The candle-bearer's light wavered as the titans closed in, their obsidian armor reflecting stars that weren't there. Each step they took sent ripples through the tiles, like the board itself was bending to their will.
Kaelen gripped the relic tighter, his skin still seared from the last move. His vision flickered—shards of the Burning City's future flashing in his mind. He shoved it back down. Not now. Not here.
Lyra limped forward, blood soaking through her sleeve, but her blaster never wavered. She fired into the approaching titan's visor. The shot sizzled, then dissolved like water on fire. The thing didn't even slow.
"Kaelen!" she shouted. "They're not stopping!"
He scanned the grid, heart pounding. If the board was a game, then there had to be more than one way to win. His gaze locked on the enemy King—the crowned figure of fractured suns. It stood motionless, like a spider waiting for prey to tangle itself in its web.
"What if it's not about defending?" Kaelen muttered. "What if it's about taking the King?"
The relic pulsed as if answering him, threads of light stretching outward, pointing toward the King's square. It was a path—but every step was guarded by serpents, titans, and things without names.
He gritted his teeth. "Then we cut through."
Kaelen drove the relic into another tile. Light spiderwebbed across the grid, freezing two titans mid-stride. But agony ripped through his chest, dropping him to one knee. His vision went white. He tasted iron.
Lyra grabbed his shoulder, panic flashing in her eyes. "Kaelen—stop! It's killing you!"
He forced himself up, clutching the relic. "Better me than the flame."
The candle-bearer stumbled as another serpent lunged. Lyra spun, firing a rapid burst that drove the creature back. But it was too fast, too relentless. For every piece they delayed, two more advanced.
And then—the mistake.
One titan slipped past Kaelen's bindings, its massive blade cleaving toward the candle-bearer. The fragile figure screamed, soundless but piercing, as its light guttered under the shadow.
Kaelen roared, hurling himself forward, relic blazing. Too slow.
The titan's weapon struck.
The candle shattered like glass, its flame extinguished in an instant.
The board convulsed. Tiles cracked. The void below shrieked as black fire surged upward, swallowing the fragments of light.
Lyra screamed. "No!"
The eye above dilated, voice thick with satisfaction.
"A move made. A flame extinguished. A loss is a lesson."
Kaelen fell to his knees, his chest heaving, fury boiling in his blood. He had failed—they had failed. And yet, the relic pulsed faintly, whispering, as though mocking him.
The enemy King lifted its fractured crown and stepped forward, its hollow voice echoing across the grid:
"Check."
The board reset with a violent shudder, new tiles sliding into place. A fresh candle-bearer appeared behind Kaelen, clutching its flickering flame with terrified hands.
Lyra's face hardened, jaw set with steel. She looked at Kaelen, blood and fire in her eyes. "We don't lose again. Do you hear me? Not ever again."
Kaelen rose, fury burning through the pain. He raised the relic high, light exploding across the board like defiance itself.
"Then let's make our next move."
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