Kaito, dressed in his new Vice-Commander armor, oversaw Ren's transfer to his new domain: the Great Library of the Conclave. The place, now under his control, was a fortress of scrolls and knowledge, a final irony in housing the last vestige of the Light.
Ren was placed in a central chamber, secured to a runic matrix that Elora had adapted to nourish the Bond of Cinder with ambient energy. The Paladin was motionless, his eyes open but empty. The psychic battle had drained his spirit.
Kaito knelt before his brother, feeling the connection. Kaito's Chaos was immensely powerful, but Ren's Forged Light, though minuscule, remained, an immovable speck of white in the darkness.
"You're home, Ren," Kaito transmitted through the Lasso, his inner voice monotonous. "This is my library. My domain. And you are my custodian."
Ren didn't respond verbally, but Kaito felt a ripple of despair that ran deeper than grief. It was utter resignation.
"You've won, Kaito. You destroyed everything. Aethelgard. My honor. My faith. You did it for your power. Was it worth it?"
Kaito felt a pang, but ignored it with the discipline he'd learned from Zylpha. "Peace is built on obedience, Ren. And obedience requires total control."
The Last Revelation
As Kaito prepared to activate the array and begin the data extraction with Lysandra, he felt a different vibration through the Lasso. It wasn't agony or resistance, but icy compassion, accompanied by a memory that Ren hadn't forced, but offered.
The memory was of the night their father, the original Commander, had handed over the position to Valerius.
In that memory, Kaito saw a truth that Chaos had never allowed him to see clearly: the reason Ren had always been so protective of him.
"I didn't become a Paladin for Valerius, Kaito. I did it for you. I took the oath of the Light, not to be a hero, but to be the shield that would protect you from the fate we knew was coming."
Kaito and Ren's father had been a former agent of the Shadow, forced to serve the Light. There had been a prophecy: one of his sons would rise to be the greatest Lightforged, and the other would be the most powerful Ashwraith.
"Father's plan wasn't for me to be the hero. It was that if you fell to the darkness, my Lightforged would be strong enough to nullify you, or if I fell, my sacrifice would bring you back to life." I gave you to the Conclave not out of ambition, but so that the Shadow wouldn't claim you permanently.
The weight of the revelation hit Kaito with a force greater than any attack from the Queen. Ren's betrayal hadn't been out of envy or ambition; it had been a desperate and failed sacrifice to save him from the prophesied fate.
Kaito realized the magnitude of his own cruelty: he had tortured, broken, and forced to betray the only being who had truly given everything for him. The father had failed; the prophecy had been fulfilled.
Eternal Servitude
Kaito stood, his expression one of terrible calm. Empathy and remorse were luxuries he could no longer afford. If he accepted that truth, his power would fade.
He didn't deny Ren's memory, but distorted it in his own mind.
"Your sacrifice was a failure, Ren," Kaito relayed, his voice stony. "Your love made me weak." My power has made me invincible. And your destiny is to serve your brother.
Kaito activated the rune matrix. Chaos flowed from it into Ren's body. It wasn't physical pain, but a nullification of individuality. The rune matrix sealed Ren's will, making him a permanent nexus of information for Kaito.
Ren was no longer a prisoner; he was the living, obedient archive of the Shadow, bound to Kaito's new domain in the Great Library. His destiny: to be the eternal reminder of his brother's victory and cruelty.
Kaito had won Etherea, but his victory was built on the grave of the last person who loved him. Volume II: The Ashen Harem concluded with Kaito at the height of his power, in complete control of Light and Shadow.