The steps that followed were slow… deliberate. Each one matched the pulse of the relic's heartbeat, a rhythm that wasn't natural but ancient—like a song from before the world knew light.
Then the shadows opened.
The first vessel stepped into view.
Its form was warped—humanoid, but barely. Armor melted into flesh, its chest marked with the same runes that had glowed beneath the tower's floor. Its eyes… weren't eyes at all, but pits of spiraling void that pulled at the edges of the room. In one hand it held a blade made of broken timelines, each edge flickering between forms—spear, sword, chain—never settling.
And when it spoke, the air bent.
"You carry her light," it rasped. "And the fire of the betrayer. Then prove it. Let flame and memory be your test."
Jackson's breath misted despite the heat. "It knows Alicia."
"It remembers everything," Jian whispered. "It's made of what the relic devoured."
The vessel stepped forward.
"You seek to break what she sealed. Then you will face her sins… and your own."
The chamber sealed itself with molten light. Time thickened. The air became a vice.
And then—
Without warning, the vessel raised its ever-shifting weapon and struck.
Jackson blocked just in time, the Demon Devourer ringing with the clash. The blow drove him back, knees buckling.
"Fast!" he hissed. "It's reading me—like it's fought me before."
"It has," Jian called, hurling a blast of light. "It's made from the remnants of every battle Alicia ever fought."
The creature turned its head. The light hadn't harmed it—it had absorbed it.
"You fight with her echoes," it said. "But you do not understand her cost."
It turned its blade—and light spilled from its own chest.
Alicia's face.
A fragment of her, trapped inside the vessel.
Jian gasped. "It's using her against us!"
Jackson surged forward, fury igniting. "Then we free her."
But the vessel's next attack wasn't physical—it bled memory. With one gesture, it sent waves of forgotten moments at them, forcing Jackson to relive his deaths, Jian to relive her mentor's vanishing.
Jian staggered, seeing Alicia walk away—again and again—always leaving her behind.
Jackson dropped to one knee, whispering Alicia's name over and over. "You didn't leave me. You saved me. You saved me…"
And with that truth, his flame shifted—from anger to resolve.
The second dragon scale in his chest pulsed, and his fire turned white-gold.
"Get up," Jian said, planting her staff. "It's not just a fight. It's a rescue."
She channeled the third scale. Her staff rang like a bell.
And the vessel flinched.
The Alicia-fragment inside it flickered.
A voice, barely audible, echoed out:
"Jian… Jackson… I'm still here…"
Jackson's eyes burned. "Then hold on."