Kael stared.
The older version of himself—battle-worn, eyes sharp with pain and clarity—moved with practiced precision. Every step he took radiated power, but it wasn't raw. It was honed. Controlled. A fire that had already burned too long and learned not to waste its heat.
"You," Kael said, voice barely more than breath.
Older Kael didn't look back. "Later."
He drew his sword—not the same as Kael's, but similar in design. More evolved. Its blade was etched with sigils that shifted when looked at directly.
Across the chamber, Iris hovered still, her body glowing from within—light splitting from the cracks along her arms and cheeks, her voice echoing with alien reverberations.
"You split the timeline again," the entity inside her hissed. "You bring collapse faster. You defy the cycle."
Older Kael lifted his blade.
"I've already seen this cycle end."
He dashed forward, impossibly fast—faster than Kael had ever imagined he could be.
Their blades met in mid-air—Kael's old sword against the corrupted energy of the entity wearing Iris's form.
The explosion of force flattened the crystals around them in an instant.
Kael shielded his eyes, stumbling backward as waves of kinetic pressure rolled across the room. But within the chaos, he could see something—older Kael's blade glowing brighter with each strike. Not just cutting through the entity's defense… but severing the connection itself.
Every time he struck, a piece of the corruption peeled away.
Iris screamed.
And for a moment—it was her scream again.
Younger Kael took his chance.
He surged forward, his own sword drawn now, heart pounding. He didn't know what he was doing—only that she was still in there. That she could be saved.
He reached the platform, drove his blade into the sigil burning at Iris's feet.
Light shattered.
The corrupted sigils imploded like broken glass, sucked back into the void that had birthed them.
And then—it stopped.
Iris dropped, unconscious but whole, into Kael's arms.
The room fell silent.
Older Kael exhaled slowly, the energy around him dimming.
He turned, meeting his younger self's eyes at last.
"She's safe," he said.
Kael looked down at Iris—her chest rising and falling gently, no longer bound by the godlike force that had possessed her.
"…You saved her."
Older Kael nodded. "For now."
Then he turned to the still-cracked ceiling and began carving a sigil into the air.
"Where are you going?" Kael asked.
"To stop the part you haven't seen yet."
Kael stood. "Let me come with you."
Older Kael hesitated. Then shook his head.
"Not yet. You're not ready."
And with that, the portal opened—and he vanished into it without another word.
Kael stood in the quiet chamber, Iris still in his arms, her breath steady. The corruption had retreated. The gate remained sealed. And for the first time in what felt like forever…
There was peace.
Even if only for a moment.
The chamber was quiet now.
Kael sat beside Iris, who rested beneath a blanket of his cloak. The glow from the crystals had dimmed to a soft hum, casting the room in a gentle blue light. It was strange how still everything felt. No voices. No threats. No fighting. Just breath. Just silence.
Sera arrived not long after.
She stumbled in from the white path, face streaked with dirt, hair damp with sweat. The second she saw Iris alive, unconscious but untouched, her shoulders slumped with relief.
"You did it," she said, falling to her knees beside them.
Kael didn't speak. He only nodded once.
Sera reached out, brushed a lock of hair from Iris's forehead. "She's warm. Breathing fine."
"She fought it," Kael said softly. "Even when she was taken, she held on. Long enough for me to reach her."
Sera leaned back, arms on her knees. "And the other you?"
Kael hesitated. "He saved us. He knew everything that was about to happen… and everything that still will."
She looked at him sharply. "Still will?"
"He didn't explain. Just said I wasn't ready yet."
Sera snorted. "Well, that's not ominous at all."
They sat in silence again.
No one moved to leave. For now, this quiet was sacred.
Kael turned his gaze upward. The ceiling was still cracked, but no longer glowing. It was just stone now, veined and broken, but calm.
"Do you think he was real?" he asked.
Sera glanced at him. "The future you?"
He nodded.
"I think…" She looked down. "I think everything's real now. Every nightmare. Every legend. Every impossible thing we used to laugh at in the barracks? Real."
Kael smirked faintly. "Yeah. Figures."
Iris stirred slightly, murmuring something too faint to hear. Kael instinctively leaned closer.
But she didn't wake.
She just breathed.
Alive. Whole.
That was enough.
Sera lay back on the stone floor, arms behind her head. "We rest here, yeah? Just for a while."
