Location: Heart of the Womb – Inner Sanctum
POV: Seris Valen
The gate sealed behind them with a sound like a dying god's breath.
Inside, flame pulsed from the very walls—not wild, not chaotic. Alive.
It breathed. It watched.
Seris froze. "This place… it's not just a sanctum. It's a body."
Caelis turned, blade drawn. "What do you mean?"
She stepped forward slowly, hand brushing the scorched stone. The wall shivered under her touch. "Vauryx didn't just channel the god of flame…"
Her voice dropped.
"He fused with it."
---
The Living Core
The chamber stretched wide, a cathedral of fire where no prayer had ever been answered. At its center hovered a blazing sphere of pulsating light—half heart, half sun, surrounded by chains forged of bone and blood.
And before it knelt Vauryx.
Or what remained of him.
His form had changed—less man now, more fire given flesh. Horned. Towering. Runes burning across his skin, the veins glowing with volcanic fury.
And opposite him—
Ashren.
Kneeling. Bleeding. But not defeated.
His eyes were silver.
And he was smiling.
---
The Last Thread
Vauryx's voice rumbled like a world cracking. "You brought them here? To die in your failure?"
Ashren stood slowly, one hand pressed to his side. "No. I brought them to show you what you forgot."
He raised the memory flame again.
And for a moment—it touched Vauryx.
Visions spilled out:
A child clutching a flame too heavy for his heart.
A family erased because they loved without rules.
A boy who burned because no one told him it was okay to feel sorrow.
Seris gasped. She felt it, too.
The tyrant's pain wasn't just rage—it was mourning, long denied.
Ashren whispered, "You can still let go."
---
The Choice
Vauryx's hands trembled.
Then clenched.
"Let go?" His voice cracked. "Let go of power? Of vengeance? Of control?"
The flame around him surged.
Chains shattered.
The living core shrieked.
And Vauryx roared.
"No. I will become the flame. Eternal. Untouchable!"
He lunged.
Ashren raised his hands.
And Seris—
Seris stepped between them.
---
Final Scene – The Interruption
The impact exploded like a nova.
Silver and red collided.
And in the white-hot void left behind, only silence remained.