Lioren collapsed onto the cold ground, his body trembling as if being strangled from within. His eyes widened, turned white, and his breath came in broken gasps—like drowning in air. The veins beneath his skin darkened, twitching wildly like a nest of parasites.
And then—the world shattered.
He didn't fall to the ground. He fell into himself.
---
First Layer: Lightning
A swirling storm. Bolts of lightning tore the sky apart. Lioren stood in the midst of a ruined city—nothing left but ash and charred skeletons.
A figure emerged from the lightning—Lightning—a fractured silhouette of flickering sparks, faceless, with only blinding white eyes.
> "You call me strength, yet run from me like a child crying in the night. Coward. You carry me in your blood, yet cage me with hollow reason."
The entity slithered around him like a snake, then laughed—a sound sharp as blades scraping his eardrums.
> "The truth is… you want to touch me. You want to burn everything down with eternal light. Stop pretending to be virtuous, Lioren."
---
Second Layer: Ice
Lioren was hurled into a place so cold that the blood in his veins felt frozen. A still lake lay before him, beneath which floated hundreds of corpses—all bearing his face. Decayed, silent versions of himself.
From the center of the lake rose a feminine figure—Ice—tall, cloaked in shards of frozen mist, her voice a whisper like snow falling on corpses.
> "You pretend to feel sorrow… but deep inside, you always wished for silence. You never wanted to be touched. You wanted everyone… to disappear."
She reached out to stroke Lioren's face. Her hand was as cold as dead metal.
> "Let me hold you forever. In frost, there is no choice. Only silence. And the rest you've always craved."
---
Third Layer: Earth
The ground trembled. He wandered into a world being crushed. Blood-red stone pillars jutted up from the earth like beasts' teeth. Atop a crumbling tower stood Earth—a humanoid creature with cracked skin, lava spilling from its wounds.
> "Do you know what I am? I am the root of the rage you've always buried. The hand that strangled your mother. The scream no one heard in the dark."
It slammed its fist into the ground, sending a quake through the very fabric of thought.
> "You were born to destroy. Not to save."
The three elements—Lightning, Ice, Earth—closed in on him. Their laughter rang out, grotesque and overlapping, a deranged chorus:
> "The world calls you a hero. We know better. You are the gate to hell, dressed in human skin."
Lioren screamed. Pieces of his mind shattered. But he hadn't reached the bottom.
---
Final Layer: The Fire Unburned
A space of utter darkness. He fell, weightless, until a dim red glow appeared—small as a spark of ash. A flame floated in the void. But from it radiated heat that melted the fabric of reality.
A voice rose—not spoken, but resonating in every cell:
> "I am what you forgot. The first element. The first sin."
The flame morphed into Lioren's own face—its twisted grin tearing the visage in half.
> "I have not burned… but blood has already spilled. And you will do it again—again, and forever."
---
Reality
Lioren's body smoked. His eyes blazed red. Drops of sweat burned through his skin. He began to scream—not from pain, but as if trying to tear apart the chains imprisoning him.
Talion rushed forward. Old, yet every step he took cracked the earth beneath like a death knell.
> "No… I cannot let it escape. That flame… must not awaken!"
He drew a shard of flint from his robe—The Soul-Cinder Stone—and pressed it to Lioren's forehead. A magic circle burst into existence. Blood began to drip from Talion's eyes, his hands, his heart soaked in ancient oaths.
He chanted, each word a nail sealing a coffin:
> "Element of Lightning—bind!"
"Element of Ice—seal!"
"Element of Earth—lock!"
"Fire unburned—cast down into the abyss!"
Three burning marks etched themselves into Lioren's body. He writhed and screamed, but it was in vain.
The savage laughter of the three elements echoed one last time—then was silenced.
A bolt of lightning struck from the sky—not to kill, but to imprison.
The seal was complete.
---
At last...
Lioren collapsed, his body like a corpse. But the red glow in his heart had not died. It was only waiting...
Talion staggered, blood pouring from his chest.
Liora whispered in horror, "Did we… save him?"
Talion looked at the boy. His eyes held a sorrow deeper than death:
> "We saved… the part that was human. But the rest… is still smiling in the dark."