Far away in the shimmering tension of the divine verse, Vesperia leaned forward. Her golden eyes were no longer reflecting the ruins. They were focused on the unseen threads of the world.
"I have located two of the three Trinity Eyes, Lord Krosis," Vesperia whispered. Her voice echoed like silver coins hitting marble. "Vesperos holds the first. The second is in Halokein. It is a place sealed off from everyone and everything. A realm I do not think we can enter. The only people who entered that place and sealed it off were Leona and Kalamity."
Krosis did not blink. "And the anicent eyes?"
"I have also located four ancient eyes," she continued. "A boy named Hykee carries one. He has sewed it into his very flesh. He is a walking vault of our history."
"Then the count is nearly complete," Krosis rumbled. His voice shook the pillars of the Verse.
"If you know where six eyes are located, then you can leave now. You can find the last eye on your way. Go to the Onyx District. Accompany Vesperos. Bring the Warden back from the dark."
Vesperia bowed, her form dissolving into a shower of golden sparks.
"As you command, Lord Krosis."
Back on Earth, the Jaeren ruins were a graveyard of pulverized stone. The air was a thick. Every breath felt heavy.
Leiya pulled herself from the dirt. Her nose was still leaking a slow, dark crimson. She did not look at Jaeger. She did not look at the massive, singular crater where a piece of the world had simply been deleted. She looked at Kota.
"Kota, please," Leiya whispered, her voice cracking. She reached out, but her hand stopped. The air around him was still vibrating with a low, subsonic hum.
"Talk to me. You are scaring everyone."
Kota's head tilted. The jagged lead in his eyes had receded, but they remained hollow. He looked at Leiya, then at the trembling Thorne and Mira.
"Why are you guys scared? I am fine," Kota said. The lie was as thin as the air. He turned his gaze toward Jaeger, who was still kneeling in the dust, staring at the crater.
Kota walked over to the Whiteflame survivor.
He reached out and offered the sigil cloth. Jaeger looked up, his bloodshot eyes widening in surprise as he took the tattered crest of his family.
"You can join us," Kota said. His voice was toneless but firm. "We have the same enemies. A Whiteflame who knows how to walk in the dark is more useful to me alive than dead."
Leiya stepped forward, her face pale. "Kota, you cannot be serious. He just tried to kill you... and after what happened just now, we need to be careful."
"He stays, Leiya," Kota replied, not looking back.
Jaeger gripped the sigil tight. He stood up, his legs shaking. He looked at the wasteland that used to be his life.
"I'll tell you how one single man ruined my whole clan and turned this estate into ruins," Jaeger said, his voice a raspy ghost. "I will tell you how it ended. I will tell you how my world was burned to the ground."
As Jaeger began his tale, the resonance of the sigil flared one last time. The gray ash of the ruins started to glow with a phantom heat.