The tower was worse than Lee imagined.
Inside, the walls were alive pulsing with dark energy, covered in faces that moaned and wept and begged for death. The Eclipse Engine wasn't just a machine. It was a cathedral of suffering, built from the souls of the innocent.
At the top of the tower, Inyocha waited.
He sat on a throne made of shadow and bone, his red eyes glowing in the darkness. Around him, shadows danced and whispered, forming shapes that might have been people once.
"You came," Inyocha said. "I knew you would."
"I always come," Lee said. "That's what brothers do."
Inyocha laughed that broken, bitter sound. "Brothers. Such a strange word. We share blood, Lee. We share a soul. But we're not brothers. Not really. We're opposites. Two sides of the same coin. And coins can't have two sides facing up at the same time."
"Then flip the coin," Lee said. "Choose to be different. Choose to be better."
Inyocha stood. The shadows around him surged, crackling with power. "I am choosing to be better. Better than the world that threw me away. Better than the people who decided I wasn't worth keeping. Better than you, with your light and your friends and your easy hope."
"It hasn't been easy," Lee said quietly. "None of it has been easy."
"No," Inyocha agreed. "I imagine it hasn't. But you had help. You had Kira. Taro. Ren. You had people who believed in you." He spread his arms. "I had no one. No one but the shadows and the hunger and the screaming of the souls I consumed. And you know what I learned, Lee? I learned that the only person you can truly rely on is yourself. The only power that matters is the power you take. The only love that's real is the love you force."
"That's not love," Lee said. "That's control."
"Maybe." Inyocha shrugged. "But it's all I have."
He raised his hand. The Eclipse Engine roared to life a sound like a million screams compressed into a single note. The tower shuddered. The city trembled. And somewhere beneath the Lotus Archipelago, something began to wake.
"Stop this," Lee said. "Please, Inyocha. I'm begging you."
"Begging?" Inyocha's eyes narrowed. "The great Light Bringer, begging? What would your followers think?"
"I don't care what they think. I care about you. I care about saving you."
Inyocha was silent for a long moment.
Then he lowered his hand.
"You really mean that," he said. "You really believe you can save me."
"I know I can."
Inyocha laughed but this time, there was something different in the sound. Something almost like... hope.
"Then prove it," he said. "Fight me. Not to kill me to reach me. Show me that your light is stronger than my darkness. Show me that bonds matter more than power. Show me that I was wrong to give up on the world."
Lee drew Onyx Tempest. The golden light blazed from his chest, filling the tower, pushing back the shadows.
"Okay," he said. "I'll show you."
And the battle began.