Chapter 30: The Door Within
The ghost fleet stood frozen, their spectral green flames flickering in the fog. A hundred dead ships with a hundred silent crews, waiting as if something deeper than death held their breath.
Elias stared out at them with his black sword in hand, its dark metal humming as though it too recognized the moment. The spiral beneath their feet pulsed dimly, golden veins snaking across the stone with each heartbeat.
He looked at Jake.
"I stole this sword back from the pirate market," Elias said, half-smirking. "Thought it was just a blade with a dramatic design. Killed a guy over it. Pretty sure he deserved it."
Jake raised an eyebrow. "Deserving's rarely the standard for theft, mate. Not judging—just impressed."
Elias turned the sword in his hand, eyeing the way the runes glowed faintly down the hilt. "But now that lovely voice keeps saying 'The sword is the key. The boy is the door.'"
He glanced at Raina, who hadn't moved, her hand resting cautiously near her blade. She looked at him like she already knew what was coming.
"So," Elias said casually, "how exactly do we open a door?"
Jake tilted his head. "Well, if you're the door, and that—" he pointed to the sword, "—is the key, and neither of us are locksmiths…"
Elias didn't wait.
He smiled—a crooked, feral grin—and with one clean motion, drove the sword into his own chest.
Raina screamed. Jake flinched back a step, bottle clattering to the ground.
Elias fell to his knees, the blade lodged in his heart, blood running down the black metal and staining the spiral.
But his face… wasn't in pain.
It was awe.
The runes along the sword blazed white. The spiral ignited beneath him. The wind howled through the island as the sky above twisted, clouds spinning like a cyclone directly overhead.
Raina rushed toward him—Jake caught her arm.
"Wait," he said, wide-eyed, voice low. "Look."
The ground around Elias cracked—no, it peeled. Stone turned to ash, revealing golden light beneath, as if reality itself were just a mask and now it was being burned away.
Elias's body hovered an inch above the spiral now, bleeding light instead of blood.
Then—
The door opened.
A sound like thunder underwater rang out, and the spiral exploded outward, not in fire—but in vision.
Jake saw it—though he could never quite describe it. A glimpse into something vast and wrong and endless. Stars spiraling backward. A sea without water. A world folding inward. Time collapsing into itself like paper in flame.
Raina saw it too. Her lips parted in terror. She staggered back as her mind tried to make sense of it.
Elias wasn't there anymore.
In his place stood a… shape. A man of light and shadow, his body flickering in and out of existence. The sword still pierced his chest—but it floated now, held in place by something not seen.
The ghost fleet knelt in unison aboard their ships.
Every last one.
Even the dead knew what had come through.
The voice returned—not from the dagger, not from the island—but from Elias himself.
"I remember," the voice said, layered with echoes, like ten voices speaking at once. "I was made, not born. Placed here by those who fled the end. A seed of the first age."
Jake blinked. "Alright, so… good news: we opened the door. Bad news: the door talks."
The spiral beneath them turned into a portal—swirling, golden, and black.
From it, things began to crawl out.
Not monsters.
Not demons.
Memories.
Images of other lives, other times. A younger Elias standing in a throne room, dressed in armor. A ship burning in a black sea. A figure that looked like Jake, but older… wiser… and dying. A version of Raina with silver eyes. A war in the sky. A tower of glass falling into a sea of stars.
Another time where Elias was a knight
Another time where Elias was dressed in weird clothes like some kinda of old clothes with a sword in his hand and some power in his body
Another time where Elias was not Elias no
There stood a guy in black clothes. Black long hair. Black eyes like the endless void itself
He was standing in a beautiful Forest talking to some strange creatures
But in that moment the guy looked up like he saw through it
Like he know there is something
Someone watching him
His eyes where weird. One eye where black the other where bloody red like hell fire itself
""Who are you ""
The guy spoke and his voice was so strong it each through the worlds itself
Maybe because of the open door or maybe because that guy was just a monster in human skin
Raina fell to her knees, covering her head. "Make it stop!"
Jake winced, stepping forward through the noise. "Elias—mate—you wanna tone down the god-energy for a second?"
The voice paused.
The figure looked at him.
And then, just like that, Elias collapsed.
The sword clattered beside him.
The light vanished.
The spiral dimmed.
And silence returned.
Jake crouched down, poking him lightly with the tip of his boot. "You alive?"
Elias coughed. "That... was a bad idea."
Raina grabbed him, helping him sit up. "You idiot."
"You love me."
"No. I tolerate you."
Jake chuckled. "What did you see?"
Elias looked pale. Shaken. But also… more awake than he'd ever been.
"Everything. Or… part of everything. I was made. A living key. The sword isn't just a weapon—it's a memory. Of what came before. Of what's coming."
Jake knelt beside him. "And what's coming?"
Elias looked toward the horizon.
"Whatever it is... the sea can't stop it."
Behind them, the ghost fleet turned slowly, their lanterns fading one by one. The island, its spiral, the tower—all of it—began to fade like mist in sunlight.
Jake helped Elias up and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Next time, let's ask the door to open, yeah? Maybe knock first?"
Elias grinned weakly. "Where's the fun in that?"
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