folded. Memory bled into the real.
Yan followed next, Phoenix fire blazing across both arms. Twin arcs of spiralling flame struck the guardian's flank, burning through layered plates of radiant armour. But beneath them was more fire. More fury.
"It's regenerating!" Elyra shouted; her voice layered with time. "It's built from layered Qi memory! Every strike we land, it recalls and rebuilds!"
Kalavan emerged with a sharp cry, his arms flaring outward. A surge of water Qi formed into crescent-shaped slashes, which he hurled in a sharp barrage. Behind them came a gust of wind, boosting their speed until they cut through the air like honed blades.
The slashes hit and evaporated on contact.
Steam roared out in a wave.
Kalavan scowled. "Seriously?"
The guardian's arm swung his way. He barely ducked in time, heat scorching the air inches above his head.
Yan narrowed her eyes. "Then let's fight fire with fire." Her blade ignited, flame pulsing with her bloodline's power. She launched into a spiral assault, Phoenix fire trailing in arcs.
She struck, but It didn't matter.
The guardian's fire didn't burn hotter, it burned older. Hers hissed against it, scattered like embers on a forge.
"It's no good!" Yan shouted, falling back.
Meanwhile, Lira remained on the edge of the dome. She did not move. She didn't flinch. But her expression was tight. Her eyes locked on the guardian. She could feel it.
This was not something to challenge.
It didn't just pulse with flame. It pulsed with history.
The Eye pulsed again wide and watching.
And through it, Ryu saw:
Cities of fire, trees of ash, a world broken not by war, but reverence. At its centre stood the First Flame bearer, arms open, expression serene, flame dancing from her fingers like stars born into the void.
Ryu slipped beneath the guardian's swing. He compressed space with the star-mark on his hand and surged upward, blade aimed at the chest-wrapped chain.
It struck true.
And the guardian paused.
Not in pain, but in recognition.
Elyra steadied herself at the wall, staff pulsing. "It's a guardian," she said, voice low. "A piece of the First Flame bearer. A being meant to destroy anyone who would awaken what lies beyond the Eye."
Yan snarled. "Then we prove we're not that threat."
"Or we break it before it makes the choice for us," Kalavan muttered.
Ryu closed his eyes. Inside him, the flame stirred, not wild, not violent, but deep.
He didn't reach for more power.
He reached for truth and the flame answered.
Images surged. The memory of a lineage, bearers before him. A temple older than history. The presence of the First Flame bearer herself, not as a god, but as a spark passed down.
Symbols lit along his arms and chest; marks etched into his soul. A ring of fire surged at his feet.
The guardian hesitated. Its head tilted.
"Do you remember me?" Ryu asked softly.
He stepped forward. Calm. Steady.
He pressed his palm against the being's burning chest.
The star-mark flared, a blinding white that rippled through the flames like truth cutting through memory.
The fire stilled.
Chains cracked.
And then, the guardian unravelled.
Its body disassembled slowly, gently, flame peeling away like petals and then it spoke, its voice was fading, not from weakness, but from fulfilment.
"And so… it is complete…"
The voice vanished with the last spark of its form.
The dome dimmed.
The Eye blinked one final time. Its glow softened, power beginning to recede. But before fading entirely, a voice echoed through the chamber, not in thought, but aloud. Deep, vast, and ageless.
"Good luck on your journey, young ones. This is the only time you will meet me… and so, I offer parting truth."
The massive iris rotated slowly, its focus narrowing onto Ryu and Lira.
"I am Cygon. The last of my kind, at least, in this world. I have lived longer than most. What now feels like aeons ago, I sealed my own realm to stop a corruption that could not be contained among the stars. But the seal required an anchor from beyond and she answered."
"The First Flame bearer. I was young when I met her, naïve in many ways, but she was already more than legend. She stabilized the fracture, and I showed her the old ways. I opened her mind to what Qi can do, its endless possibilities, to sacred balance, to truths your generation has yet to rediscover."
"Now… my time wanes. My Qi is depleted. I must close once more and sleep, the Qi I will use to seal myself will cause a slumber for 100,000 of your years."
Ryu stepped forward, urgency in his voice.
"What happened to her? The Flamebearer?"
The Eye focused sharply, its glow intensifying.
"She died."
"She had ascended beyond Transcendence… entered the Immortal Realm, where existence no longer withers by time. But even there, death finds a path. She bore wounds that tore through planes. And in the end, it was not age or corruption that claimed her."
The voice paused for a moment, wondering if it divulged too much information to those who aren't ready to hear it.
"Even among the ranks of gods… there are still those who murder in cold blood."
The words rang with finality.
A tremor passed through the chamber. Then, like a breath released across eternity, the rift closed.
The scar was gone. The tear between worlds vanished, silent, seamless, and untraceable.
And the sea… grew still once more.
Ryu dropped to one knee, chest heaving, sweat streaming down his back. He didn't speak.
None of them did.
They had heard enough.
The others approached slowly.
Kalavan exhaled. "That thing... it felt like standing inside a sun."
Elyra stepped beside him. "You didn't defeat it. You fulfilled it."
"It knew me," Ryu said hoarsely. "Not just me. The one before me. The mark, it's not just a symbol. It's a tether."
Yan crouched beside him. "You reached it when none of us could."
"Because I'm part of it," he said.
Kalavan sat back against the cracked wall, chuckling weakly. "Next time someone says 'test,' I'm staying in bed."
Lira stood apart from the group. Her silver-tinted green eyes hadn't moved from where the guardian had stood.
Ryu approached her. "How much do you remember?"
Lira blinked slowly. "Not enough," she whispered. "But more than I should."
A pause.
"And less than I need."
They climbed from the Eye chamber in silence, bruised and changed.
The lower levels of the temple were quiet now, depowered, like lungs no longer drawing breath.
When they reached the upper halls, dawn had arrived.
No mist.
No hum.
Just sky.
And silence.
Later, Ryu stood alone on the outer platform, watching the Sea Without Name stretch toward the horizon.
For the first time in days, it was calm.
Yan joined him, arms folded.
"Where do we go now?" she asked.
"Home," Ryu said softly.
Yan tilted her head. "You think it's over?"
"No." He stared at the sea. "I think it just started."
Far beneath the waves, in the drowned heart of the temple, the last embers cooled.
And far away, in the mountains, in the dark beneath a forgotten ruin,
Another gate opened.