***
I stepped into the fire with my blade drawn, every cell in my body burning—not from fear, but from resolve.
The moment I crossed the monastery threshold, the heat of the Shadow King's arrival scorched the air. The skies above the temple swirled with blood-red clouds. Lightning cracked sideways across the stars. The earth itself trembled under the weight of him—my fractured self.
He stood in the center of the ancient stone courtyard, surrounded by abominations. His crown, forged of bone and flame, shimmered like a brand seared into the sky. His cape billowed in the storm, and his eyes—my eyes—burned gold with something far older than rage.
"Finally," he said. "The lesser half emerges."
"I'm not your half," I growled. "I'm your whole. The part of us that didn't give in."
He chuckled, stepping forward. "Still clinging to your humanity. Still trying to love what you should rule."
Behind him, smoke-dragons hissed and curled around the stone pillars. Rune-branded soldiers in iron masks flanked him, eyes hollow. They weren't alive. They were puppets, tethered to his magic and will.
"You brought monsters," I said.
He smiled, showing teeth. "I brought truth."
***
Then everything happened at once.
Kael burst from the temple steps, his body blazing with sacred runes. Kray followed, firing enchanted rounds from twin pistols. And Seraphine… Seraphine was already in motion, launching herself off the wall like a goddess of vengeance.
The courtyard erupted into chaos.
Fire clashed with magic. Steel clanged against bone. Screams tore the sky open. Kael summoned a wall of flame that consumed half the smoke-beasts. Kray moved like a rogue, dodging and weaving, taking out masked soldiers with brutal shots between the eyes.
I kept my focus on him.
The Shadow King.
Me, but not me.
We circled each other as the world burned around us.
"Still think you can fight what's in your blood?" he asked, twirling his obsidian blade.
"I don't need to fight it," I said. "I just need to choose who I am."
And then I charged.
***
We clashed like titans.
Steel screamed. Magic exploded. Every time our blades met, the air rippled, warping reality itself. He was fast, strong, trained in every cruel art I hadn't yet learned. But I had something he didn't—humanity.
I feinted, twisted under his strike, and landed a blow across his ribs. He staggered, eyes narrowing.
"Emotion," he hissed. "It makes you weak."
"No," I said, my blade glowing with the memory of Seraphine's touch, of Kael's guidance, of Kray's loyalty. "It makes me real."
He screamed and launched a firestorm so massive it split the courtyard in two. I braced, shielding my face, stumbling back toward the stairs.
He came at me like a god.
But Seraphine was there.
She leapt between us, her twin daggers dancing with divine light. She slashed at him, drawing blood—my blood—before spinning back beside me.
"I thought we agreed," she panted. "No saving each other."
I smirked. "Just evening the odds."
But something was wrong.
The rune on my wrist pulsed violently, out of rhythm. My vision blurred. My knees buckled.
Seraphine caught me. "Desmond?"
I fell to the ground, gasping.
He laughed.
"She marked you," he said.
Seraphine turned to him. "What are you talking about?"
"She," he repeated, eyes gleaming. "The one from the Market. Lilika."
A sick twist turned my stomach. "What did she do?"
"She didn't sample your blood," he said, crouching near me now, like a predator watching a dying twin. "She took something from you. Bound you to her spell. Your power will keep rising... until it burns you from the inside out."
"No," Seraphine whispered, shaking her head. "She said—"
"She lied," he said. "Because she's working for me."
***
The ground split.
A fissure opened under me, and I was falling—into black, into flame, into something far worse.
Seraphine screamed my name.
But I was gone.
***
I landed hard.
Stone beneath me. No sky. No stars. Just red mist, choking heat, and whispering shadows.
I pushed myself up, body aching, blood burning. My rune flared again, now searing across my forearm, crawling up to my neck like a living thing.
A voice echoed.
"You shouldn't have resisted, Desmond."
I turned.
Lilika stood there—lips red, eyes black, skin glowing like moonlit temptation.
"You set me up," I said.
She smiled. "You set yourself up. I just showed you how easy it was to take what you thought was yours."
"You cursed me."
"I gave you power. Raw. Untamed. The real crown doesn't belong to a soul that begs for mercy."
She stepped closer, and despite everything—betrayal, pain, fury—I felt the pull again. Her aura was heavy with lust, her presence intoxicating.
"You still want me," she whispered, pressing a hand to my chest. "Even now."
Her lips brushed mine, soft, slow, teasing.
And for one breathless moment—I gave in.
I kissed her back.
But it wasn't like before.
It wasn't surrender.
It was the trap.
I bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.
She yelped and shoved me away.
"You fool—!"
I summoned the blade.
The real one.
Forged in memory. In pain. In love.
The fire in my blood didn't burn me this time.
It burned for me.
I lunged, slashing through the illusion. Her body burst into shadow, dissipating with a shriek.
And the world shifted again.
***
I woke on my knees, back in the courtyard. Time had passed, but not much. Seraphine was still fighting—bleeding, staggering—but alive.
Kray was down, wounded but breathing. Kael was chanting from the altar steps, casting a spell that looked like pure starlight.
The Shadow King stood above them all.
Waiting.
I rose.
He turned. "You came back."
"I never left," I said, fire coiling in my veins.
I threw my blade into the air.
It shattered into hundreds of glowing shards.
Each one hovered around me, orbiting like a constellation of death.
The rune on my arm exploded, revealing a second set of marks—ones even Kael hadn't seen.
This was the third seal.
The moment of ascension.
The crowd fell silent.
And I walked forward—not to fight him…
But to absorb him.
"You're not my end," I said. "You're my beginning."
The shards spun faster, forming a circle of runes around us both.
He tried to strike—but the light bound his arms.
He tried to speak—but my voice rose above him.
"I accept my fate."
And with that—I walked into him.
Literally.
The collision was unbearable. Fire. Ice. Pain. Lust. Hate. All our memories merged. All our emotions clashed. He screamed, I screamed—but in the end—
I won.
***
When the light faded, I stood alone.
The monsters were gone. The skies cleared. The temple stood tall.
Seraphine limped toward me.
"You did it," she whispered, eyes wide. "You… killed him?"
"No," I said softly. "I became him. The version that still chooses right."
She reached out, brushing her fingers over my chest, then kissed me slow—full of awe and fear and love.
"You're different," she murmured.
"I'm whole," I replied. "And the war's just beginning."
Because deep in the ashes, something stirred.
And far away, in the oldest part of the realm, another heir opened his eyes.