The stair quaked as Kaelen's fire surged skyward, gold against endless black. Lyra raised her sword, the molten edge catching his blaze, forming a single line of light that split the void.
The candle-bearer's small flame pulsed at the center, steady now—fragile, but unyielding.
The phantoms screamed, their forms unraveling under the unity they could no longer poison. Black fire dissolved into smoke. The phantom-Lyra clawed at Kaelen, but her hands broke apart like glass. The phantom-Kaelen raised his blade against Lyra, only to be shattered by her molten strike.
Still, the watchers did not vanish. Their presence coiled in the void, heavy and furious.
"Light burns bright… but every flame consumes itself."
The void writhed. From it rose something larger, darker than the phantoms—an enormous figure of shadow, its body made of writhing tendrils and burning void-fire. A single, endless eye opened in its chest, staring down at them.
The stair trembled under its weight.
The candle-bearer gasped, their flame flickering. "It's… it's one of them."
Kaelen stepped forward, fire roaring around him. His heart pounded like a war-drum. "Then we burn it down."
The watcher descended, its tendrils striking like spears. Lyra swung her blade, severing one in a flash of molten light. Kaelen unleashed a torrent of golden fire, carving a path through the darkness.
But the watcher's voice shook the stair, rattling their bones.
"Every bond ends in ruin. Yours will be no different."
It lashed out, a tendril striking Kaelen in the chest, hurling him into the wall. Another wrapped around Lyra's arm, dragging her toward the void.
The candle-bearer cried out, their flame flaring desperately. It cast a beam of light that sliced through the tendril holding Lyra, freeing her.
She staggered to her feet, chest heaving, eyes blazing. "Then maybe you've never seen a bond like ours."
She charged, sword raised, Kaelen rising beside her in a surge of fire. Together, they struck at the watcher, their light colliding with its void.
The stair shook violently, as if the very world held its breath.
And for the first time—
the watcher screamed.