The Hollow King's presence felt like gravity had tripled—thickening the air, dragging hope downward.
Ayame clutched the Tome of Echoes to her chest. Its pages glowed faintly, pulsing in rhythm with her breath. Kael stood ready beside her, his stance low, feet planted, body braced against a force he barely understood.
The cloaked figure stepped between them and the Hollow King. "You are not yet whole," he said to Ayame. "This is not your battle to fight—yet."
The Hollow King laughed, voice deep and rattling, like wind across bones. "You think I came to fight? No. I came to remind her."
Ayame narrowed her eyes. "Remind me of what?"
"That you were never a savior. You were the one who broke it all."
The wind howled suddenly, leaves scattering into glowing ash. The trees bent as if bowing to an ancient fear.
"What is he talking about?" Kael whispered.
"I don't know," Ayame said, though her heart twisted with a strange certainty. Somewhere, deep within, she *did* know. She just wasn't ready to admit it.
The Hollow King raised a skeletal hand, and from the forest, specters emerged—ghosts of past battles, fragmented scenes Ayame couldn't place. One showed a younger version of her, standing before a burning citadel. Another showed Kael, unconscious, bleeding on stone.
"You sealed me," the King growled. "But in doing so, you shattered the Veil. And now? Reality slips."
The world around them rippled.
Kael's grip on reality faltered for a heartbeat—trees shimmered into stars, grass into mirrors, and the forest became a corridor of memories.
Ayame fell to her knees again. Visions pierced her mind—fractured moments, faces of people she didn't know but somehow *loved*, promises she had sworn, and powers she had buried.
"I didn't mean to break it," she whispered. "I was trying to save him. I didn't know it would…"
"That's the curse of power," the Hollow King said, stepping forward. "You *never* know what it will cost."
Kael helped her stand. "We don't care about your threats. You're the one who hurt her. You're the reason she had to seal herself away."
The King turned to him slowly. "And yet, boy… you are the *key* to her undoing."
"What?"
"You are her tether. Her weakness. Her greatest strength… and greatest flaw."
Kael looked at Ayame, confusion written across his face.
The cloaked figure stepped forward. "Enough."
He raised his staff, and a dome of starlight surged between them and the Hollow King. It shimmered like liquid moonlight, holding the creature at bay.
"This barrier won't last," he said. "You two must leave."
"To where?" Ayame asked.
"To the Mirror Citadel. Where her true self was locked away. There, you will reclaim what was lost."
The Hollow King slammed into the barrier, cracks splintering across the surface.
"You delay the inevitable!" he roared. "The longer she resists, the more the realms unravel!"
Ayame turned to the cloaked figure. "How do we get there?"
He pulled a silver shard from beneath his robe. "Through the Nexus Gate. It lies at the edge of the Lake of Forgotten Names."
Kael blinked. "You're just making things up now."
"I assure you, I am not."
The figure handed Ayame the shard. The moment it touched her skin, it flared, and a memory surged—
---
**She was falling—sky above, stars below. A hand reached for hers. Kael's. She let go of everything to hold onto him.**
---
Her breath caught. She looked at Kael.
"I remember," she said softly. "You were dying. And I gave up everything to save you."
He didn't know what to say. He simply squeezed her hand.
The Hollow King's next strike shattered part of the barrier.
"No more delays!" the figure cried. "Go!"
They ran. Trees blurred. The path lit with fireflies and moonlight. Behind them, the forest roared with the fury of something ancient and betrayed.
Kael shouted over the wind, "You okay?!"
"No!" Ayame yelled back. "But I think that's part of the magic!"
They reached a hill overlooking a vast lake that shimmered with shifting names across its surface—words forming and fading, like forgotten dreams.
"The Lake of Forgotten Names," Ayame breathed.
"And that," Kael said, pointing, "must be the Nexus Gate."
It stood like a broken arch of stars, spinning slowly, half-submerged in the water.
They stepped forward—but the moment Ayame held up the silver shard, the gate ignited in starlight.
Behind them, a shadow loomed.
The Hollow King had followed.
Ayame turned. "Not today."
She opened the Tome.
Pages flipped on their own. Words rearranged. And then—
**Light exploded.**
---