The silence pressed down like an ocean. Every step felt heavier, as if the void itself wanted to drag Kaelen into nothingness.
The first tower pulsed again, sending another wave of erasure across the tiles. Kaelen staggered, clutching the relic to his chest. For a moment, he forgot his own name. He forgot why he was there.
Then—Lyra's hand slammed against his shoulder. Her voice cut through, raw and ragged. "Don't you dare fade on me."
The relic flared, tethering him back. The flame guttered but did not die, flickering like a heartbeat. The candle-bearer looked pale, lips moving in silent prayers, their eyes wide with terror.
Kaelen gritted his teeth. "No more running. We break it."
The three of them surged forward. The tiles beneath their feet shifted, rearranging into jagged steps that spiraled toward the looming tower. The closer they came, the colder the air grew—an unnatural cold that gnawed at their bones, whispering promises of rest, of surrender, of silence.
Void tendrils lashed out from the tower, writhing like serpents. One coiled around Lyra's wrist, yanking her backward. She cried out—but the sound was stolen, vanishing into the air before it reached Kaelen's ears.
He saw her lips move: Go.
But Kaelen didn't. He thrust the relic forward, blasting a streak of flame through the tendril. It shrieked—a soundless vibration that rattled his teeth—before dissolving into ash. Lyra fell to her knees, gasping, but alive.
The tower pulsed again, harder this time. Kaelen's vision blurred, his mind flickering with images that weren't his own: battlefields he'd never walked, lives he'd never lived. The silence wasn't just erasing him anymore. It was rewriting him.
The candle-bearer staggered, clutching the flame tight. Their voice—small, but steady—cut through: "Not silence. Not yet. Burn."
The flame surged, answering.
Together, they reached the base of the tower. Up close, it wasn't stone or metal but a lattice of woven void, fragile yet unyielding, humming with alien resonance. It was alive.
Kaelen raised the relic, fire wrapping around his arm. Lyra stood at his side, blade glowing faintly with reflected flame. The bearer lifted the candle, its light shaking but unbroken.
"Now!" Kaelen roared, though no sound left his lips.
The three of them struck at once.
Fire roared up the tower's surface, slicing through its lattice. Lyra's blade carved deep into its foundations. The candle's flame struck the heart of it, piercing like a spear.
The tower screamed. This time the silence shattered, replaced by a wail that echoed across the entire board. Cracks raced up its body, light bursting from within like molten veins.
Then—with a thunderclap—the first Tower of Silence collapsed, crumbling into shards that dissolved into stardust.
The pressure lifted. Kaelen gasped, his lungs burning with air he hadn't realized he'd lost. Lyra fell back, laughing breathlessly. "One down."
But as the dust settled, the other three towers glowed brighter, their hum deepening into something darker.
The eye above the board flickered, and its voice fell like a blade:
"Sacrifice noted. The game escalates."