Chapter Fifteen: The Phantom General
The blade of flame met the phantom's sword with a soundless clash.
Kain's knees buckled from the impact. The creature wasn't solid—yet its strikes carried the weight of centuries.
Eira chanted behind him, drawing sigils in the air.
"Don't let it touch the crystal again!" she cried. "It's feeding off the past!"
Kain dodged, barely avoiding a slash that left cracks in the stone.
The phantom moved like memory—unpredictable, flickering in and out of vision.
"Who are you?" Kain growled.
The phantom's voice was hollow. "I was once called General Vareth. Last guardian of the True Crown. Betrayed by blood. Bound to this echo."
"Then let us free you!" Eira shouted.
The phantom paused.
A moment of hesitation—human, painful.
Then he roared, and the chamber shook.
Chains erupted from the walls, spectral and glowing, lashing toward Kain and Eira.
Kain spun, flames blazing from his hands.
Eira unleashed a storm of frost that froze the chains mid-air.
Together, they pressed forward—Kain striking the phantom's core, Eira focusing on the crystal.
"If we break the echo—" she shouted, "—we break the curse!"
Kain let the fire inside him surge.
He saw the memory within the phantom:
A kingdom crumbling.
A king dying.
A loyal general, blamed and buried beneath lies.
"You were loyal!" Kain shouted. "And they silenced you!"
The phantom staggered.
Its form cracked.
Eira struck the crystal with a freezing blade of light—
—and it shattered.
A scream echoed not from the phantom, but from the walls themselves.
The phantom's form faded… and for the first time in ages, the chamber was still.
Only dust and silence remained.
Kain knelt, breathing hard.
Eira touched his shoulder.
"You freed him."
He nodded slowly.
"No..." he said. "We freed ourselves."