The chamber had become a war zone.
Screams echoed through the vast cavern as the Eclipseborn descended like a living eclipse, its tendrils unraveling space and memory alike. Kael's body trembling, dark smoke leaking from his limbs like ink in water.
Around him, the others fought to survive.
Ryall was bleeding from the shoulder, blade shaking in his grip. Tessan roared as his body shimmered with aura, holding back two of the mutated horrors born from the Black Union's communion. Elira's magic lit the air in sharp bursts, but even her spells were beginning to falter.
The Black Union had changed.
What once were cloaked men were now monstrous silhouettes, their limbs extended, voices twisted into chants of pain and hunger. They threw themselves into battle not to win but to die, to be consumed, to fuel the Eclipseborn's awakening.
Kael stood in the center of it all, staring at the entity.
It towered over him like a shadow cast by a dead sun. Its voice wasn't words, but pressure thoughts laced with gravity.
"Unmaker. Flame of forgotten origin. Burn with me. Break with me."
Kael grit his teeth and stepped forward.
Black fire sparked from his fingertips wild, searing, and untamed. His breathing grew uneven. He was losing control.
Then,
A whistle through the dark. A blur.
Something moved like wind and reformed behind one of the corrupted Black Union members. A flash of steel, then silence.
The creature dropped.
Ryall turned, eyes wide. "Drev?"
A figure emerged from the broken corridor hood torn, robes burned at the edges, one arm trailing blood. Drev's face remained shadowed, but his knives gleamed.
"I was sealed in a collapsing tunnel. Took a while to dig out," Drev said calmly.
Tessan let out a breath. "Took your time, damn ghost."
Drev said nothing more just nodded, then vanished again into battle.
With Drev's return, their formation regained balance. He danced through the battlefield like silence itself, dispatching enemies with surgical precision.
But it wasn't enough.
Kael's flames were growing.
They no longer danced along his arms they bled from his very being, a storm of consuming fire that the Eclipseborn seemed drawn to. The chamber distorted around him. The ruin itself began to shake.
The entity lunged Kael met it head-on.
They clashed in a shockwave that shattered the monolith and scattered the stars beneath it like dust. Flames tore across the ceiling. Screams echoed in every direction.
> "Kael!" Elira cried.
He heard her. He heard them all.
But he already knew.
He wasn't going to win.
Not like this.
He turned, black flames curling around him like wings.
"Run," he said.
Ryall froze. "What?"
"I can't stop it," Kael whispered, voice barely audible through the chaos. "This fire… it won't listen to me. It only wants to consume."
Tessan staggered forward. "There has to be another way"
"No," Kael cut in, eyes glowing like coal. "This thing… it'll keep hunting. It'll never stop. If I don't end it here none of us make it out."
Elira's voice cracked. "We're not leaving you!"
Drev stepped forward, blood staining his cloak. His voice was soft, but steady.
"If he stays… we live."
Everyone turned.
Drev's gaze met Kael's, and in that instant, something passed between them. Understanding. Respect. Grief.
Kael smiled.
"Thank you… for being here," he said.
Then he turned.
Faced the Eclipseborn.
And let go.
The black flames exploded outward like a second sun twisting, devouring, collapsing inwards. Kael vanished into the inferno. The Eclipseborn screamed, a sound that tore at thought itself.
And then
Silence.
The ruin crumbled behind the fleeing party. They barely made it out, tumbling into the daylight, coughing ash and smoke.
They watched as the earth trembled.
And then everything was gone.
The Verge had collapsed into itself. Nothing remained but scorched stone and dead wind.
Elira fell to her knees.
Tessan stood frozen.
Ryall clenched his fists, eyes burning with loss.
Drev knelt beside the ruin's edge, hand pressed to the ground. He closed his eyes.
"…He's gone."
No one replied.
The wind howled over the shattered cliffs.
And Kael… was no more.