The first tower's ruin still glimmered like broken stars on the tiles when the other three awakened.
Their hum deepened into a roar, so low it shook the marrow of Kaelen's bones. Each tower flared with a different hue—one a blinding white, one a suffocating black, and the last a crimson so sharp it felt like staring into an open wound.
The silence was gone, but in its place came something worse.
The white tower pulsed first, unleashing a blinding light. Kaelen cried out, shielding his eyes, but the light wasn't just sight—it seared his thoughts, overwriting every memory with blankness. Faces blurred. Names slipped like water. He clung to Lyra's silhouette only by force of will.
The black tower pulsed next. The tiles beneath their feet dissolved into shadow, swallowing solidity itself. Lyra nearly vanished into the abyss before Kaelen grabbed her hand, pulling her back onto what little ground remained. The void gnawed at their heels, eager to consume.
The crimson tower pulsed last. A wave of heat rolled across the arena—not warmth, but rage. It forced itself into their blood, twisting emotion into fury. Kaelen's chest burned with sudden hatred, a desire to strike even Lyra standing beside him. He staggered back, trembling, clutching his head.
The eye above whispered, delighted.
"Silence was mercy. This is truth. Light devours thought. Shadow devours matter. Rage devours will. Which flame can survive when nothing of the self remains?"
The candle-bearer screamed—not in fear, but in defiance. Their small frame shook as the candle's flame roared higher, answering the challenge. It split into three strands, one for each tower, pushing back the waves of light, shadow, and rage.
Kaelen steadied himself, the relic thrumming in his grip. He could feel the towers' rhythm now, their sequence, the pattern of their attack. They weren't mindless—they were playing.
"They're not just towers," he rasped. "They're players. Each one a piece of the board."
Lyra's eyes blazed, lips curling into a feral grin. "Then let's take the pieces off."
The candle-bearer staggered, sweat dripping down their brow, the flame trembling under the strain. "Not… much longer. Choose fast."
Kaelen's gaze swept the battlefield. The white tower would erase them. The black would swallow them. The crimson would tear them apart from within.
They could only strike one next.
He raised the relic, fire coiling like a serpent around his arm. His voice was steady, cutting through the chaos.
"We take the heart of the board."