The rain had stopped, but the sky was still burning.
Clouds glowed faintly red, as though the sun itself had bled out behind them. The ruins of the Sanctuary lay silent — every candle extinguished, every wall blackened by soot. Only the faint shimmer of dying embers lit Kael and Serah's path as they gathered what little they could carry.
Serah's hands trembled as she bound her arm with torn cloth. "Your eyes," she whispered, glancing toward him. "They've changed."
Kael didn't look at her. He stood by what had once been the altar, staring at the stone where the mirror had stood.It was cracked, seeping faint trails of black smoke. When the wind passed through, it whispered his name.
"Kael."
He turned slightly.
"It's only the wind."
"No," she said. "It's it. The thing inside you."
Kael didn't answer. His reflection flickered faintly in the fractured glass shards around his feet — but the man staring back wasn't him.
The golden eyes were gone. In their place were orbs of dull amber, like metal cooling after the forge.
He flexed his hand.The veins beneath his skin pulsed once — black fire crawling along his arm, vanishing beneath the sleeve.
The Cracks in the Soul
They left the Sanctuary before dawn.
The forest was silent, save for the whisper of wind through dead leaves. The air carried the smell of burnt resin — the lingering breath of divine magic.
Kael walked ahead, his steps measured, his breathing shallow. Each time his boot struck the ground, he could feel the world listening. The presence inside him had grown stronger, watching through his eyes, learning through his pulse.
"Do you feel it?" he asked suddenly.
Serah hesitated. "Feel what?"
"The pull. It's like the earth knows where I'm going… before I do."
"That's not the earth," she said quietly. "That's him."
Kael stopped. His voice came out lower, colder.
"He's not me."
"No," she whispered, "but he's becoming you."
For a moment, Kael wanted to scream, to deny it — but the truth burned behind his teeth. Each heartbeat came with a flicker of alien thought, words that were not his own.
We could end this, you and I. Just let go.
He pressed his palm to his temple, growling under his breath. "Not yet."
"Kael?"
"I said not yet!"
The shout echoed through the woods, scattering crows into the air. The fire beneath his skin flared briefly — a faint golden light burning through his veins before fading again.
Serah stepped back, her eyes wide.
"You're losing control."
He turned to her slowly. For an instant, he wasn't sure whether the tears in his eyes were his or the other's.
"Then help me stop it."
The Memory in the Flame
They camped beneath a ruined archway as night fell. The moon hid behind a veil of mist, its light pale and uncertain.
Serah tended the fire in silence while Kael sat apart, staring into the flames. Each spark that rose from the wood seemed to carry a voice, whispering fragments of forgotten names — gods, kings, cities swallowed by time.
And then he saw it again: the woman in the starlit veil. The memory that wasn't memory.
She stood within the fire, her eyes luminous and filled with sorrow.
Kael.
He froze. "Who are you?"
The one who gave you the crown.
The fire shifted, forming shapes — the same golden circlet that haunted his dreams, its surface engraved with symbols that pulsed like veins.
You were meant to be the last mercy, she said softly. Not the first ruin.
Kael clenched his fists. "Then why do I remember blood? Why do I remember ending worlds?"
Because mercy and destruction were never separate things.
Her voice trembled. The gods built their thrones on suffering. You tore them down, Kael. You did what I asked — and it broke you.
The fire dimmed.The vision faded.
Serah watched him from across the camp.
"You were speaking to someone," she said cautiously.
"No one."
"Don't lie to me."
He looked at her, eyes dark as coal.
"If I tell you, you'll leave."
"Try me."
"I saw her again," he murmured. "The goddess from the visions. She says I destroyed the gods… for her."
Serah's voice cracked. "And you believe her?"
"I remember her."
The silence between them was heavy.
"Kael," she whispered. "If she's real — if she's part of it — then she's using you."
He looked down at his hands. The firelight glimmered across his skin, and for a heartbeat, he saw two shadows overlapping — his and another's.
"Maybe," he said softly. "But maybe she's the only thing keeping me human."
A Spark of Trust
Later that night, when the fire burned low, Serah found herself watching him sleep. His face, once fierce and sharp, looked almost peaceful now — but even in rest, his body twitched as though caught between dreams and memory.
She brushed a lock of ash-colored hair from his forehead and whispered:
"Don't disappear on me, Kael. Not like the rest."
But the black veins beneath his skin pulsed faintly in answer, as though the thing inside him had heard her — and smiled.
The Awakening Beneath the Earth
At dawn, the ground trembled.A sound, deep and ancient, rose from beneath the forest floor — like the grinding of stone against bone. Birds fled from the trees. The sky bled red at the edges.
Kael awoke at once, his eyes burning with gold for the first time in days.
"They've found me."
"Who?" Serah shouted, grabbing her weapons.
Kael stood, the air around him warping with invisible heat. His voice came out layered — two tones speaking as one.
"The ones who still serve the dead gods."
And as the first shapes emerged from the mist — armored figures cloaked in shadow and light — Kael drew his sword, the fire in his veins roaring to life once more.
"Stay behind me."
Serah hesitated.
"Kael, your eyes—"
"I said stay behind me!"
The ground split open. Fire erupted from beneath their feet.The war for Kael's soul had begun.