The cavern pulsed with an unnatural rhythm, as if the stone itself breathed. Nicolette's fire flickered wildly, flames whipping around her like banners in a storm. She had only cracked the seal, yet the air was already thick with a presence far older, far darker, than anything she could name.
Then it happened.
From the fractured archway, a ripple of shadow unfurled, curling outward like smoke. The air grew heavy, pressing on her chest until each breath felt stolen. Her fire sputtered, not from weakness, but from resistance—as if the very essence beyond the seal was trying to smother it.
The ground quaked. Splinters of stone fell, clattering at her feet. And through the widening crack, a shape emerged.
At first, it was only a claw—long, curved, dripping with frost that steamed upon touching the air. Its black surface shimmered with veins of violet light, like molten rivers trapped in ice. The claw pressed against the gap, testing, prying.
Nicolette's stomach turned to stone. Every instinct screamed at her to run. But she stood firm, even as her legs trembled.
The claw withdrew, and a hand—massive, skeletal, wrapped in shadow—pushed through the fracture. The whispers returned, louder now, words clawing at her mind. They weren't words of men, but of something that spoke in hunger, in promises of ruin.
Her flames surged in answer. They weren't mere fire anymore—they carried weight, heat that resisted the creeping cold pouring from the seal. The clash filled the cavern, fire hissing against frost, sparks falling like stars around her.
"Stay back!" she shouted, thrusting her hands forward. Fire coiled into a sphere and shot toward the emerging hand.
The cavern exploded in light. The hand recoiled, the whispers turning into a guttural roar that shook the earth. Dust rained from above, and the fractured seal flared in defiance, halting its own collapse.
For a moment, silence returned.
Nicolette dropped to one knee, panting, her chest heaving from the force of the release. Her arms trembled, but her fire still burned steady. She had held it back—but just barely.
Her mind raced. That thing… it was not yet free. But it had reached for her, as if it knew her, as if her fire wasn't just resisting it—but calling it.
A memory flickered: the stranger's oath, his warning. In your fire lies ruin or rebirth.
Was she protecting the world from the thing inside the seal—or protecting the thing from the world?
The cavern answered with another faint rumble, and then silence. The hand had retreated. For now.
Nicolette staggered to her feet. Her fire dimmed to embers along her arms, leaving her exhausted yet unbroken. She tightened her fists.
Whatever lay behind that seal wasn't finished with her. And she wasn't finished with it either.