The spire towered behind them as a gash in reality.
Kai and Venri rushed through the broken canyon, fleeing the corrupted core. The farther they moved from the spire, the easier it was to breathe. The air around it had been heavy with raw hate, as if the world had developed teeth.
The dragons within Kai shifted uncomfortably. The newest—still not named—said nothing, but its presence vibrated in the back of his mind like a tuning fork. It was different from the others. The dragon of resonance wasn't a battle beast, but a listener. A watcher.
Venri at last spoke into the silence. "This is a game changer. If whatever that thing was can taint a stone, then none of the sanctums are secure."
"They're not," Kai assented. "And worse, I believe it's fueling on emotion."
Venri's brow furrowed. "Emotion?"
Kai nodded. "It wasn't pure shadow. I could sense it. Fury. Grief. Remorse. It was as if the power of the dungeon was compounded with the soul of someone."
A shadow drifted over them, and both of them stopped. For an instant, it was like a dragon—but it wasn't. It was empty. A form composed of shadow and shattered memories. It didn't descend. It just stood, then disappeared into the clouds.
"They're moving quickly," Venri whispered.
They came to a ridge that looked out over the valley. From this point, they could see it—barely—standing up from the earth like a twisted tower of bone and obsidian. Vines of throbbing violet crawled along its length. And at its foot, the entrance to the dungeon had altered. No longer a plain gate, now it looked like a mouth filled with jagged teeth.
A shrine defiled.
Venri faced him. "What do we do?"
Kai hesitated. The Sentinel markings on his back pulsed with a brighter light once more. The resonance dragon vibrated louder.
".We go in," he said. "If we don't cut this corruption out at the source, it'll infect everything."
Venri swallowed. "There's no way to know what's inside. That thing. it left something."
Kai looked down at his hand, the flames of one dragon writhing around his wrist. "Then we burn it."
They descended.
Within the Spire
Stepping across the threshold was as if entering a tomb.
Within, the dungeon was unfamiliar. The fog lay heavy, not of water—but thought. Shreds of half-heard whispers, shrieks, wails, and laughter drifted faintly along the stone.
The walls seeped with symbols graven in no tongue they could recognize. Some throbbed with rubic light. Others dripped with darkness.
At the center of the first chamber, a massive heart pulsed—twisted and bound in chains. The corruption beat from it like a war drum.
Kai stepped forward, sword drawn, flame burning along its edge.
Then he heard it. A whisper.
"You failed him."
Kai stopped cold. The voice was Aren's.
He turned—but Aren wasn't there. Only darkness.
Then another voice, from deeper inside.
"You couldn't save her. You'll never be strong enough."
Venri gasped and fell to one knee. "It's… it's in our minds."
Kai gritted his teeth. "It's feeding on our guilt."
A monster emerged from the far wall—not walked, but peeled itself from the stone. Its form was undefined, constantly shifting, taking pieces of memory and giving them flesh. One moment it wore Aren's face. The next, Kai's father. Then Venri's mother.
Venri screamed.
Kai lunged.
His flame blade clashed against a tendril of corrupted light. The monster hissed—an unearthly sound—but didn't fall. Instead, it split into three more.
For every fear, it made a body.
Kai's dragons roared inside. Fire, sky, storm. But it was the resonance dragon that responded first—pulsing sharply, cutting through the noise.
Kai paused. His thoughts cleared—slightly. The resonance was disrupting the whispers.
"They can't survive clarity!" he shouted. "Venri—focus on something real!"
She curled her fist, reciting a memory—her sister's name, the day they fled the burning city. It worked. The illusion cracked.
Kai attacked again. This time, he directed not only flame—but sound. The resonance dragon vibrated through his swing, breaking the corrupted illusion. The creature howled and writhed in agony, its form disintegrating into dark mist.
They stood in silence, chests pumping. The heart at the center still beat—but slower now.
"Just one more push," Venri said, sweat and blood running from her chin. "We destroy the root."
Kai advanced. The Wyrm-Sigil burned. The other dragons added their resonance one—flame, storm, wing, and echo.
Together, he released them.
The cavern was fire and rage.
Aftermath
When the light dissipated, the heart was missing.
The walls cracked and shattered, the tainted dungeon imploding inward. The mouth shut. The spire shattered, dissolving like smoke on wind.
Kai and Venri rested outside the devastation, gazing up at the stars.
One by one, the stars flickered back to view.
But not all.
Kai breathed out deliberately. "One spire down. Dozens more to go."
Venri glanced at him. "And the one who put them there?"
Kai scanned his eyes. "We locate him. And we halt the flood."
Deep in the galaxy, far away, something new started to grow - a spire.
And the Eater of Harmony smiled.