The clash shook the heavens. Lightning split the clouds, and the entire mountain trembled under the weight of unleashed power.
The Guardian swung its crystalline staff, sending arcs of radiant light toward the assassin. Each strike cracked the earth, but the assassin moved like smoke, his crimson eyes gleaming in the storm.
"You protect a fool who doesn't even remember what he is," the assassin taunted. His voice echoed with a strange, layered resonance, as though multiple souls spoke through him. "Tell me, Guardian—do you even know who this Oracle was before he died?"
The Guardian's eyes burned brighter. "The past no longer binds him. He walks a new path."
The assassin laughed darkly. "No one escapes their own echo."
He thrust out his hand. A pulse of black energy erupted from his palm, slamming into the Guardian's chest. The giant stumbled, cracks spiderwebbing across its stone body.
Eiji stumbled forward. "Stop it! You'll destroy everything!"
The assassin turned his gaze toward him. "That's the idea."
Kael dashed in, blade flashing in the stormlight. "Then you'll go down with it!" He struck, but the assassin caught his sword with one gloved hand, the metal sizzling from contact.
"Courage," the assassin said quietly. "Wasted courage."
He threw Kael aside with a wave of his arm. Lyra rushed to Kael's side, chanting a healing spell as blue light surrounded him.
Selene raised her staff, summoning runes that spiraled upward. "Divine Veil!"
A dome of golden light formed around them, shielding them from the assassin's next blast.
Eiji's medallion pulsed violently against his chest. His heartbeat matched its rhythm. "What do you want from me?" he shouted.
The assassin's smirk faltered for a moment. "You really don't remember, do you? You're not just the Oracle. You're the reason the first world burned."
The Guardian struck again, silencing the words with a thunderous blow. But the assassin caught the staff mid-swing and twisted it, shattering it into shards of crystal.
The Guardian fell to one knee, its form flickering. "Oracle… the light… is yours now."
Eiji's eyes widened. "What are you—"
Before he could finish, the Guardian's remaining energy surged into him. The medallion flared white-hot, symbols spinning faster than his eyes could follow.
Pain exploded through him, but beneath it was power—ancient, vast, and terrifying. His vision blurred, and when it cleared, he was surrounded by floating runes of pure light.
The assassin froze, his expression unreadable. "Ah. So the legend wasn't exaggerated."
The ground split beneath them. Energy burst outward in a storm of glowing sigils. The Guardian's voice echoed faintly in Eiji's mind.
"Balance the light, Oracle. Or it will consume you."
Eiji raised his hand instinctively. The runes obeyed his movement, converging into a massive circle that pulsed with energy. "I don't know what I'm doing," he muttered, "but you asked for this!"
The spell released in a wave of light so bright that it pierced the clouds. The assassin raised a barrier, but cracks appeared instantly.
He hissed. "So you can still use it… even without remembering."
The explosion that followed sent shockwaves down the mountain. When the light faded, the plateau was shattered, the gate broken, and the assassin was gone.
Smoke drifted through the air. Kael and Lyra coughed as they stood up, helping each other to their feet.
"Eiji?" Selene called, scanning the rubble. "Eiji, where are you?"
A few moments passed before a hand burst through the dust. Eiji pulled himself out of the debris, his hair singed, his clothes torn, but alive.
Lyra ran to him. "You're crazy! Do you know that?"
Eiji gave a weak laugh. "If I didn't before, I do now."
Kael looked at the ruined summit. "He escaped again."
Selene nodded grimly. "But he won't stay hidden for long. That blast left a trace in the mana field. Every major faction in Zorynthia will have felt it."
Eiji stared at his glowing medallion, now pulsing with a rhythm like a heartbeat. "Then we should move. Before someone else comes looking."
Lyra crossed her arms. "Where to?"
Eiji glanced toward the horizon, where dark clouds gathered far in the east. "If the second seal was here, the third one's probably waiting there."
Kael followed his gaze. "In the ruins of the old capital?"
Eiji nodded. "Yeah. Time to see what the Oracle destroyed a thousand years ago."
The group exchanged uneasy looks. The wind picked up again, whispering through the shattered stones like a warning.
Somewhere below, in the valley's shadow, crimson eyes watched them leave.