1. The Return of Consciousness
The hall, once engulfed in blinding white, now lay silent, save for the groans of crumbling stones.
Barnila ran toward the three brothers, her heart pounding like war drums. Her eyes refused to believe what they saw:
Frank, Dan, and Rickard—bodies kneeling, heads bowed, and the faint glow of the shattered shards still burning in their chests.
She knelt beside Frank first, clutching his shoulder with trembling fingers:
> "Frank… answer me, please!"
His eyelids quivered slightly, then opened. A tired, empty gaze—but alive.
Barnila exhaled in relief before turning to Dan. The man who had always been half-enemy, half-ally, now looked pale as death. Yet beneath the silence, she heard a faint heartbeat. Slow, fragile… but still there.
Rickard, however, gave no reply. His shadow-born body flickered, dissolving with every breath. Barnila seized his cold fingers, gasping:
> "No… don't leave me too."
At that moment, the luminous woman lifted her staff. A blue radiance fell like rain upon the brothers, mending their wounds. But within that light, strange marks surfaced upon their chests… glowing green circles, a seal that would never fade.
Her voice, soft as a whisper, trembled:
> "You have closed the door… but another has been opened."
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2. The New Curse
Frank sat up with difficulty, wiping blood and sweat from his brow, staring at the mark that glowed on his chest.
> "What is this…?" he muttered hoarsely.
Dan staggered to his feet, pulling back his torn tunic. The same sigil burned into his skin.
Rickard, weak and fading, touched his own scar, eyes glistening with sorrow:
> "This is no blessing… it is a curse."
The luminous woman lowered her head.
> "Your union saved the kingdom from the green fire… but bound your souls with a single thread. From now on, your lives are one. If one dies… the other two shall fall as well."
A heavy silence fell.
Barnila covered her mouth, on the verge of collapse.
Dan laughed bitterly, a short, broken sound:
> "How ironic… even in death, I cannot escape you."
Frank gripped his axe, his face like stone:
> "If this is the price for the kingdom's survival… I will bear it."
But Rickard whispered faintly:
> "The price has not yet been revealed."
---
3. The Unknown Call
As they struggled to breathe, the hall trembled again.
Not from collapsing stone this time, but from a sound rising deep below the earth—
A pulse, like drums of war, like a colossal heart awakening.
The luminous woman froze, eyes widening:
> "No… what you faced was only the first form. That was but a shadow. The true heart of the entity still sleeps in the depths."
Frank glared at her, fury burning in his voice:
> "You told us closing the door would end this!"
She shook her head, sorrow in her eyes:
> "I did not lie… the door was sealed. But the curse of blood has awakened the Heart. And now… the three of you are its key."
---
4. The Symbol Revealed
As the air thickened with ash and smoke, Dan noticed the mark on his chest shifting.
The circles twisted and merged into three paths branching from a single door.
He gasped:
> "It's the riddle… the three paths!"
Frank scowled at him:
> "What riddle?"
Barnila hurriedly pulled out a parchment she had found in the old monastery days ago. Her voice trembled as she read:
> "Three paths begin from the same door,
One leads to betrayal,
One is buried in blood,
And one… opens only with the return of the absent."
Silence pressed down on them once again.
Rickard closed his eyes slowly:
> "So… we stand before a choice. But which path shall we take?"
---
5. The Split in Decision
Despite their wounds, the brothers rose to their feet.
The sigils on their chests flared, flooding the hall with light.
And suddenly, three gates appeared before them, carved from fractured green flame:
The first gleamed like a broken blade, dripping endless red blood.
The second was black as coal, flickering with shadows of betrayal and daggers.
The third was white, sealed tight, upon it the image of a chained black bird.
The luminous woman whispered:
> "These are no mere doors… they are choices, and they will decide the fate of the kingdom."
Barnila cried out in desperation:
> "No! You cannot choose now—you can barely stand!"
But Dan stepped forward, eyes fixed on the black gate:
> "This is my fate… betrayal."
Frank seized his arm, voice like thunder:
> "I won't allow it. If you choose that door, we all fall."
Rickard, tears shimmering in his fading form, gazed at the white gate:
> "The absent one… perhaps it is me. Perhaps I was never truly among the living. Perhaps I must return once more."
---
6. The Seal
Their argument was cut short by another quake.
The floor split open, and from beneath the hall rose a colossal heart, beating with emerald fire.
The entity's voice thundered like a storm:
> "Choose… or I shall choose for you."
At that instant, the sigils upon their chests ignited together, unleashing a shared beam toward the gates.
The choice was no longer theirs alone… the curse itself had begun to decide.
---
7. The Final Scene
The three gates exploded at once, twisting into a vast green vortex that pulled the brothers toward it.
Barnila screamed, her voice breaking:
> "No! Not after everything!"
But she could not reach them.
The last glimpse she caught was their faces disappearing into the whirlpool—Frank's stoic, Dan's with a sorrowful smile, Rickard's with a final tear.
The vortex snapped shut, leaving behind nothing but ash.
The luminous woman fell to her knees, staff trembling in her hands:
> "The next stage of the curse has begun… now the united blood shall be tested."
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Curtain Falls on Chapter Seventeen
The three brothers were gone from the hall.
Each may have awakened upon his own path.
And the "absent one" of the riddle… may lie among them, or perhaps be another yet unseen.