Chapter 17: The Forgotten Flame
At the edge of creation, where even Kael's light could not reach, something moved.
The void stirred, slow and deliberate. From that emptiness, a spark emerged small, weak, but burning with impossible defiance. It flickered with golden fire, the last remnant of Zeirath's divine core.
But it was not Zeirath anymore.
The spark had absorbed fragments of Kael's own essence when the Pantheon fell. What remained had become… something new. A paradox of divine order and shadow's hunger.
The flame whispered to itself, its voice scattered through the void.
"He rebuilt the cosmos. He believes it whole. Yet all that is built must burn."
And then, the spark split into two one flame of radiant gold, one ember of pure black. Together, they began to spin, forming a vortex that twisted through space and time.
From it was born Erethis, the Paradox Entity a being of pure contradiction, born from the collision of Kael's balance and the last breath of eternity.
Erethis opened eyes that saw through time itself.
"I am the aftermath," it whispered. "And I will show the Warden that even balance decays."
Meanwhile, in Obsidian Reach, Kael felt it. A ripple in the harmony he had forged. The Monoliths across his empire flickered in unison, their shadowlight dimming as if the universe itself had shivered.
Lyssara entered the throne hall, her expression grim. "Something is wrong, my lord. The stars they're… splitting."
Kael rose from his seat. The air around him vibrated with controlled power. "Show me."
They stepped onto the outer terrace, where the night sky shimmered with unnatural distortion. Stars began drifting, forming two distinct patterns: one of light, one of darkness. The perfect balance he'd built was fracturing.
Draven arrived moments later, his eyes wide. "We traced the source it's not from within the realms. It's coming from outside creation."
Kael looked beyond the stars. His heart was calm, but his aura trembled with something deeper recognition.
"I know that energy."
He closed his eyes. Within him, the shadow and the light pulsed together, uneasy for the first time since his ascension.
The balance has been touched.
A faint whisper echoed through the cosmos neither divine nor mortal, yet echoing his own voice twisted backward in time.
> "You cannot hold both forever, Kael."
The sky cracked. Light and shadow separated, forming a storm that bent reality.
Kael spread his hands. "Then I'll forge a new harmony. Again."
But even as he spoke, something vast and cold opened its eyes in the void Erethis, the paradox given form.
And for the first time in eternity, Kael Veyra the Eclipse Warden felt something he had not known since his mortal days.
A challenge.