The tremor that ran through the Labyrinth City did not feel like something generated on the surface. It was deep, almost organic, as if something were breathing beneath our boots. The streets vibrated with small luminous cracks, and for a moment the air became heavy, dense enough to catch in the lungs. The key that had activated on its own continued to glow, emitting an irregular pulse, like a heart trying to synchronize with another far greater one.
Rai'kanna raised her wings, preparing to react to whatever came next.
"This isn't just the city moving. It's the giant trying to get out."
Liriel analyzed the blue energy leaking from the fissures in the ground. Her face was pale. "We shouldn't be feeling this force. The entire city is fighting to hold him back, but… something broke in the cycle."
Vespera took two steps back, almost stumbling. "I vote we leave. Now. Preferably before this thing decides I'm breakfast."
Elara tightened her grip on the staff, even as mana was clearly slipping away from her faster than she could control. "If we leave now, he fully awakens. The five keys were made for that. And we've already activated one."
Lyannis held my arm. "Takumi… your flame is burning stronger than before."
Yes, it was. It wasn't burning—it was pulsing. The flame inside me seemed to respond to the energy escaping from the subsoil, as if trying to reach it. As if both were part of the same origin. I felt something like a call, an echo of an ancient voice that seemed to rise from the metallic corridors beneath the city. And that frightened me more than any shadow or creature we had faced.
The ground ruptured.
A blue flash tore through the square where we stood. Buildings shifted aside, opening an enormous hole—a crater that seemed endless. Within it, a colossal mass of ancient metal, ice, and energy began to move, like a leviathan awakening from centuries of sleep. Only a fragment of its body emerged, but that alone was enough to freeze anyone's blood.
An eye.
A single gigantic eye, white and pupil-less, slowly opened at the bottom of the crater, illuminating everything around it with a ghostly light. The air grew heavy, vibrating, as if that gaze carried the weight of ages.
Vespera's eyes went wide. "I… I'm really seeing this, right? That's an eye? An eye bigger than a house?"
Liriel answered almost without a voice. "The giant's eye. He is aware of us."
Rai'kanna stepped forward, shielding Lyannis and Elara with her wings partially open. "Takumi. He's looking at you."
The flame inside me responded instantly, burning as if it wanted to burst from my chest. My breath grew short, and for a moment I felt as though I were being pulled forward—as if that eye were trying to separate me from the rest of the world.
Liriel shouted. "Takumi, don't look directly at it! He's trying to synchronize with the flame!"
I covered my eyes for a moment, but it didn't help. The connection didn't come from outside. It came from within.
Brief images, fast as lightning, surged through my mind:
The city being built.
Mages and engineers working side by side.
The giant being shaped, piece by piece.
The flame—my flame—being removed from the central core.
And then… silence.
Sleep.
Centuries of sleep.
The roar that rose from the crater shattered the vision. It was deep, metallic, as if the very ground were screaming in pain. Buildings swayed. A distant tower tilted as if it would collapse, but stabilized when the living city reacted, forcing it back into place.
Elara staggered back, nearly out of mana. "He's awakening far too fast. This should be impossible."
Vespera stepped aside, breathing quickly. "Nothing in this city follows logic. Absolutely nothing. This is the final proof."
Liriel snapped the grimoire shut. "We have to stop the synchronization! If one more key activates, he'll wake completely."
Rai'kanna looked at me urgently. "Takumi. Talk to me. What are you feeling?"
I tried to answer, but my voice came out trembling. "He… he's calling. The flame recognizes him. It's like… like I'm part of him. Like something is missing."
"You are NOT part of him," Rai'kanna said, holding my face in her hands. "You are you. Don't let him pull back what no longer belongs to him."
The flame wavered, confused. It was part of me. But also… part of him.
Suddenly, the giant's eye expanded its light. Rai'kanna pulled me back at the same instant, but a wave of blue energy burst from the crater, sweeping across the plaza like a silent sonic impact. We were thrown several meters away. Liriel dropped to her knees. Elara fell to the side, nearly unconscious. Vespera slammed onto her back but managed to roll away. Lyannis coughed, trying to get back up.
When I raised my head, a figure began to emerge from the blue light — not the giant in its entirety, but a projection of it. Like a compact version, made only of condensed energy, yet still enormous.
The projection advanced.
Rai'kanna raised her wings and created a barrier of fire. The figure struck it, pushing her backward. The fire cracked. Liriel raised a seal of light, but the projection fed on it, absorbing part of the energy. Vespera fired an arrow — and missed, hitting a stone on the other side of the plaza. But the stone fell into the crack, and the opening shrank by a few centimeters.
"Keep missing like that!" Liriel shouted.
"I'm trying!" Vespera replied.
Elara tried to conjure something, but her mana evaporated as always. "Damn it… I can't hold on much longer."
The projection raised its arm, and blue energy ran along the ground toward me. The flame inside me reacted violently, as if it wanted to merge with that light.
Lyannis ran to me and grabbed my hand with desperate strength.
"Takumi! Remember who you are! Remember what you've already done! Remember what you want to protect!"
The flame trembled — then stabilized, burning stronger.
I advanced.
The blue energy tried to pull me in, but the flame carved a path. My sword ignited as if the fire itself were alive. The projection attacked me, but Rai'kanna dove in front, deflecting part of the blow. Liriel opened a beam of light to reduce the projection's size. Vespera fired another arrow — which, by an unbelievable miracle, ricocheted off two stones and struck the projection right in the center.
"I HIT IT?!" "YES!" "THIS IS A SIGN OF THE END TIMES!"
The projection hesitated.
I struck its core.
The blue light exploded, shooting into the sky like a blinding flash. The tremor ceased — but the eye in the crater remained open, watching everything in absolute silence.
Liriel took a deep breath. "We sealed the awakening… for now. But it won't go back to sleep."
Rai'kanna grabbed my arm. "Takumi. That was only a fragment. The giant is awakening, whether we want it to or not."
I stared at the colossal eye.
And I felt it.
It knew me.
It wanted something from me.
And this time… it didn't seem like it would give up.