The figure stepped through the golden rift, starlight pooling at its feet like liquid sovereignty. Its face was Alex's—but sharper, unmarred, eyes burning with the First Flame's unyielding arrogance. The temple's surviving priestesses dropped to their knees, but Lira stood rigid, daggers drawn.
"You," she spat.
The heir ignored her, gaze locked on Alex. "Broken thing," it said, voice harmonizing with the crackle of distant supernovas. "You've done well to survive this long. But your fire gutters."
Alex's gauntlet sparked weakly, corruption clawing at his throat. "What do you want?"
The heir smiled. "To fix my predecessor's… oversight."
In the temple's scorched sanctum, the heir paced, trailing constellations in its wake. "The First Flame sought to perfect entropy. The Devourer was its first vessel—a miscalculation. You, Alex, are its last."
Lira bristled. "He's not a vessel."
"Isn't he?" The heir flicked a hand. Golden light lashed Alex's gauntlet, peeling back the rot to reveal raw, weeping flesh beneath. "The corruption festers because your mortal shell cannot contain both flame and void. But I can purge it."
Alex gritted his teeth. "In exchange for what?"
"Allegiance." The heir's eyes hardened. "Help me destroy the Devourer, and I will unshackle you. Refuse…" The light tightened, crushing his gauntlet. "You'll burn out before dawn."
"Don't trust it," Lira hissed, cornering Alex in the archives. She unrolled a brittle scroll—a ritual sketch of a blade plunged into a star. "Mara's notes. There's another way. This dagger—the Eclipse Shard—can sever your bond to the scar. But we need to reach the First Sanctum's core."
Alex traced the diagram. "And if it kills me?"
"Then you die clean." Her grip tightened. "Better than becoming that thing's puppet."
Outside, the temple bells screamed.
The Devourer's answer came at twilight.
Rift-walkers clawed from the earth, their armor dripping void tar. Among them lumbered a new horror—a titan with a hundred screaming mouths, each spewing acid that melted stone. The heir watched from the temple steps, unimpressed.
"A test," it said. "Prove your worth, Alex."
Lira lunged into the fray, daggers deflecting acid. "We don't have time for this!"
Alex charged, gauntlet roaring to life. Gold and violet clashed, each strike splintering rift-walkers but deepening the rot's hold. The titan swiped, its talons shearing his shoulder.
Let me in, the scar crooned. Or she dies.
Lira's scream cut through the haze—a rift-walker had her pinned, acid dripping toward her face.
Alex broke.
Power, sweet and annihilating, flooded him.
Violet flames devoured the titan, the rift-walkers, the very air. Lira scrambled back as Alex's laughter echoed—a duet of his voice and the scar's. The heir watched, rapt.
"Magnificent," it breathed.
Alex turned on it, voidfire coiling. "Your turn."
The heir snapped its fingers. Golden chains erupted, binding Alex's limbs. "Enough theatrics." It yanked him close. "You want to save her ? Submit."
They descended into the First Sanctum's heart, a cavern where the walls bled liquid starlight. The heir thrust Alex forward. "The Eclipse Shard lies there." It pointed to an altar where a dagger of fractured light hovered. "Use it, and your bond breaks. But the shock will kill you." Its gaze flicked to Lira. "Unless I intervene."
Lira stepped between them. "We don't need you."
"No?" The heir smirked. "You've minutes before the corruption claims him. The Shard's touch is agony. Who will he choose—your hope, or my certainty?"
Alex stared at the dagger. His reflection split—the man, the monster, the heir.
"Decide," the scar hissed.
Alex grabbed the Shard.
Pain.
It unraveled him—memories, muscles, self. Lira's voice cut through the void. "Fight!"
The heir sighed. "Stubborn." It pressed a hand to Alex's chest. Golden light clashed with violet, a supernova in the cavern.
When the light faded, Alex lay whole, the scar a pale thread on his collarbone. The Eclipse Shard lay shattered.
Lira cradled his head. "What did you do?"
The heir flexed its hand, now veined with black. "Shifted the corruption. A temporary fix." It loomed over Alex. "The Devourer's heart lies in the Dead Plains. You will help me carve it out. Or next time, I let you burn."
At dawn, the heir departed, its golden rift sealing behind it.
Alex flexed his gauntlet—clean sunsteel, no flame. "It's gone."
"Not gone," Lira said quietly. She lifted his shirt. The scar pulsed on his chest, grafted to a web of golden veins. "You're bound to it now. To
him."
In the Dead Plains, the void shards stirred. The heir's voice whispered through Alex's mind: Soon.