Kael followed her lead. The floor was cold, but after everything they'd faced, it felt almost comfortable.
Above them, the light pulsed gently in rhythm with their breathing.
For now, the storm had passed.
And in its place—finally—came a moment of peace.
By the time Iris woke, the blue glow of the chamber had faded to a dull shimmer, and Kael had nearly drifted off beside her.
Her voice was barely more than a whisper. "Kael?"
He was beside her in an instant.
"I'm here," he said gently, eyes scanning her face for any sign of lingering corruption.
She blinked slowly, dazed. "What… happened?"
"You were taken," he said. "But we brought you back. You're safe now."
She sat up slowly, wincing. "I remember… voices. Like a thousand versions of me were screaming at once."
"It wasn't you," Kael said. "Something inside the ruins, something old, tried to use you to open the Veil."
Iris's expression darkened. "But it almost worked, didn't it?"
Kael didn't answer right away.
Sera, now awake and sitting nearby, said what he didn't. "Yeah. It did. But not all the way."
Iris looked between them. "And the other presence I felt—someone… like you, Kael. But not you."
Kael nodded. "A future version of me. He came back. He saved us both."
Iris lowered her eyes. "I saw him. Just a flicker, but… it felt familiar."
The three of them sat in silence again, surrounded by the still air of the chamber.
There was no more immediate danger. No pressure to move. And yet, the weight of what had happened—and what was coming—hung unspoken in the space between them.
Eventually, Sera stood and stretched. "We should find a way out of here before something else wakes up."
Kael rose to his feet and helped Iris up. "Agreed. We've lingered too long already."
They moved carefully through the corridor that had sealed behind Kael, which now stood open as if the ruins had acknowledged their victory. The path beyond was unfamiliar—neither the one Sera had entered nor the one Kael had taken—but it sloped gently upward.
As they walked, none of them spoke much. There were no grand speeches, no dramatic declarations. Just the steady rhythm of boots against stone and the occasional flicker of distant torchlight.
They were exhausted, mentally and physically.
But they were together.
Alive.
Whole.
And as the exit of the ruins came into view—sunlight breaking through the cracked archway ahead—they stepped forward as one, leaving the haunted silence behind.
The sunlight felt unreal.
After so long in the depths of the ruins, Kael half-expected the world outside to have changed—sky scorched, mountains split, time warped. But everything was… normal. Or it looked that way.
They emerged from the stone mouth of the ancient temple into a grassy plateau, wind sweeping across the hilltops. The sky was cloudless. The valley stretched for miles below, green and golden under the afternoon sun.
Too quiet.
Too still.
Sera was the first to notice. "No birds."
Kael frowned. She was right. No birdsong. No insects. Not even the distant cry of wind through trees. The world around them had paused, holding its breath.
Iris stumbled slightly, catching herself against Kael's arm.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she said. "Just… dizzy."
But Kael could see it—her pulse was too fast. Her skin too pale.
She was fighting something still.
Something inside.
They descended into the valley, but Kael's sense of unease only grew. There were no people. No smoke rising from chimneys. No sign of the village that should have been here.
And then—
They saw it.
At the base of the cliffs, where the village of Nareth used to be, was a crater.
Perfectly circular. Glassed earth. Charred remains of wood and stone fused into molten spirals.
Sera dropped to one knee, stunned. "What…?"
Kael couldn't speak.
He felt it.
Faintly—wrongness.
Something had touched this place. Something immense.
Iris stepped forward.
She stared at the crater, expression frozen.
And whispered, "No."
Kael turned to her. "What is it?"
Iris backed away slowly.
"I remember this. This place. It's where it started."
Kael stepped forward. "What started?"
She didn't answer.
Not with words.
Because the sky above them cracked.
A thin black fissure split the air—like someone had sliced reality with a blade.
Lightning poured from the opening, silent and gold. Wind roared in every direction.
Sera shouted something, but Kael couldn't hear her over the rising hum—like the world itself was screaming.
From the fissure, a shape began to descend.
Humanoid.
Massive.
Veiled in smoke and fire, with antlers of bone and eyes like collapsing stars.
Iris fell to her knees, clutching her head. "He's coming."
Kael moved to her, sword half-drawn. "Who?!"
She looked up.
Blood trickled from her nose.
"The Seventh."
The name itself seemed to bend the air.
And behind the veiled being in the sky—six more forms began to emerge.