The bridge waited.
A ribbon of burning crimson light stretched across an endless void, pulsing like a living vein. Beneath it, nothing existed — no ground, no shadow, only a red abyss whispering promises and threats in the same breath.
Elaris stepped closer.
The heat didn't burn her skin.It burned her mind.
At the edge of the bridge, the silver-masked phantom appeared once more, taller now, voice sharpened into a blade.
"Final trial," it declared."Only two may cross."
The air thickened.
"One must remain."
Silence crashed harder than any explosion.
Elaris turned sharply. "No."
Kael was already moving.
"I'll stay," he said, voice steady, final.As if sacrifice was a language he'd spoken all his life.
Elaris grabbed his arm, fury flaring through her veins."You don't get to decide that for me."
Kael met her gaze, eyes dark, unflinching."I do if it keeps you alive."
Xyren laughed — hollow, sharp, wrong."Oh, perfect," he muttered. "The tragic prince volunteers himself. How original."
But the void below began to whisper.
Their names.
Each syllable tugged at their thoughts, pulling at doubt, fear, instinct.
Choose.Survive.Abandon.
The bridge trembled.
Cracks of red lightning split the air.
Elaris felt her chest tighten — not with fear, but rage.
"This is manipulation," she snapped, looking straight at the phantom."You want betrayal. You want us broken."
The phantom tilted its head.
"Choice reveals truth."
Elaris stepped forward until her toes touched the burning edge.
"Then here's the truth," she said, voice shaking but unyielding."I won't win by losing them."
She seized Kael's wrist with one hand.
Then reached back — fingers locking tightly around Xyren's.
Both of them froze.
Kael turned. "Elaris—"
Xyren stared at her, stunned. "You can't—"
She pulled them both forward.
"We don't play your game."
The phantom's voice thundered, furious now.
"If you refuse the choice—You will be annihilated."
The void surged upward, screaming.
The bridge began to dissolve under their feet.
Elaris tightened her grip, wings flaring with silver light.
"Then we burn together," she shouted."But we don't abandon each other."
For one terrifying heartbeat—
Everything stopped.
Then the bridge ignited.
Not collapsing.
Transforming.
Crimson fire solidified into crystal beneath their feet, spreading outward like veins of molten glass. The abyss recoiled, screaming in rage as the bridge became whole — stronger, brighter, unbreakable.
The phantom staggered back.
"Impossible…"
Kael exhaled slowly, disbelief flickering across his face.
Xyren laughed — this time real."She broke the rule."
Elaris didn't let go.
The world shattered.
Scarlet glass exploded into light, swallowing the trial, the phantom, the void—
They stood on the cliffs of the Crimson Coast.
Storm waves crashed far below, lightning tearing the sky open. The wind tasted like salt, blood, and freedom.
No masks.
No chains.
Just the three of them.
Alive.
Kael looked at Elaris, something heavy and unreadable in his eyes.
"This changes nothing," he said quietly.
Then, softer—
"…except everything."
Elaris didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
She was still holding his hand.
And she didn't let go.