The climb back through Mount Vireth was unlike the descent. Where once Kaela had walked alone and uncertain, now the mountain responded to her steps. Runes glowed in her wake. Caverns that had been sealed opened before her with a whisper of ash and heat. The mountain knew her now. Accepted her.
Outside, night had fallen.
But the stars were gone.
In their place, a red haze pulsed across the sky, as if the heavens themselves bled. Winds howled with a hungry edge, and the trees at the base of the mountain were charred husks, still smoldering. The land was burning—and not by natural fire.
Kaela stood at the mouth of the mountain, crown pulsing with a soft, emberlight warmth, her heart heavy with what she now knew.
The Ash Tyrant had returned in full.
He had emerged from the ruined keep of Thar Morvain, a long-dead citadel that once housed dragon-slayers and pyromancers. In the centuries since its fall, it had become a place of bones and silence—but now, cloaked figures moved within its halls, eyes glowing with red flame, chanting in the Tyrant's tongue.
They had brought him back. Fed him with blood, soul, and spell.
And he was growing stronger.
Kaela turned at the sound of wingbeats. Vireza landed beside her with a grace that belied her size, her obsidian scales rippling in the dim light.
"You have claimed the Ember Crown," the dragon said, bowing her head. "I felt the mountain shift. You are ready."
"I don't know if I am," Kaela admitted, her voice quieter than she expected. "But I will not let him burn the world."
"That is all the readiness you need."
Kaela climbed atop Vireza's back. The dragon's scales were warm, almost comforting, and when her wings lifted them into the air, Kaela felt—for the first time—free.
They flew north.
Below them, the land was dying.
Forests wilted, rivers boiled. Towns were abandoned. Great herds fled southward, chased by smoke and shadows. And in the distance, Thar Morvain stood like a broken fang, its black spires crowned with flame. From within, a beam of fire rose skyward, pulsing like a heartbeat. The Ash Tyrant's essence.
"He's drawing power from the ley lines," Vireza growled. "The ancient veins of the world. Once, dragons danced upon them to shape creation itself. Now he poisons them."
"Can we stop him?" Kaela asked.
"We must."
As they flew, a storm of black wings rose from the ruins—creatures once human, now twisted into ash-born wraiths, bound by the Tyrant's will. Their eyes glowed, their mouths screamed silence, and they flew without wings, propelled by shadow and hatred.
Kaela stood tall on Vireza's back and extended her hand.
The crown pulsed.
Fire exploded from her fingertips—not wild or consuming, but precise. It wove through the ash-wraiths like a ribbon of light, incinerating them mid-air with no more than a whisper of wind. The survivors scattered, shrieking.
Kaela sat slowly, trembling from the exertion. "That… that wasn't me. Not fully."
"It was the flame," Vireza said. "And you are learning to guide it."
They landed in the shattered remains of an old stone tower overlooking Thar Morvain. Here, Kaela would make her stand. From this vantage, she could see the full ruin of the once-great city: bridges cracked and fallen, towers melted like wax, and a dark figure standing at the heart of the ruin—a giant wreathed in flame, with wings of smoke and a crown of burning horns.
The Ash Tyrant.
Even from a distance, Kaela could feel him watching her.
"Tomorrow," Vireza said, "he will rise. Entirely. If he ascends, not even the flame will stop him."
Kaela looked at her hands—marked now with faint ember-veins, glowing ever so slightly beneath her skin. She clenched them into fists.
"Then we strike before he ascends."
Vireza's eyes gleamed. "You speak like a queen."
Kaela met her gaze. "Then let me act like one."
That night, as Vireza rested, Kaela stood atop the broken tower alone, watching the red sky pulse. She could feel the Tyrant's breath in the wind, the tension in the stone, the fear rising from the land like mist.
She would burn for them.
For the world.
And tomorrow, she would face the god of ash and fire.