Flames licked the edge of the ruined horizon as Akuzai and Abhishek trudged through the remains of Ashkara—the city of eternal fire. Once a place of warmth and wisdom, it now stood reduced to smoldering bones. The sky above was warped, painted in shades of crimson that pulsed unnaturally, like the heartbeat of a wounded beast.
"I remember when this place was sacred," Abhishek murmured. "Priests here used to tame fire spirits."
Akuzai scanned the wreckage, his grip on the Eternis Edge tightening. "Now it's a tomb."
In the center of the ruins stood the Flameheart Shrine, blackened and cracked. Inside, they found her—Kaelra, the Fire Warden, barely alive. Her robes were torn, her eyes vacant with horror.
"It was Rivan," she rasped. "He didn't want the Flame Crystal... he wanted the soul that powers it."
Akuzai knelt beside her. "You're safe now."
Kaelra shook her head. "You don't understand... He has the Ember Wraith. He's binding elemental spirits to his will."
Before they could ask more, the ground beneath them trembled. A flaming vortex tore through the shrine, and from it emerged a creature born of molten shadow—the Ember Wraith, enslaved by Rivan's corrupted timeline binding.
Its presence melted steel. Its roar cracked stone.
Akuzai lunged into battle, the Eternis Edge slicing arcs of blue light through the red haze. Abhishek supported him from the rear, launching kinetic blasts to draw the beast's fury. But the Wraith was too powerful, too angry, and worst of all—too bound.
"Rivan's sealed it with soul-threaded chains!" Abhishek shouted.
Akuzai realized what had to be done. If they couldn't defeat the Wraith, they would have to release it.
"Cover me!" he yelled, leaping directly into the creature's path. The flames engulfed him, but the Edge responded to his will. With one precise strike, Akuzai severed the timeline chain embedded in the Wraith's chest.
The creature froze.
And then screamed—not in rage, but in freedom.
It burst into radiant flame and vanished, leaving behind only a charred symbol in the ground: a sigil Rivan had carved into time itself. A declaration.
He was coming for the other spirits.
Kaelra's life force faded fast. With her final breath, she gave Akuzai a shard of the original Flame Crystal. "He's rewriting the essence of power," she whispered. "You must gather the remaining shards... before he binds them all."
Akuzai held the crystal shard in his hand. It burned with defiant warmth.
This was no longer about stopping a rogue warrior. Rivan was tampering with the primal forces of existence. And if he succeeded, there would be nothing left untouched—not spirit, not soul, not even flame.
Ashkara was only the first to fall.