The rain began at dusk, soft at first, then relentless.Each drop carried the taste of ash.
Kael and Serah trudged through the mist, their cloaks heavy with mud and blood. Behind them, the valley where the Inquisitors fell was nothing but a black scar — a wound in the land that would not heal.
They had walked for hours in silence. The fire in Kael's veins had dimmed, leaving behind only exhaustion and the faint ache of something missing.
"We need shelter," Serah murmured. "Your body won't hold much longer."
Kael nodded wordlessly. His hands still glowed faintly through his gloves — small pulses of gold that flared every time he clenched them.
At last they reached the edge of a forest. Beyond it, half-buried in vines and stone, loomed the remains of an ancient abbey. Its towers were broken, its gates hanging by rusted hinges. But light still flickered inside, faint and steady.
Serah frowned.
"Someone's here."
Kael's grip tightened on his sword. "Then we'll ask for mercy — or take it."
The Keeper of the Ruins
The interior smelled of damp parchment and burned oil. A hundred candles flickered across the walls, their flames bending toward the intruders as if curious.
At the center of the ruined nave stood an old man wrapped in gray robes, his face obscured by a hood. He leaned on a staff carved with spirals of bone and silver.
"You've come far," he said, voice like wind in a tomb. "And you carry the stench of divine fire."
Serah stiffened. "Who are you?"
"A keeper. Once, this was the Sanctuary of Echoes — where voices came to rest when gods stopped listening."
The man's eyes glinted pale gold under the hood. Not human. Not entirely.
He studied Kael for a long moment.
"The Crown burns in you still, child of ruin. You've awakened what should have slept."
Kael's temper flared.
"Then tell me how to kill it."
The keeper smiled faintly. "You cannot kill what you are. The Crown is not a curse; it is remembrance. The world forgot its gods, and so they made you to remind it."
Kael stepped forward. "I didn't ask to be made."
"None of the first flames did."
The Mirror of Blood
The keeper led them deeper into the abbey, through halls carved with symbols that shimmered as they passed — names of lost gods, prayers half-burned away.At last, they entered a chamber where a mirror stood on a dais of stone. Its surface was red, liquid, alive.
"The Mirror of Blood," the keeper said softly. "It shows not what is, but what clings to you."
Kael approached, compelled. The mirror rippled at his reflection, then darkened — showing instead a battlefield of gold and fire. He saw himself standing over a mountain of corpses, his eyes burning like twin suns.
Serah gasped. "Kael—"
Then the image shifted.The corpses rose, whispering his name.Heretic King. Unmaker. Light-eater.
Kael staggered back, clutching his head. The whispers were inside him now, pulsing like veins of molten glass.
"What is this?" he shouted.
The keeper's expression did not change.
"The truth of what sleeps beneath your skin. You are the last echo of the gods' wrath. And the world will break before it lets you fade."
Kael's voice dropped to a tremor. "Then I'll break it first."
A Flicker of Humanity
That night, they stayed within the sanctuary's walls. The rain fell harder, drowning out the silence between them.
Serah sat beside the faint glow of the fire, tending to her wounds.
"You can't fight what's inside you forever," she said softly. "You'll lose yourself before the end."
Kael stared at his hands — trembling, still marked by faint lines of gold.
"If I stop fighting, everyone else loses."
She reached out, touching his arm.
"And if you become the monster you're trying to destroy?"
Kael looked into the fire.
"Then burn me with the rest of them."
For a long time, neither spoke. Outside, thunder rolled over the mountains. The candles guttered one by one until only the fire remained, and in its reflection, Kael saw the faint outline of a crown forming in the embers — watching, waiting.
The Whisper Returns
He did not sleep. When the moon reached its height, the voice came again, gentle and venomous.
"Do you see now, my king?" it whispered."Even sanctuary bends to your flame."
Kael gritted his teeth."Who are you?"
"I am what you burned away. The last god who loved the dark."
The air grew heavy. Behind him, the mirror pulsed — its surface rippling as if something beneath it were breathing.
Kael turned slowly. In the red reflection, a figure moved — tall, crowned in fire and shadow.It smiled with his own face.
"Soon," it said. "You will remember everything."
The mirror shattered.
Kael woke to Serah's scream.