Fire was a living thing. It coiled around Alex, its light blinding, its roar deafening. The gauntlet's flame sputtered against the onslaught, but the celestial fire clawed deeper, searing his lungs. Between the flames, tendrils of black rot slithered like serpents, hissing as they lashed at him.
Child of embers. The void's voice cut through the inferno. You walk a path of ash.
Alex gritted his teeth, forcing the gauntlet's flame into a shield. "I didn't come here to burn!"
The rot surged. A tendril pierced his defense, wrapping around his arm. Agony erupted—not heat, but a cold, gnawing void. Memories flooded him: the Devourer's maw, the scar's corruption, Lira's blood steaming against poison.
You are marked,the rot whispered. The flame will reject you.
"No." Alex tore free, driving the gauntlet's fire into the tendril. It shrieked, dissolving. "I'm done being a pawn."
The celestial fire brightened, its golden core pulsing like a heartbeat. Within it, a figure materialized—a man armored in sunsteel, his face obscured by a helm of fused starlight. The Forgemaster.
"You carry my gauntlet," the figure boomed, "but not my covenant. Prove your worth."
The fire shifted. Flames sculpted into a massive anvil, its surface etched with sigils. Above it hung a hammer wreathed in lightning.
Forge the light, the Forgemaster commanded. Or be consumed.
Lira paced outside the crucible, the sentinel's molten gaze tracking her.
"How long?" she demanded.
"The flame decides," the sentinel rumbled. Its stone body crackled, flecks of metal peeling like dead skin. "If he fails, the rot will claim what remains of this place."
Lira glared at the corrupted crucible. Black veins pulsed across its surface. "You were human once. How did you become… this?"
The sentinel's glowing eyes dimmed. "A choice. When the Devourer came, we volunteered to merge with the forge—souls bound to stone and sunsteel. Eternal guardians." It flexed a crumbling hand. "But eternity is heavy. Many of us… forgot. Became dust. I am the last."
Lira's throat tightened. "Why keep fighting?"
"The same reason you do, priestess." The sentinel tilted its head. "Hope."
A tremor shook the forge. The crucible's fire flared violet, then gold.
Alex swung the hammer. Each strike sent shockwaves through the fire, the anvil's sigils flaring as he shaped the raw flame. The rot retaliated, twisting his creations—a sword warped into a barbed whip, a shield splintering into shards.
"You cannot outthink corruption," the Forgemaster warned. "You must outcreate it."
Alex faltered. His hands blistered, the gauntlet's protection fraying. What's stronger than destruction?
The void's whisper slithered back. Nothing. All things end.
But Lira's face flashed in his mind—her resolve, her blood binding his wounds. Sparks can start fires.
He dropped the hammer.
"What are you doing?" the Forgemaster thundered.
Alex plunged his hands into the anvil's core. The fire screamed. He screamed with it, pulling raw flame into his chest. The rot attacked, but he didn't fight. He let it in.
Pain. Endless, shattering pain.
Then—
A memory: his mother, long dead, teaching him to kindle a campfire. Don't smother it, Alex. Let it breathe.
He exhaled.
Golden light exploded. The rot recoiled, scorched away as Alex breathed the reforged flame into the crucible. The forge's heart reignited, its fire roaring pure and white.
The Forgemaster's figure bowed. "The covenant is renewed."
Lira staggered as light erupted from the crucible. The black tendrils shriveled, the forge's machinery shuddering to life. Molten metal flowed through ancient channels, and the sentinel straightened, cracks in its body sealing with liquid gold.
"He did it," it murmured. "The flame… lives."
Alex emerged, gauntlet fused to his arm, his skin glowing faintly. His eyes burned with residual fire.
Lira grabbed his shoulders. "You're alive."
"Barely." His voice rasped like embers. "But it's done."
The sentinel knelt, its hammer dissolving into sparks. "The forge is yours, Forgemaster's heir. Command us."
"Us?" Alex frowned.
Stone shuddered. From the walls, more sentinels peeled free—smaller, newer, their bodies unblemished. A dozen glowing eyes turned to him.
"The flame birthed replacements," the original sentinel said. "My vigil… ends." Its voice softened. "Thank you."
The sentinel crumbled, its core dissolving into the forge's fire.
Alex turned to the new sentinels. "Guard the flame. Protect the wards."
They saluted, marching into the forge's depths.
Lira studied Alex. "Your arm."
The gauntlet had shrunk to a bracelet, its metal now scarred with black veins. "It's part of me," he said. "For better or worse."
They descended the Spine at dawn, the forge's fire blazing behind them. In the valley below, the Devourer's haze had thinned. Distant spires glimmered—the temple's wards flickering back to life.
"It's working," Lira said.
Alex flexed his hand, celestial embers dancing on his palm. "For now. The Devourer won't stay idle."
As if summoned, the ground quaked. A rift split the sky, vomiting tendrils of black mist. Within it, a familiar voice boomed:
You steal what is mine, child of embers.
The Devourer's eye, vast and hungry, glared through the rift.
Lira drew her dagger. "Run. Or fight?"
Alex's flame brightened. "We light the way."
The sentinels' horns echoed from the forge as the rift-walkers descended .
To be continued ...….