The blue light from the pedestal flickered like a dying star, casting eerie shadows across the vast chamber. The air was thick with a strange hum, vibrating through the stone beneath their feet, crawling under their skin. Elyra couldn't help but take a step forward, drawn toward the glow despite every instinct screaming at her to turn away.
Kael's voice stopped her before she could get any closer.
"Don't."
It wasn't a suggestion. It was a command. And for the first time in a long while, Elyra found herself obeying without question.
"What is this place?" she asked, her voice low, barely above a whisper. The weight of the room seemed to press in on her, suffocating her words.
Kael's gaze never left the pedestal. "The heart of their power. The place where the Pale Flame's corruption began."
Elyra shivered. It felt wrong. Every inch of the air in this room felt wrong, as if it had been stained by something ancient and forgotten. Something that had been waiting, hidden beneath layers of time, for the right moment to resurface.
Vespera, standing a few paces behind, didn't speak, but her sharp eyes flicked from the pedestal to Kael and back again. Her silence was more unsettling than anything. She was always the one to hold her cards close, but right now, it felt like she was holding her breath.
"How do we stop it?" Elyra asked, her voice trembling despite her best efforts to keep it steady.
Kael didn't answer immediately. Instead, he reached into the folds of his cloak and pulled out a small, intricately carved stone—smooth, black, and cold to the touch. Elyra recognized it instantly. The sigil of the Pale Flame.
"It's not about stopping it," he said, his voice quieter now. "It's about keeping it from consuming us."
A chill ran down Elyra's spine. "Consuming us?"
Kael nodded slowly, his expression unreadable. "The Pale Flame doesn't just burn—it devours. Once it takes hold, it twists everything around it, bends it to its will. It turns protectors into monsters, makes heroes into villains." He paused, his gaze flicking briefly to her. "Even me."
The admission hung in the air, heavy and raw. Elyra opened her mouth to respond, but the words stuck in her throat. Kael wasn't someone who shared his past easily. The fact that he'd just opened that door left her speechless. It wasn't pity she felt, though—it was understanding. The Pale Flame had shaped them all, in one way or another.
"We need to destroy it," Vespera finally spoke, her voice sharp, her eyes hard. "Before it gets any stronger."
Elyra nodded, though her heart still raced in her chest. The thought of destroying something so powerful, so ancient, was both terrifying and liberating. Could they even do it? Or were they just walking into the very thing that would consume them all?
Kael seemed to read the doubt in her eyes. "We don't have a choice."
There it was again—the way Kael always spoke like he already knew how this would end. Like he was resigned to it. As though he had accepted something she couldn't even begin to understand.
The silence stretched long and heavy between them, each of them standing at the edge of a decision they weren't ready to make. The weight of the past, the burden of what was coming, pressed in on them all.
But it was Elyra who stepped forward first.
"I'm not afraid," she said, her voice firm, though her hands trembled at her sides. "We destroy it. Together."
Kael's gaze softened for the briefest moment. "Together," he echoed.
Without another word, he stepped toward the pedestal. Elyra followed, the rhythm of her heartbeat now in time with the hum that filled the room. Every step felt like it could be their last, and yet… there was no turning back.
The moment Kael's fingers brushed against the cold surface of the pedestal, the ground beneath them shook, sending a tremor through the chamber. Elyra stumbled, grabbing onto the nearest pillar for balance, but Kael didn't flinch. His face was grim, eyes narrowing as the energy in the room shifted.
"This is it," he muttered, almost to himself.
The blue light flared to life, blinding in its intensity. For a heartbeat, the entire chamber seemed to pulse with a heartbeat of its own—a sick, twisted rhythm that clawed at their senses.
And then, with a sound like a thousand voices screaming in unison, the world shifted.
A dark, viscous fog poured from the pedestal, swirling around them like a living thing. It coiled into the air, thick with a presence that pressed against their minds, choking the very breath from their lungs.
Elyra gasped, her knees buckling beneath her as the fog closed in, the weight of it sinking into her chest, pulling at her very soul. She could hear whispers—screams—echoing in her ears, the sound of a thousand voices calling her name.
Kael's voice cut through the noise, cold and commanding. "Hold your ground!"
Elyra fought to stay upright, her vision blurring as the fog pressed harder against her. She could feel something clawing at the edges of her mind—something old. Something ancient. And it wanted her. Wanted them.
The fog thickened, twisting into shapes—visions, memories, faces from the past. Some of them familiar. Some of them terrifying.
Elyra stumbled back, her heart racing, her breath shallow. She had to focus. Had to break free before the darkness swallowed her whole.
"Focus!" Kael shouted again, his voice a lifeline in the suffocating chaos. "Fight it!"
The last thing Elyra saw before the world went black was Kael's outstretched hand.