The Tower screamed.
Not in sound, but in vibration — a deep, bone-born resonance that seemed to tear through the air itself. Light poured down from the upper levels, white and furious, as though the structure were alive and enraged.
Liora staggered backward, shielding her face from the brilliance. Her blade — once steady, once sure — trembled in her hand.
"Kael!" she shouted, but her voice was swallowed whole. The Tower didn't hear her. Or maybe it did, and simply didn't care.
Kael stood before her, his form wreathed in pale fire. His eyes no longer glowed violet but blazed pure white, their light reaching into every shadow, every hidden corner of the Tower's ancient heart.
He looked human still — yet utterly other.
When he finally spoke, his voice sounded layered, echoing slightly, as though another presence whispered the same words an instant after him.
"It remembers me," he said quietly. "The Tower remembers."
Liora lowered her sword, heart hammering. "What does that mean?"
Kael turned toward her, and for a heartbeat she swore the fire behind his gaze flickered with sorrow. "It means I built it. Long ago. And I buried myself inside it."
The Tower pulsed again, its walls shifting as though made of liquid glass. Sigils rearranged themselves, forming new lines of code that rippled across the surface. A whisper rose, soft but endless — like thousands of voices reciting forgotten prayers.
Liora clutched her temples. "Stop—"
"It's rewriting itself," Kael murmured. "Trying to erase what I've remembered."
"Then fight it!" she shouted.
Kael smiled faintly. "I am."
He stepped forward, pressing his palm to the nearest wall. The moment his skin met the sigil-marked stone, the entire Tower convulsed. White fire flared outward, racing through the corridors like veins of light. The glyphs shattered, and with each one that broke, a memory surfaced in his mind — a flash, a sound, a name.
And every memory burned him from the inside.
Liora ran toward him, grabbing his arm. The heat of his body seared her palm, but she refused to let go. "Kael, stop! You'll destroy yourself!"
He turned to her, and in his expression she saw something terrifying — not rage, not madness, but acceptance.
"Maybe that's the point."
The words cut through her. "No." She shook her head, voice cracking. "You said you wanted to change things—to end the cycle, not erase yourself from it."
He stared at her, and the flame dimmed slightly, as though her voice steadied him. "And you still believe that's possible?"
"Yes." Her grip tightened. "Because if you could remember, that means the Tower isn't perfect. It can be broken."
Kael's eyes softened. "Liora…"
But before he could answer, the air around them split open.
A figure emerged from the light—tall, robed, faceless. The same presence that had haunted their climb from the beginning. The Watcher.
Its voice resonated like the Tower's heartbeat. You were not meant to return, Kael of the First Flame.
Kael stepped between it and Liora, emberfire surging in defiance. "And yet, here I am."
The Watcher tilted its head. You built the cycle to contain yourself. Now you seek to undo what even gods could not control.
Kael's tone turned sharp. "You mistake control for salvation. The Tower was never meant to save us—it was meant to keep us asleep."
The Watcher extended its hand, and the air rippled. Dozens of spectral blades formed from light itself, hanging in a circle around Kael. Then sleep again, Maker. Let your creation continue without you.
Liora moved before Kael could stop her. She raised her sword — a thin, silver edge that shimmered with runic light. Her voice was steady, though her heart was not.
"If he sleeps," she said, "then I'll wake for him."
The Watcher turned its faceless gaze toward her. You were never meant to exist.
A ripple of memory pierced Liora's mind. For a second, she saw herself—not as she was, but as she had been: a spark inside the Tower's design, a construct shaped from Kael's remorse.
She faltered. "What… what did you say?"
Kael's voice was hoarse. "Liora—don't listen to it."
But the truth was already unraveling inside her. The Watcher's voice pressed deeper, heavy with knowledge she could no longer deny.
He forged you from the fragments of his soul. You are his echo. His creation. His weapon against himself.
Her sword fell from her hand, clattering against the floor. The sound echoed endlessly.
"No…"
Kael turned, desperate. "Liora, look at me. You are real."
Tears burned down her cheeks. "How can I be real if I was built from you?"
He grabbed her shoulders, his touch fierce and grounding. "Because you made choices I never could. You defied me. You believed in me. That's what makes you real."
The Watcher raised its arm, and light spears shot toward them. Kael reacted instantly, pulling Liora behind him as he unleashed the emberfire. The explosion of energy tore through the chamber, shattering the Tower's symbols and plunging the room into a storm of flame and glass.
When the light faded, the Watcher still stood—but its form flickered, unstable.
Kael's breath came ragged. "It's weakening. It draws power from the Tower's memory. I'm erasing that memory."
Liora retrieved her sword, her fear tempered now into something harder. "Then let's finish it."
They moved together.
Kael struck first, his flame manifesting into a blade of burning white. The Watcher countered with light and void, the chamber bending under their clash. The impact sent ripples through the Tower, tearing apart walls and time itself.
Liora darted forward, slicing through the energy veins feeding the Watcher's form. Each strike she made felt like cutting through glass and light, yet she didn't stop—not even when blood welled from her palms.
The Watcher staggered. Kael seized the moment, thrusting his blade deep into its core.
Light burst outward. For an instant, everything froze—Kael, Liora, the Tower itself caught in suspended brilliance.
The Watcher's voice, fractured and fading, echoed one last time. Destroy me… and you destroy the Tower. Destroy the Tower… and you end every world it holds.
Kael hesitated. His flame faltered.
Liora reached for his hand, meeting his eyes. Her voice was calm, steady, heartbreakingly human.
"Then let it end."
He looked at her for a long moment — then nodded.
Together, they drove the blade deeper.
The Watcher screamed as its body shattered into pure light, the energy ripping through the Tower's foundations. The walls fractured, sigils collapsing in on themselves, the whole structure trembling like a dying god.
Kael felt the power surge through him, consuming and familiar all at once. The emberfire roared.
And for a brief, terrible second — he felt peace.
Then the Tower exploded.
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