The sphere exploded.
Not outward inward, collapsing into itself like a dying star, then expanding again in a wave of pure darkness that swept through the chamber. Lee threw himself in front of his friends, Onyx Tempest raised, the golden light in his chest blazing to life.
The darkness hit him like a physical force.
He felt it trying to get inside trying to find cracks in his soul, weaknesses in his heart, places where the light didn't reach. But the light was everywhere. The light filled him completely, pushing back the darkness, holding it at bay.
You're stronger than I thought, Onyx Tempest said. The light in you... it's not just power. It's conviction. Belief. Hope.
"It's love," Lee said. "It's always been love. I just didn't know it."
The darkness receded. The chamber stabilized. And at its center, where the sphere had been, stood a figure.
It was human shaped, but wrong. Too tall. Too thin. Its skin was the color of twilight, and its eyes were galaxies spinning, burning, full of stars that had died billions of years ago.
"Hello, children," the figure said. Its voice was soft. Gentle. Almost kind. "Thank you for waking me. I was so tired of dreaming."
"You're the Sleeper," Lee said.
"I am many things. The Sleeper. The Devourer. The End of All Things." The figure smiled. "But you may call me... Amaranth. It was the name my mother gave me, before I became what I am now."
"You have a mother?" Kira asked, surprised.
"Everyone has a mother, little one. Even monsters." Amaranth's smile faded. "Especially monsters."
"What do you want?" Lee demanded. "Why are you here?"
Amaranth tilted its head. The galaxies in its eyes spun faster. "I want what everyone wants. To live. To love. To be remembered." It paused. "But I am what I am. I cannot live without consuming. I cannot love without destroying. I cannot be remembered without being feared. That is my curse. That is my nature."
"Then change," Lee said. "Be different."
Amaranth laughed. It was a beautiful sound like wind chimes, like rain on glass, like a mother singing to her child. "You think I haven't tried? You think I haven't spent millennia fighting against what I am?" It shook its head. "I am beyond change, child. I am beyond hope. I am beyond redemption. All that's left for me is hunger."
"Then we'll have to stop you," Ren said quietly.
"Stop me?" Amaranth looked at him. "You cannot stop me. You can barely slow me down. The only thing that kept me asleep for three hundred years was the seal and the seal is broken now. The world above will fall. The souls of the living will feed me. And I will grow strong enough to consume everything."
"Not if we have anything to say about it," Lee said.
Amaranth looked at him. Really looked. The galaxies in its eyes focused, sharpened, and for a moment, Lee felt like he was being examined down to his very atoms.
"Ah," Amaranth said softly. "I see. You're the one. The Light Bringer. The Child of the Shattering. The one who carries the hope of a dying world." Its smile returned but softer this time. Almost sad. "You're going to try to save me, aren't you? Not destroy me. Not seal me away. Save me."
"Yes," Lee said.
Amaranth was silent for a long moment.
Then it laughed again but this time, the laugh was different. There was something like respect in it. Something like wonder.
"You really believe it," Amaranth said. "You really believe you can save everyone. Even me. Even a monster like me."
"I believe that everyone deserves a chance," Lee said. "Everyone deserves to be saved. Even if they don't want to be."
Amaranth studied him for another long moment. Then it nodded, slowly.
"Very well," it said. "I will give you a chance. Not because I think you can succeed I don't. But because no one has ever tried to save me before. No one has ever looked at me and seen anything worth saving." It spread its arms. "Prove me wrong, Light Bringer. Show me that I'm more than my hunger. Show me that there's hope for even the darkest of souls."
"How?" Lee asked.
Amaranth pointed at the walls of the chamber at the million screaming faces, at the trapped souls that had been feeding its hunger for centuries.
"Free them," it said. "Every soul in this city. Every ghost. Every forgotten dream. Free them all, and I will believe that you can save me."
"And if I do?"
Amaranth smiled. "Then I will let you try."
Lee looked at his friends. At Kira, who was nodding. At Taro, who was trembling but determined. At Ren, whose calm had never wavered.
"Okay," Lee said. "We'll do it."
He raised Onyx Tempest. The golden light in his chest blazed to life brighter than ever before, brighter than the sun, brighter than anything Lee had ever felt.
And he began to free the souls of the Sunken City.