The earth's pulse thrummed beneath Raines feet, a slow, resonant beat that echoed in her bones. The Shattered Peaks loomed around them, their jagged silhouettes clawing at a sky bruised violet by the Rift's ever-watchful presence. Kaios stood beside her, his silver hair now more white than not, the temporal dagger limp in his grip.
His mismatched eyesg old and violet, like a fractured dawnftickered with something unreadable as he stared at her.
*"Youre changing,"* he said, voice rough.
Raine flexed her hands. The crystals had spread past her wrists, creeping up her forearms like veins of jade, their surfaces etched with runes older than the Conclave. The Earth Embers power hummed beneath her skin, a grounding force*too* grounding. It anchored her to the world in a way that felt less like belonging and more like a chain.
*"I had to,"* she murmured.
Kaios exhaled sharply, his breath misting in the frigid air. *"We need the last Ember. Before Dermontor the Conclavefinds it."*
A gust of wind, thick with the scent of scorched metal and something*older*, coiled between them. The Wind Embers whisper threaded through it: *"The Hollow Core. Where the first god's blood became stone."*
Raine's gloves crackled. The Fire Ember flared in response, its heat searing through the leather, *"Then we dont stop."*
----
The descent into the Hollow Core was less a journey and more a*unraveling*. The earth itself seemed to resist them, the ground shifting underfoot, stones grinding like teeth. The air grew thick with the metallic tang of old blood, and the deeper they went, the more the walls of the chasm *breathed*expanding and contracting as if the mountain were alive.
Kaios's dagger glowed faintly, its temporal edge fraying. ""This place isnt just hidden. It's *forgotten*."*
Raine pressed a hand to the stone. The Earth Ember's power resonated, and for a heartbeat, she *felt* itthe memory of Arkaloss fall, the moment the gods had torn him apart. The mountain *remembered*.
Then the ground *shuddered*.
A sound like breaking bone split the silence, and the path ahead *collapsed*, revealing a cavern so vast its ceiling was lost in shadow. At its heart stood an altarnot of stone, but of *crystal*, its surface jagged and weeping a slow, viscous black fluid.
And atop it, embedded in the altar's core, pulsed the final Ember.
The *Void Ember*.
Kaios stiffened.*"That's not"*
*"Right,"* Raine finished. The Ember wasnt the vibrant crimson of fire, the cerulean of wind, or the verdant green of earth. It was *black*a shard of pure absence, its edges fraying like smoke. It didnt glow. It *consumed* light.
The Wind Ember's voice hissed in her mind: *"The Conclave lied. They didnt hide it. They *fed* it."*
A figure stepped from the shadows.
Dermont.
But not as he'd been.
His body was half-consumed by the same void-black crystal as the Ember, his skin split open to reveal the writhing darkness beneath. His eyesonce humanwere now pits of nothingness, reflecting no light, no soul.
*"Little sparks,"* he crooned, his voice layered with something *else*, something *hungry*. *"Youve come to witness the birth."*
Kaioss dagger flashed. *"What birth?"*
Dermont smiled. *"The Rift isnt a wound. It's a *womb*."*
The Void Ember *pulsed*.
And the altar *screamed*.
---
The ground beneath them *lurched*, and the cavern walls *split*, revealing veins of the same black crystal threading through the rock. They pulsed in time with the Ember, a grotesque mockery of a heartbeat.
Raine's gloves *burned*. The Fire Ember roared to life, its flames licking up her crystallized arms, but the Void Ember *reacted*its darkness *reaching* for her, tendrils of smoke coiling around her wrists.
*"It wants you,"* Dermont murmured. *"Youre the key. The perfect vessel."*
Kaios lunged, his temporal dagger carving through the airbut Dermont*caught* the blade in his bare hand. The metal *screamed*,corroding on contact, black veins creeping up the steel.
*"Youre out of time, walker,"* Dermont hissed.
Raine *moved".
She *slammed* her fist into the altar.
The impact sent a shockwave of emerald light rippling through the cavern, the Earth Ember's power clashing with the Void. The crystals in her arms*shattered*then *reformed*, their glow shifting to a sickly, unstable violet.
Dermont *howled*, his form flickering between solid and shadow.*"You don' t understand! The Rift was *meant* to wake! It's the next *evolution*!"*
The Void Ember *thrashed*, its darkness lashing out like a living thing. It wrapped around Raine's throat,*squeezing*-
Then Kaios was there, his dagger buried in Dermont's chest.
Time *fractured*.
For a heartbeat, everything *stilled*.
Then-
The cavern *exploded*.
---
Raine woke to silence.
The Hollow Core was gone. The altar, the Ember, Dermont*gone*.
Only Kaios remained, slumped beside her, his silver hair now *entirely* white, his dagger reduced to rusted scraps in his grip.
*'Did we?* she croaked.
*"No,"* Kaios whispered,
He pointed upward.
The sky was *bleeding*.
The Rift had *opened*.
And something was *looking* back.