Chapter Summary:
With the truth about the Flame Relics revealed, Echo races toward the Ember Wastes to stop Araya from activating Kael as the First Ember. But another force—older than flame, and more insidious—has risen. The Council, desperate to prevent Araya's coup, unleashes a forbidden weapon buried since the First War: the Voidborn. Now, Kael is no longer the greatest threat. He may be the only hope.
Chapter 86: The Voidborn Protocol
Sandstorms swallowed the sun as Echo rode across the Ember Wastes.
She didn't speak. Didn't breathe properly. She only held the shard tight in her palm, letting its searing pulse guide her forward.
Beside her, Mace and Lys kept pace, silent but shaken. The Cradle's revelations had hit them hard. But Echo—she was hollowed out.
Not by what she'd learned.
By what she feared she'd have to do.
"If Kael's becoming the First Ember," Mace asked quietly, "can you stop him?"
Echo didn't answer.
Because stopping Kael might mean killing him.
And if that was the cost of saving the world…
She didn't know if she could pay it.
They reached the outskirts of the Obsidian Ring as twilight fell.
The sky was thick with smoke and ash. Charred banners fluttered in the heat wind—Araya's mark burned into the black cloth.
And at the center of it all…
Kael stood, bathed in red-gold fire.
His body glowed faintly now, veins lit like molten rivers. Eyes like twin suns. He hovered inches above the obsidian platform where Araya had set the final shard.
"Kael!" Echo shouted.
His head turned—just slightly.
But he didn't speak.
Didn't blink.
Didn't move.
"His mind's almost gone," Lys whispered.
"Not gone," said a new voice from the shadows. "Just… overwritten."
Echo spun.
And froze.
A man in silver-white robes stepped forward, his face obscured by a veil of glass etched in script.
High Chancellor Veylor.
Council.
"You," Echo hissed. "You did this."
"We merely accelerated the protocol," Veylor replied calmly. "Araya planned to use Kael as a weapon. We simply corrected the trajectory."
"By making him a god of genocide?"
"No," Veylor said. "By unleashing something to match him."
He raised his hand.
And the ground cracked.
From the ashes crawled a shape—tall, thin, inky black. Its body moved like liquid shadow. Its eyes, if they could be called that, were pits of shimmering static.
The Voidborn.
Ancient, forbidden.
Banned by the Flame Treaty. Hidden for millennia.
And now free.
Kael blinked.
Slowly. Uncertain.
The fire around him sputtered.
Then surged.
Echo stepped forward, pleading.
"Kael. Listen to me. This isn't who you are. You're more than what they made you."
He didn't answer.
But the flame shifted—turned toward her.
As if recognizing something.
Someone.
"Fight it," she begged. "Come back."
But Veylor's voice rang like steel. "First Ember, activate."
Kael convulsed.
The shards ignited—three pillars of flame shooting skyward, carving the sky like claws.
The Voidborn shrieked.
And lunged.
The battle that followed was fire and nightmare.
Kael burned bright, his hands erupting with golden flame, his body moving like lightning incarnate.
The Voidborn met him with shadows that dissolved stone, with whispers that turned air into poison. The two collided midair, again and again, sending shockwaves across the blackened plains.
Echo was thrown to her knees, shielding her eyes as magic tore the sky.
"Lys! Mace!" she screamed. "We have to get closer!"
"To what?" Mace shouted. "They'll kill each other!"
"No. Kael's still in there. I felt it."
She ran.
Straight into the inferno.
Kael landed hard, a gash torn through his side.
The Voidborn hissed, reforming its melted limb, and came at him again.
But Echo reached him first.
She slammed her hand against his chest, the shard between them blazing so hot it burned through her glove.
"Kael. It's me."
His eyes locked on hers.
Fire flickered.
Wavered.
Then—
"Echo."
It was barely a whisper.
But it was him.
She cried out, gripping tighter. "Don't let them use you. You're not their weapon!"
Kael's whole body trembled.
"I don't… know who I am."
"You're mine," she whispered. "And I won't lose you to this."
Behind them, the Voidborn screamed again.
But Kael turned—arms wide, fire blazing from his spine like wings—and met the beast with a blast of pure light.
For a moment—
Light consumed shadow.
Fire consumed void.
And silence fell.
When the smoke cleared, Kael was on his knees.
Breathing.
Alive.
But not the same.
The golden fire still glowed faintly under his skin. His veins still shimmered. But his eyes—his eyes were clear.
"Echo," he rasped.
She caught him as he collapsed into her arms.
"I've got you," she whispered. "You're home."
High Chancellor Veylor did not flee.
He stood where he had summoned the Voidborn, watching its ashes scatter in the wind.
"You've delayed the inevitable," he said. "But the cycle always completes. The Ember Relics are merely tools. What waits beneath them… is already waking."
Echo rose, fire in her eyes.
"Then we'll burn the cycle too."