The world was a blur of flame and wind. The train screamed along the fractured bridge, metal howling beneath it, sparks tearing across the tracks like stars falling sideways.
Selene sprinted across the roof, her silhouette outlined by fire. Marek landed on the opposite end, the heat radiating off him like the breath of a furnace. For a heartbeat, the two stood still—two forces of will, one forged by control, the other by chaos.
Then the sky exploded.
Fire met steel as Marek hurled a jet of flame forward, and Selene rolled aside, her blade catching the heat and scattering it into glowing embers. She leapt, spinning, striking with precision, but Marek caught her wrist midair, his eyes blazing.
"You should've stayed in the sanctum," he hissed. "You could've ruled beside me."
"Ruled over what?" she spat, kicking him square in the chest. "Ashes?"
He barely flinched. The flames around him twisted tighter, forming a living storm. The bridge ahead began to crack from the sheer pressure.
From inside the cabin, I fought to keep the train steady, my knuckles white on the controls. The heat warped the air; alarms blared in every direction. Through the cracked glass, I could barely see Selene—just flashes of light and shadows locked.
Marek raised both hands. The firestorm swirled, dragging in debris and molten shards. Selene planted her feet, her blade glowing white-hot as it absorbed the heat. For a moment, time seemed to slow.
And then—
She threw it.
The blade spun through the inferno, a streak of silver cutting straight through Marek's chest. He staggered back, eyes wide, and for the first time, his flames faltered.
But instead of blood, light poured from the wound—bright, burning, like something celestial trapped inside him.
I stared in shock. "He's—he's not human…"
Selene shouted, "He's a conduit!"
Marek grinned through the pain, his voice trembling but powerful. "You think the Council made me? No, Selene. They unleashed me."
His fire surged outward, wrapping around the blade still lodged in his chest. It burned brighter—too bright.
Selene's expression changed. "He's going to—"
The explosion ripped through the sky.
The shockwave threw the train off its rails. I felt my body lift, weightless, as. Fire swallowed everything—the bridge, the skyline, the train—until there was nothing but heat and light.
When the world finally stopped spinning, silence fell.
I gasped awake, half-buried in rubble, my ears ringing. The city burned in the distance. The train was gone. The bridge was gone. And in the center of the wreckage, a crater still smoked with ember-red light.
Marek was gone.
But Selene… Selene was on her knees at the crater's edge, staring down at something glowing faintly in her hand.
A shard. A fragment of Marek's fire—pulsing, alive.
She turned toward me, soot-streaked and trembling. "He wasn't trying to kill us," she whispered.
My throat went dry. "Warn us about what?"
Selene looked up at the horizon, where the sky was splitting—crimson cracks forming like veins of light across the clouds.
"They're waking it."
The fire had stopped, but the heat hadn't.
Ash fell like snow over the ruins of the bridge, glowing faintly in the dark. The world smelled of metal and smoke and something old—something that didn't belong.
Selene stood at the crater's edge, the glowing. Its light flickered, syncopated, like a heartbeat. I forced myself to my feet, every bone in my body aching, and stumbled toward her.
"What is that?" I asked, voice hoarse.
"Marek's core," she said quietly.
The words sent a chill down my spine. "Given… by the Council?"
She nodded, staring into the shard's light. "They call it The Ember Protocol. It was their experiment to control destruction itself. Marek was their first success—and their first failure."
The wind picked up, scattering glowing dust into the night. For the first time, the city below looked dead—not burning, not alive, just empty.
I knelt beside her. could do, what happens if the Council creates more?"
Her eyes met mine. "They already did."
Before I could respond, the shard in her hand flared brighter—white light slicing through the night sky. The ground shook. Every light in the city blinked, once, twice… then died.
Silence.
And then, from the heart of the city, Deep. Mechanical. Wrong.
I turned toward it. Across the skyline, towers that had been dormant for decades flickered awake, veins of crimson energy running up their sides like blood through metal.
Selene's voice was barely a whisper. "They're activating the grid…"
The shard pulsed faster, reacting to the sound. In its reflection, I saw patterns forming—circles, symbols, sequences of light. Not random. Coordinates.
"He was trying to cut the grid off."
Selene clenched her jaw. We've just powered it."
The air thickened. The hum grew louder, turning into a vibration that crawled through my bones. Then came the light—a beam shooting upward from the Council Tower, piercing the clouds. The sky cracked like glass, revealing something vast behind it.
Shapes moved inside that light. Colossal. Unnatural. Watching.
Selene's hand trembled. "They're not opening a channel," she said. "They're opening a door."
A new explosion rumbled through the distance—not fire this time, but pure energy. The ground split, releasing waves of light and shadow that rippled toward us. I grabbed her arm. "We have to move!"
She didn't look away from the sky. "No," she said softly.
The shard in her hand cracked, spilling liquid light onto her skin. It crawled up her arm, etching fiery veins under her flesh.
"Selene!" I shouted.
She turned to me—eyes glowing, her voice now layered, echoing.It was meant to contain what's coming."
The sky roared.
And from beyond the light, something answered.