Chapter 54:
The Starforged Relic pulsed in Nezutsu's hand — a spear of crystallized will, twin flames swirling along its edge: one born of memory, the other of rebellion.
As he gripped it, a shockwave cracked through the chamber. Time skipped like a shattered reel. The air folded inward. For one split instant, everyone forgot where they were — who they were.
Aeylara vanished first, dissolving into threads of starlight. She didn't scream. She only smiled — as if this was the moment she had waited for across lifetimes.
"You finally chose yourself," her voice echoed faintly, "and that... is the only flame they can never tame."
Then she was gone.
Not dead. Not banished.
Just… released.
Kaelith's Shattered Echo
Kaelith gasped as the blue-flame child — her Echo — flailed and screamed. The presence shrieked and writhed, its form becoming less distinct, unraveling in strips of sorrow and rage.
"You abandoned me!" it cried. "You left me to rot in the veil!"
"I had to," Kaelith whispered. "I couldn't be the weapon they wanted."
The Echo surged forward in a burst of spectral fire — but the Starforged Relic pulsed once in Nezutsu's hand. The flame swept between Kaelith and her Echo, not burning — but cleansing.
The child's fire dimmed. Its features softened.
For the first time, it looked… peaceful.
"So warm," it murmured, curling into itself. "Like how mother used to hold us."
And then it faded, returning to Kaelith's chest like a breath returning home.
Kaelith collapsed, exhausted but whole. Nezutsu caught her before she hit the floor.
"Thank you," she whispered, clutching his arm. "I remember now. I chose to live… for you."
Eshryn's Warning
Eshryn stood near the broken threshold, her fingers tracing new glyphs in the air — protection runes, woven with haste.
"We've triggered something. That weapon — the Starforged — it doesn't just exist in this realm. It echoes."
"Echoes?" Nezutsu asked.
"Across planes. Across realities. Across… watchers."
Nezutsu felt it too — the sense that unseen eyes now blinked open. Not gods. Not Celestarch. Something else.
"What did I just awaken?" he whispered.
Eshryn's eyes darkened. "Not awaken… invite."
Subplot Twist: The Map in the Relic
As the relic calmed in Nezutsu's grasp, faint etchings appeared along its surface — like glowing script embedded into the crystal.
Kaelith peered at it.
"That's a map. Or a path. Through the Inner Rifts."
"To where?" he asked.
Eshryn leaned in, brow furrowed.
"There were legends. Of a place the Celestarch could never touch. A realm outside even godly reach. They called it Vorthal-Teyn — The Core of Unmaking."
"That's where it leads?"
"If we survive getting there," Eshryn said grimly, "maybe we'll learn why you exist at all."
Meanwhile: The Celestarch Reacts
Far above, in the Throne of the Sky-Spiral, the council of the Celestarch convened in urgency. Nine shadows sat in glass thrones, each flickering with threads of thought, voice, and power.
A Warden knelt before them, its face twisted and partially burned — the one Nezutsu had fought.
"He's retrieved the Relic," the Warden rasped. "The Flame echoes again."
The central figure, cloaked in shifting black and gold, leaned forward. Their voice was calm.
"So the timeline fractures again. The boy has become what we feared."
"What are your orders, My Radiance?"
"Let him walk the path. Let him awaken the Core."
Silence fell.
"And when he does?"
"We erase the world behind him. Let him look back… and see nothing."
A Door of Bone and Song
Back in the ruins, Nezutsu, Kaelith, and Eshryn emerged from the chamber. The tunnel ahead had reshaped — walls bent with new geometry. Symbols sang on the stone.
A single door stood at the end of the path.
It wasn't made of wood. Or steel. Or crystal.
It was made of bone, carved in patterns that shimmered with sound.
And from behind it came a melody.
A voice.
A child's lullaby.
"The world is ash and fire and name,But still I sing, and still you came…"
Nezutsu stepped toward the door.
And it opened on its own.
[TO BE CONTINUED…]