The world did not sleep. It remembered.
Even after Seren vanished, her last scream of light still echoed through every living mind. In the dreams of mortals, across the silent oceans of gods, and in the spaces between atoms, something watched.
Kael sat in the center of the Obsidian Citadel, eyes closed. The Monoliths around him pulsed like hearts. Every pulse sent visions through him visions of fire, laughter, and mirrors breaking.
He opened his eyes, and reality bent a little too far before snapping back.
Lyssara stepped into the hall, her shadow touching his boots. "She's gone, but not dead. You feel it too."
Kael didn't answer. His hand trembled slightly.
She frowned. "Your essence is splitting again."
Kael's voice was low. "Not splitting. Listening."
In the realm of dreams, Seren's consciousness floated through endless reflections. Each mirror showed a memory: her first act of rebellion, her first tear, her last smile before the duel.
Kaelith's voice whispered beside her.
"You saw his face when he struck you. He hated himself more than he hated you."
Seren's tone was calm, her form half light, half void. "He believes balance is love. But love requires choice."
"Then show him," Kaelith replied. "Even if you must haunt him to do it."
The mirrors cracked, and Seren's form solidified reborn within the dreamworld.
Her eyes glowed like the aftermath of lightning. "If the god of balance dreams, then I will live inside his dream."
Kael's eyes snapped open. For a moment, the Citadel around him was gone. He stood in a field of silver grass under a black sun. Seren waited there, barefoot, smiling softly.
"You can't destroy what you love, Kael," she said.
He stepped forward, cautious, the weight of entire worlds behind his every movement. "You're not real. You're what remains of Kaelith's corruption."
"Then why are you afraid?" she asked.
He stopped.
Seren took another step. "You built balance to hide your fear fear of chaos, fear of feeling, fear of losing control. But creation is chaos. I'm just what you refused to become."
The wind shifted, carrying the scent of burned glass. Kael reached for his blade, but the dream itself reached back. The ground melted into liquid light, wrapping around his legs.
"Wake up, Kael," Kaelith's voice murmured through him. "Before she rewrites your will."
Kael roared, tearing himself free, shattering the dream.
He woke gasping, light flaring from his eyes. The Citadel's walls shook. Lyssara rushed forward. "What happened?"
Kael's hand glowed not gold, not black, but mirror-blue. Seren's energy pulsed through his veins.
"She's inside me," he said quietly. "In every realm, in every reflection. Her echo doesn't need a body anymore. It's inside the pattern of existence."
Varis appeared beside them, kneeling, his armor cracked and burnt. "Then she's already won. How do we fight an idea?"
Kael looked at his trembling hand the color shifting between balance and freedom.
"You don't fight it," he said. His eyes hardened. "You understand it."
He turned toward the Monoliths, and his aura expanded until the walls faded into darkness.
Lyssara whispered, "What are you doing?"
Kael's answer was quiet, but his tone was absolute:
"I'm going to dream back."
In the realm of the Echoes, the stars flickered once, then twice.
And far away, Seren's eyes opened again this time, inside Kael's own dream.
The war between creation and freedom was no longer fought in the heavens.
It had moved inside the mind of a god.