The night air was heavy with smoke and ash, the ruined outskirts burning under the weight of the Hollow breach. Broken bells tolled faintly in the distance as if the city itself were groaning in pain. The shattered remains of the old clocktower loomed before Sid, its gears rattling weakly, its fractured face still pointing at a time long since lost.
And at the heart of it—Serrath, the Hollow Warden.
Once human, once a protector. Now, twisted into something beyond recognition. His pale, glass-like eyes flickered like shattered mirrors, his body half-flesh, half-shadow. The remnants of his humanity clung to him in the way he stood upright, in the faint trace of sorrow on his face.
"You've grown bold, vessel," Serrath's voice echoed as he stepped through the fractured gears of time itself. "But boldness doesn't make you ready."
Sid's grip tightened around his arm, flame crawling from his veins, spiraling outward like black chains hungry to bind. "Don't call me vessel. I fight because I choose to—"
But the demon's voice slithered through him.
No… you fight because I will it. Burn him. Devour him.
Sid clenched his teeth, forcing the whisper back. "Blackbind Flame—Chain Snare!"
Chains of obsidian fire burst from his hand, writhing like serpents, lashing toward Serrath. The flames ignited the air with a furious hiss, striking forward to crush the Hollow Warden.
For a moment, Serrath let them come.
Then he stepped sideways. Not through the ground, not with speed—he walked through a moment that no longer existed.
Sid's eyes widened as the chains missed completely, striking the clocktower wall and shattering stone. Sparks and rubble fell into the night as Serrath's form blurred, fractured into afterimages.
"Hollow Step," Lucien's distant voice rang from below, watching from the battlefield. "He's walking through erased seconds…"
Serrath's figure emerged right behind Sid. "Power born of Ravh'Zereth cannot touch me. Not yet."
Sid twisted around, fire bursting from his chest in a desperate shield, but Serrath only raised a hand and time shuddered. The flames split apart as if they were glass cracking, their shape undone before they could strike.
"You're not fighting me, Arkwood. You're fighting what's inside you."
Sid staggered, sweat burning against his skin. His breath came ragged, chest heaving with fire that refused to obey him fully. The demon whispered louder, its hunger clawing at his thoughts:
Yes… let me loose. Just once more. I will crush him.
"No—shut up!" Sid roared, more to himself than to Serrath. His body flared with black flame, but it was uneven, scattering across the gears and beams of the tower, burning holes into the stone floor.
Serrath's pale eyes softened. For a heartbeat, Sid swore he saw the human he once was.
"You're still chained, boy. Not by Ravh'Zereth. By those who claim to save you. By those who watch you from the heavens. Even your allies don't see you—they see a weapon."
Sid froze, his fists trembling. "You think I don't know that?"
The gears of the clocktower groaned violently, the battle ripping it apart. Serrath moved again, stepping between moments, and appeared before Sid with the ease of breathing. Instead of striking, he leaned close, whispering so only Sid could hear.
"The Eighth Flame burns for you, not Ravh'Zereth."
Sid's eyes widened. "...What?"
But Serrath didn't answer. With a single sweep of his hand, time bent—the Hollow breach outside snapped shut in a thunderclap, the invading swarm vanishing into silence. Serrath's twisted form dissolved with the closing rift, leaving only his words burned into Sid's mind.
The great clocktower gave a final groan. Its frame, already split by the battle, began to collapse. Sid staggered toward the exit, but the rubble rained faster. A giant gear snapped loose, falling past him as the entire tower tilted.
Lucien's voice echoed faintly through the comm crystal. "Sid! Get out of there, now!"
Sid forced his body to move, flames wrapping around his arms as he clawed through falling stone. Dust blinded him, choking the air, until finally he burst through a shattered wall, tumbling out into the night.
The clocktower behind him crashed down in a storm of stone and steel, its final bell tolling as it was swallowed into ruin.
Sid lay on the ground, chest heaving, every vein burning with Serrath's words echoing louder than any daemon's whisper.
The Eighth Flame burns for you… not Ravh'Zereth.
His hands trembled.
His fire wouldn't calm.
And for the first time—Sid wasn't sure if he was more afraid of the demon inside him… or of the truth Serrath had left behind.