The wind carried whispers of the dead.
Kael stood before the ruins of the old fortress, the one once called Eredhal, now swallowed by time and war. Its stones were cracked and veined with black roots that pulsed faintly, as if drinking from the earth's rot. The air trembled, and even the crows had fled.He felt it — the pull of the place, the heartbeat of something ancient buried beneath the ruin's core.
The same rhythm that now echoed inside his chest.
Each step he took forward sank slightly into the soil, soft and cold, as though he were walking on flesh instead of dirt.Behind him, the horizon burned red. The remnants of the Wraith Legion screamed far away, yet Kael's mind was elsewhere — in the silence between two heartbeats, where he heard her voice again.
"Do you remember what you were before all this?"
He clenched his fists. The voice belonged to Eryndra, the spirit that had haunted him since the temple — the same who had saved his life, and damned his soul.
"You were nothing but ash," she continued. "I gave you purpose. I gave you power. Why do you still fight me?"
Kael stopped before a broken archway. The stone was etched with symbols long forgotten — the mark of the Crown's Covenant, the very seal that once imprisoned gods.
He whispered, almost to himself,
"Because if I stop fighting you… I stop being me."
The ground shuddered. A deep hum rose from the ruins, low and resonant, like the breath of something vast awakening below.Kael drew his sword — black steel wrapped in crimson veins of light. It pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat.
Then came the visions.
Flashes of a life that wasn't his: a throne made of bone, a crown forged from a thousand screams, and a woman — pale, radiant, holding a rose dripping blood.He saw himself beside her, eyes burning gold, not as a man, but as a god of ruin.
The truth struck him like a blade to the chest.
He wasn't just bonded to the darkness.He was part of it — a fragment of the same divine force that destroyed Eredhal centuries ago. His resurrection, his curse, his thirst for vengeance… all of it had been orchestrated by that same will.
Eryndra's laughter echoed within him, cold and sweet.
"You see now? You can't kill what you are. You were never mortal, Kael. You are the echo of the end."
He dropped to his knees, clutching his chest as golden light leaked from the cracks in his skin. His heart burned, each beat heavier, louder, as the ruins began to tremble.Memories surged — his first death, his fall, the crown of ash placed upon his head by unseen hands.
"No…" he gasped. "I'm not your puppet."
"Then prove it," Eryndra whispered. "Destroy me — if you can."
A sudden silence fell.
The ruins split open beneath him, revealing a pit of golden fire — the Heart of Eredhal, the last remnant of the god he once was. It pulsed with a rhythm older than the world.
Kael stared down into the light, eyes wide, trembling between horror and revelation.
He realized that to kill her…He might have to kill himself.