The cavern was collapsing. Shards of glowing stone rained down, rivers of molten light spilling between cracks as the final chain pulsed like a heartbeat ready to burst.
The serpent coiled protectively around Kaelen and Lyra, blood-dark shadow dripping from its wounds. Its golden eyes burned with fury. "END IT, FIRE-BEARER! BEFORE ALL IS LOST!"
But the herald pressed forward, void-blade raised, his voice ragged with anguish. "You don't understand! If you destroy the chain, it rises free. If you protect it, we burn as its fuel. There is no victory!"
Lyra swung her molten sword, cleaving a path through traitors surging toward them. "Then we make a new path! Kaelen, think!"
Kaelen's mind raced, fire roaring in his veins, but every possibility ended in destruction. He could break the chain and risk unleashing the infinite. Or he could leave it intact—and feed it every life in this cavern, including Lyra's.
The voice of the chained presence purred, soft as silk:
"You already know your destiny, Kaelen. You were born flame. Flames consume. Flames liberate. Be what you are."
Kaelen staggered, clutching his chest. For an instant, he saw himself—not as a warrior, but as a spark in the vast dark, insignificant, fragile, and yet… capable of ignition.
He looked at Lyra. At the serpent. At the herald, broken but still fighting. Then something clicked.
"What if…" Kaelen whispered, "the chain isn't the prison. What if I am?"
Before Lyra could stop him, Kaelen lifted his hand and thrust his fire directly into the last chain—not to shatter it, not to feed it, but to merge with it. His body erupted in light, fire spilling from every pore, his very essence threading into the fissures like molten veins.
The cavern screamed. The herald recoiled. The serpent roared. Lyra screamed his name.
Kaelen felt his soul stretch thin, threading through the links of eternity itself. The chain trembled—but instead of breaking, it began to change, reforging with fire, reshaping under his will.
He was no longer just Kaelen. He was flame woven into infinity.
The chained voice shrieked, a howl that shook galaxies.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"
And Kaelen answered, his voice both human and more-than-human:
"I made a choice. My choice."
The last chain blazed white-gold, reforged, burning with a fire that no darkness could drink. For the first time, the presence faltered.
But Kaelen's body… was gone.