The top floor was no longer a battleground.
It was a graveyard made of light.
White fire, fractured starlight, screaming frost, roaring iron, and shattering mirrors tore through the sky in a storm that had forgotten how to stop.
SFX: KRRRRYAAAA—BOOOOOM—SKRRAK—WHUMMM!
The Spire was dying.
Stone howled.
Reality bled.
The air tasted like endings—bitter, metallic, ancient.
Six ghosts fought for the people they had once loved.
Effie and Jet—
iron against winter,
laughter against silence.
Kai and Mordret—
starlight against lies,
forgiveness against cruelty.
Cassie in the center—
light weaving between all sides,
the prophecy made flesh.
Nephis and the young man stood at opposite ends of the shattered platform—
fire against starlight,
corruption against hope,
destiny against defiance.
And Sunny—
empty, human, bleeding, hollow yet still fighting—
stood in the middle
watching his friends kill each other a second time.
Effie took a spear of frost through the chest—
SFX: SHHHNK!—
laughed, tore it out with one hand,
and used it to shatter Jet's arm.
SFX: CRRRACK! Jet's bone frozen solid, splintering like glass.
Jet answered with a blizzard of winter wind—
SFX: FWOOOOOOSH!—
which froze Effie's legs to the knee
and cracked them like old iron.
Kai's wings burned under Mordret's reflected lies—
starlight feathers drifting down as ash.
SFX: FSSSSSHH—TSSST! each feather dying in the air.
Mordret's mirrors shattered under Kai's counterstrike—
each shard screaming with a different voice.
SFX: TING—TING—TING—AAAAAHHHHH!!!
A chorus of a thousand betrayals.
These were not echoes.
They were real.
And they were going to kill each other.
Permanently.
Forever.
Sunny felt the truth settle in his chest like a blade.
He had freed them once.
He had to free them again.
This time…
for good.
He stepped forward.
The storm parted for him—
reluctantly,
resentfully,
as if the battle itself understood what he intended.
SFX: VMMM—VMMM—VMMM
Reality rippling around a man who had no power left
and yet held everything that mattered.
He walked toward the center.
Cassie saw him coming.
Her light-eyes widened—twin suns trembling.
"No," she whispered.
Not a command.
A plea.
He met her gaze.
"I'm sorry," he said.
Human.
Raw.
Final.
Then he moved.
First: Effie and Jet
They were locked together—
Effie's massive hands around Jet's throat,
Jet's frost spear buried deep in Effie's heart.
Both laughing.
Both crying.
Both dying again.
Sunny reached them.
He rested a hand on Effie's iron shoulder
and Jet's trembling arm.
They froze—
as if time itself held its breath.
Effie's grin softened, breaking into something warm.
"Little brother…" she rasped.
Voice bubbling with iron and blood.
Jet's frozen eyes thawed—
just for one heartbeat.
Just long enough to see him.
Sunny smiled.
Small.
Tired.
Devastated.
Human.
"I've got you," he whispered.
Then he pulled.
Not with shadow.
Not with power.
With memory.
With every moment they had stood behind him.
Every battle where they had shielded him.
Every laugh shared over dying campfires.
Every promise they had made without speaking.
He pulled their souls into himself.
Effie's laughter settled in his ribs—
warm, thunderous, eternal.
Jet's winter wind cooled scars he no longer had—
quiet, sharp, soft.
They dissolved.
Not destroyed.
Not erased.
Released.
Free.
Forever.
Next: Kai and Mordret
Kai's wings were almost gone—
starlight dripping from him like liquid dawn.
Mordret's mirrors were cracked—
reflecting nothing but the truth now.
No lies.
No masks.
Just a broken boy who never learned how to stop hurting.
Sunny walked between them.
Kai looked at him with gentle acceptance.
Mordret smiled—
not mocking,
not cruel,
something almost… human.
Sunny placed one hand on each of their faces.
"I'm sorry," he whispered again.
He pulled.
Kai's starlight settled beside Effie's laughter—
steady, hopeful, bright.
Mordret's mirrors became windows—
clear, honest, open.
They dissolved.
Released.
Finally allowed to stop fighting.
Finally: Cassie
Cassie watched him come.
Tears of pure radiance rolled down her face—
drops of prophecy falling like stars.
She did not lift a weapon.
She did not shield herself.
She did not speak.
She opened her arms.
Sunny stepped into them.
Held her as she trembled like a dying sun.
"I choose you," he whispered.
Voice cracking.
"I always did."
He pulled.
Her light settled in his chest—
beside Effie's warmth,
Jet's frost,
Kai's starlight,
Mordret's clarity.
A constellation heart.
A cathedral of souls.
She dissolved.
The battlefield fell silent.
Only Nephis and the young man remained.
They stared at Sunny.
At the empty space where their allies had been.
At the six quiet flames burning behind his ribs.
Nephis's wings dimmed.
The young man's starlight flickered.
Their war wavered.
Sunny stood between them—
human, bleeding, empty,
carrying the weight of six souls
and every memory they had died for.
He looked at them both.
His voice was raw.
Broken.
Immovable.
"I'm done letting you kill each other."
The storm stopped breathing.
For one heartbeat—
the world paused.
Nephis smiled—
small, sad, proud.
A mother seeing her child finally stand.
The young man's eyes shone with tears of molten gold.
Sunny stood at the center of all things—
carrying the cohort,
carrying the burden,
carrying the last mercy they deserved.
And he refused—
absolutely refused—
to let any of them die again.