POV: Ariya 🔥🐉🧠
The air thickened as they stepped into the molten core of Ashfall.
It wasn't just heat — though sweat clung to every inch of Ariya's skin — it was pressure. Like the mountain itself was watching. Waiting.
The path ended at a vast obsidian platform suspended above rivers of lava. In the center stood a gate carved from ancient bone and ember-stone, guarded by a towering creature curled in silence.
It looked like a dragon… but it had no face.
Just a mouth.
A flame-fanged, endless mouth.
"That's not natural," Jax muttered, eyes wide. "That thing's made of nightmares and spicy doom."
"It's not just a creature," Lyra whispered. "It's a memory keeper."
Ariya could feel it. The blade in her hand pulsed.
"This is the final lock," she said. "The one Velkar sealed."
"How do we fight it?" Kael asked, stepping beside her.
Before she could answer, the creature stirred.
It uncurled, lava dripping from its limbs, its body made of flame, bone, and thought.
"Only those who burn without losing themselves may pass," it rumbled.
Ariya stepped forward. "Then test us."
It roared — not a sound, but a wave of emotion.
Suddenly, Ariya was alone.
Not on the obsidian.
But in the ruins of her childhood home — burning.
The smoke choked her lungs.
She heard her mother's scream.
Saw her younger self frozen in fear.
The sword was gone.
She was just Ariya. Small. Scared.
"Why didn't you save them?" a voice echoed.
She turned.
Kael stood in the flames, but it wasn't really him.
"You could have saved them. But you ran."
"It wasn't my fault—"
"You have the power. And still, people die."
The vision snapped.
She gasped — and fell back into reality, crumpling to her knees.
Across the platform, the others were struggling too.
Kael clenched his head, whispering names. Lyra had dropped her knives, face pale. Jax… was laughing, but the kind that breaks from panic.
"It's showing us our worst selves," Ariya gasped. "Trying to make us believe it."
The dragon roared again — louder. The obsidian cracked.
Ariya staggered up.
"ENOUGH!"
She raised her blade — and it blazed.
Not just with fire — but with light.
The mark on her arm glowed. The runes in the stone pulsed.
"We are not our pain," she shouted. "We are more."
Kael opened his eyes.
Stood beside her.
"We are together."
Lyra and Jax followed — shaky but steady.
All four stepped forward.
The dragon lunged.
And the blade — Ariya's blade — struck.
Not with force.
But truth.
The creature exploded into fire and wind, disintegrating into embers that spiraled around them.
The gate slowly opened.
Ariya breathed heavily.
Kael put a hand on her shoulder.
"You beat it," he said.
"We did," she replied.
Jax sniffed. "I demand a less emotional dragon next time."
Lyra rolled her eyes. "You almost cried."
"That was lava in my eyes."
"Sure."
They stepped through the gate together.
What lay beyond was not fire… but silence.
The eye of the mountain.
And possibly… the end of their path.
Far behind, unseen in the smoke, a pair of violet eyes watched them.
"So," murmured Ruvan, from the shadow portal, "she passed the trial."
He smiled, cold and knowing.
"Let's see how she handles what comes next."