The wind howled through the ruins as Ellie stood rigid, the weight of her vision pressing down on her chest.
The First Hollow's words lingered.
"The End is already moving."
She turned to Sam and Malcolm, her pulse thrumming. "We don't have time to waste. We need to track the masked figure now."
Malcolm frowned. "Are you sure? You just"
"I'm sure." Ellie's voice was firm. "If we wait, we'll be too late."
Sam scratched the back of his head. "You're acting like we even know where to start looking."
The Hollow shifted, its burning eyes locking onto Ellie.
"You will find him where the cycle first began."
A pulse of energy rippled through the air. The ruins shuddered, and the Hollow raised its hand.
The stone floor beneath them cracked open, revealing a swirling rift of darkness and light.
Ellie tensed.
"Beyond this portal lies the first battlefield. The place where Light and Shadow first clashed… and where the End was first conceived."
Malcolm's jaw tightened. "Sounds like a death trap."
Sam glanced at Ellie. "So? What's the call?"
Ellie took a slow breath.
She could still feel the echoes of her future self's words.
"The choice is coming."
She wasn't going to wait for it to come to her.
She stepped forward.
"We're going."
The Ruins of the First War
The portal spat them out onto a battlefield frozen in time.
Blackened earth stretched for miles, littered with the remains of ancient warriors, their armor rusted and broken.
The sky was wrong.
It was neither day nor night just an endless swirl of silver and black, as if time itself had stopped moving.
Sam whistled. "Okay. This is creepy as hell."
Malcolm knelt, running a hand over a cracked helmet. "These soldiers… they weren't human."
Ellie stiffened.
The armor was too large. The weapons too foreign.
She felt a sudden pressure in her chest an old, familiar feeling.
She knew this place.
Not from books. Not from stories.
From something deeper.
A memory that wasn't hers.
She turned sharply. "We need to keep moving."
Malcolm glanced up. "Toward what, exactly?"
Ellie didn't answer.
She felt it before she saw it.
A pulse of power ahead dark and heavy, pulling at the edges of reality itself.
Sam's voice was cautious. "Uh, Ellie? You're not about to walk us straight into a trap, are you?"
Ellie gritted her teeth.
"If it is, then we're walking into it together."
And with that
She moved forward.
The Throne of the Forgotten King
At the heart of the battlefield lay a throne.
It was massive, carved from obsidian and cracked with age, its surface glowing with eerie runes.
And standing before it
The masked figure.
Ellie's breath caught.
He was waiting.
His cloak billowed in the unnatural wind, the mask's empty eye sockets locking onto her as if he had known she would come.
Slowly, he raised a hand.
"You finally understand, don't you?"
Ellie's fingers curled into fists.
"I understand that you need to be stopped."
A long silence stretched between them.
Then he laughed.
"Stopped?" The masked figure stepped down from the throne. "No, Ellie. You were never meant to stop me."
His voice was almost… gentle.
"You were meant to stand beside me."
Ellie froze.
Sam muttered, "Oh, hell no."
Malcolm's grip tightened on his weapon.
But Ellie
She just stared.
Because deep down, beneath all her rage, all her resolve
A small part of her was terrified.
Because what if
What if she was wrong?
The Offer
The wind howled around them, carrying whispers from a past long buried.
Ellie's heart pounded in her chest as the masked figure took a slow step forward.
"You feel it, don't you?" he murmured. "The pull of something greater. The truth buried in your bones."
Ellie stiffened. She wasn't going to let him get into her head.
"I don't feel anything except the need to stop you."
The masked figure chuckled low and knowing.
"You're lying."
Ellie gritted her teeth. "Enough of this."
She lunged forward, magic flaring in her veins
But the masked figure simply raised a hand.
And everything stopped.
The Chains of the Past
Ellie froze mid-step.
Not because she wanted to because she couldn't move.
Invisible chains wrapped around her body, locking her in place.
Malcolm and Sam shouted, weapons drawn, but the masked figure didn't even spare them a glance.
"You are bound to something far greater than you realize," he said, voice calm. "And fighting me will not change that."
Ellie struggled, every muscle in her body screaming, but the chains only tightened.
And then
She saw.
Visions exploded behind her eyes
A war before time. A battle between light and shadow. A figure standing in the center of it all.
Herself.
Or rather someone who wore her face.
A queen. A ruler. A being of terrible power.
And beside her, standing as an equal
The masked figure.
Ellie gasped, the vision shattering as the world snapped back into place.
The chains vanished.
She staggered, breath ragged.
Sam and Malcolm ran to her side. "Ellie, what happened?"
She barely heard them.
She was still staring at the masked figure.
"…What was that?" she whispered.
The masked figure tilted his head. "A memory."
Ellie's pulse raced. "That wasn't me."
"No," he agreed. "But it was who you once were."
Ellie's hands trembled. "You're lying."
"Am I?"
She wanted him to be lying.
But deep down she wasn't sure anymore.
The masked figure took a step closer, his presence overwhelming.
"I do not wish to fight you, Ellie." His voice was soft. "I only wish for you to remember."
Ellie clenched her fists. "Why? Why does it matter?"
The masked figure reached up, fingering the edges of his mask.
"Because if you remember"
He slowly removed it.
And Ellie's breath caught.
Because the face beneath the mask
Was familiar.
Not a stranger. Not an enemy.
But someone she knew.
Someone she had once cared for.
And in that moment
Everything changed.