The world on the other side of the Gate was wrong.
Alexander's first step landed not on stone, not on fire, but on air that held him as if the laws of reality had forgotten themselves. Around him stretched a vast sea of glass shards suspended in nothingness, each fragment shimmering with a memory not his own.
A battlefield where monsters tore kings apart.
A coronation beneath a burning sun.
A woman with eyes like Isabella's, screaming as her crown shattered.
Time was broken here—fractured, scattered, replaying itself in pieces.
And at the center of it all floated a colossal hourglass, its glass cracked, its sands spilling in both directions at once. Some grains fell upward, others downward, and others simply vanished.
Alexander's fire roared instinctively, his presence burning the visions back, but the hourglass pulsed, sending a shock through his chest.
"You should not be here, Fireborn."
The voice did not come from the shards. It came from time itself.
---
Confrontation with the Hourglass
Alexander lifted his gaze to the broken monument, his fire flaring hotter against its oppressive weight.
"Then you'd better get used to me," he spat. "I'm not leaving without her."
The sands shifted violently, and with them, so did reality. Alexander's surroundings warped—his fire sputtered, and in a blink, he stood in a mirror of his old training ground.
There was his father, standing tall, scarred hands folded behind his back.
"You'll never be strong enough," his father's voice echoed, cold and final.
Alexander clenched his fists. "You're not real."
The memory smirked. "No—but I am what you carry."
His fire exploded outward, shattering the illusion into shards that rained like broken glass. Each fragment dissolved into the sands feeding the great hourglass.
---
The Hourglass Speaks
The cracked monument throbbed again, voice layered with countless echoes.
> "Every fire burns, and every fire ends. Yours seeks to unmake what cannot die. To break the chain is to unbind what sleeps."
Alexander's breath caught. The words echoed what Isabella had feared—that his flame was unraveling not just her prison, but something older, deeper.
But his resolve did not waver.
"If what sleeps has to burn for her to be free, then I'll burn it."
The sands surged violently, streams of golden and black fire twisting into forms. From the fragments emerged creatures of shifting time—warriors frozen mid-scream, kings crowned in ash, monsters with too many eyes. They charged at him, howling.
Alexander's fire rose like a storm.
"Then come."
---
Isabella's Vision
Far away, Isabella's chains quaked as though reacting to his battle. She collapsed to her knees, gasping as visions flooded her mind—Alexander standing alone beneath a storm of shattered time, his fire clashing against endless enemies.
But laced between the visions, she heard it again:
"…Free us…"
"…The fire is the key…"
"…Eternity must fall…"
She realized with horror what the Gate was showing him—what it was testing him to do.
If Alexander shattered the Hourglass entirely, Eternity itself would collapse.
Not just her chains. Not just the throne. The world.
---
The Hourglass Cracks Further
Alexander roared, flames erupting outward in a wave that incinerated the twisted warriors. For an instant, silence reigned.
Then the hourglass screamed.
A sound so deep it split the air, so vast it shook even the King's throne. A jagged crack tore wider down its side, and more sands spilled freely into the void.
Time stuttered.
Isabella gasped as half her chains disintegrated into golden fire.
The Endless King rose from his throne, shadows writhing in panic.
> "No. If the Hourglass shatters, there will be no thrones. No crowns. No kings. Only fire and silence."
And far away, Alexander stood beneath the collapsing monument, fire blazing, refusing to stop.