Gautam's next breath burned like cinders. The ruins were silent except for the whisper of falling ash. The battle with Raven had ended, but the scars it left on the ground — and inside me — were still smoldering.
Liora knelt beside me, her silver hair dim under the dull red sky. "It's over… right?"
I looked at Raven's body. The shadows that had once wrapped him were gone — scattered like smoke. But the air didn't feel lighter. It felt watchful.
"No," I said, tightening my grip on my sword. "It's just beginning."
The runes carved into the ruins glowed faintly — a pulse, slow and rhythmic, like a heartbeat deep within the stone.
Then, a voice — low, ancient, echoing through every shattered archway.
> "At last… my vessel breathes again."
Liora gasped and spun around, her daggers drawn. "Who said that?"
I didn't answer. Because I recognized that voice. I'd heard it before — not here, not in this world, but in a dream that had haunted me for years.
> "You were mine, once. Flame born from shadow. Do you remember?"
The ruins trembled. From the cracks in the floor, black mist coiled upward like smoke seeking air. The stones began to rearrange themselves, forming a circle of lightless crystal.
Liora shouted, "Gautam, move!"
But I couldn't. The mist surrounded me, wrapping around my chest, my arms, my throat. I tried to fight it — the fire inside me roared, flaring bright — but the darkness only tightened.
The world shattered.
I was no longer standing in the ruins. I was somewhere else — a realm of endless dusk. Above me, a cracked sun bled light into the horizon.
And I saw myself.
A man stood on a cliff of obsidian, his armor carved with the same markings now glowing beneath my skin. His hair was the same color as mine. His eyes burned gold — not with warmth, but with judgment.
> "Do you understand now?" the voice said.
"You are not the first Gautam. You are the last flame I left behind."
The man turned. And when he spoke, his voice was mine.
> "I am the one who defied the Sovereign. The one who chained him beneath the Shadow Realm. You… are what remains of me."
The vision cracked apart. The world bled back into the ruins, and I collapsed onto my knees, gasping. My heart pounded with fire and confusion.
Liora caught me. "Gautam! What happened?"
"I… saw him," I said. "Myself. But not me. Another me."
She stared at me, wide-eyed. "You mean—"
"Yes," I whispered. "A past life."
The ground shook again, harder this time. From the darkness where Raven's body had fallen, a fissure split open. Inside it, something moved.
A shape — vast, humanoid, but fluid as smoke. Its face was hidden, its body like molten shadow.
> "You cannot kill what was never truly alive," the being said.
"I am the Sovereign's echo. And you, flame-born, are his key."
Liora threw a spell forward, her hands glowing with azure light. The blast struck the figure, but it barely flinched. It stepped closer, the air freezing around us.
"Run!" she yelled.
I didn't. The fire in my veins roared louder. I raised my sword — the same blade that had killed Raven — and flames burst along its edge.
"I'm done running," I said.
The echo lunged. I met it head-on. Our clash sent waves of heat and shadow ripping through the ruins. Every strike shook the walls, every breath drew blood from my throat.
"Gautam!" Liora's voice cut through the chaos. She was casting a seal, her hands moving fast. "I can trap it — but only for a few seconds!"
"Do it!" I shouted.
She threw the sigil into the air, and chains of light shot down, wrapping around the echo's limbs. For a heartbeat, it stopped moving.
I charged. Fire gathered in my sword, bright as a sunrise. I drove it through the echo's chest.
It screamed — a sound that tore the sky.
But before it faded, its hand shot forward and grabbed my face.
> "You think you wield fire," it hissed, "but fire was born from me."
The world exploded into darkness.
When I opened my eyes, I was back in the duskworld. The same cracked sun, the same horizon. The same figure — my past self — stood there, watching me.
"You've seen enough," he said. "Now listen. The Sovereign isn't coming — he's already awake. Every time you use your power, you feed him."
I clenched my fists. "Then how do I stop it?"
He looked away. "You can't. Not yet."
He raised his hand, and a small flame appeared — blue, not red. "But you can learn what it truly means to be the last flame."
I reached for the fire, and as soon as my fingers touched it, agony surged through me. Images flashed — cities burning, stars dying, shadows screaming.
Liora's voice pulled me back. "Gautam! Wake up!"
I gasped and sat up. The ruins were half-destroyed. Liora was kneeling beside me, blood running down her arm.
"You were gone for minutes," she said, her voice shaking. "The echo vanished — but the whole place started collapsing."
I looked around. The glowing runes had turned black. The heartbeat in the stone had stopped.
"We have to go," I said.
We ran through the falling ruins, ducking under shattered pillars and walls that cracked like thunder. The entire structure was collapsing inward — as if something underneath was waking up.
At the edge of the temple, we stopped to catch our breath. Liora looked at me — and froze.
"Gautam… your eyes."
I frowned. "What about them?"
"They're glowing."
I looked at my reflection in a fragment of shattered crystal. She was right. My irises, once amber, were now burning gold — the same as the man in my vision.
I heard the voice again, deep inside my head.
> "The chain is broken. The flame is free."
"Gautam," Liora said, trembling, "what did you do?"
"I don't know," I said. "But something's coming."
Above us, the red sky cracked open.
Black lightning forked across the clouds, and a colossal shadow spread its wings.
> "At last," the voice of the Sovereign boomed, shaking the air.
"My flame returns to me."
I stepped forward, gripping my sword. My fire flared around me — wild, uncontrolled, but alive.
"Then come and take it."
The ruins disintegrated as a wave of darkness fell from the sky.
And in that moment — as Liora screamed my name — everything went white.