The sun rose reluctantly over Vel Talem, its light filtered through the debris still floating from the battle. Streets that once hummed with order were now a mix of rebuilding efforts and watchful quiet. The people didn't know what had truly happened—only that something titanic had nearly torn their city from the sky.
Kael stood at the edge of a viewing platform, hands resting on the rail. His thoughts weren't on the city below, but on the feeling in his chest: something stirring, coiling, waiting.
Aeris approached, this time not in silence.
"There's something you're not telling me," she said, her voice firmer than before.
Kael didn't deny it.
"I saw something… when Nex and I clashed. It wasn't just gravity or power. It was like we were two pieces of a puzzle. Opposing sides of something bigger."
Aeris frowned. "What did you see?"
He turned to her, slowly.
"A door. Or maybe… a rift. A memory trying to surface. Something ancient—like we've done this before. All of it."
A cold shiver ran through Aeris.
"Reincarnation?" she asked.
Kael shook his head.
"No. Worse. Recurrence. Like this fight, this story, has happened again and again—looping, shifting forms, but always ending the same."
She grabbed his wrist suddenly. "Then we break it."
Kael looked down at her hand.
"What if we're meant to become monsters by the end?"
"Then let's become something else entirely."
At the Council of Embers
Far in the Northern Redlands, the Ember Clans—once fractured nomads—had begun to gather under one banner.
The banner of Liora.
She stood barefoot in a circle of war chiefs, her eyes glowing dimly, her voice carrying the fury of fire restrained.
"The Choir grows desperate. They will act in extremes. And we must be ready."
One war chief spoke up.
"And Kael? The boy you marked with your flames?"
Liora's lips twitched in a near-smile.
"He is the match. The Choir is the fuse. We… are the spark to burn down the old world.
Around her, blades were drawn—not in challenge, but in oath.
Elsewhere – Within the Rift
Deep in the unseen layers of reality, something stirred. Something older than gods. A vast eye, lidless and cold, turned ever so
slightly.
Its gaze lingered on Kael.
And for the first time in eons… it blinked.