Fire.
It consumed the sky like a living creature, clawing down in searing torrents of light. The Hollow Flame laughed—not with madness, but with certainty, as if this moment had been carved into fate long before Amina ever drew her first breath.
"Run if you like," the thing in Kai's body said. "You'll only delay the inevitable."
But Amina didn't run to escape. She ran toward the fire, into the storm of ash and unraveling prophecy, with Valec at her side. Her Flame roared within, sensing the betrayal of its corrupted counterpart—the Hollow Flame was a cancer, a bastardization of what the Flame was meant to be.
Behind them, the earth cracked wider. Great fissures split the land like a shattered mirror. From those cracks, something darker than shadow crawled upward—slithering remnants of the Old Fire, the forgotten flame-dwellers who once served only ruin.
"We can't face him like this," Valec growled, blocking a stream of fire with a shield of condensed ash and memory. "He's not Kai anymore. That thing inside him—it's worse than I thought."
Amina's hands burned as she conjured a spiraling ward of blue fire, intercepting another strike meant to split the hill beneath them. "We're not here to fight him," she panted. "We're here to get him back."
A tremor ran through the mountains. From far off, Ashar's power cracked the horizon like lightning—he was still fighting, still holding back the awakening of the Void-Well. Lumeah's wards pulsed at the sky's edges, flickering like dying stars. They were all near collapse.
They had minutes. Maybe less.
"I saw something," Valec said as they ducked beneath a collapsed archway, molten stone dripping above. "In the vision Herakar gave me. There's a way to separate them. But only at the center of the Hollow Flame."
Amina turned sharply. "You mean go inside him?"
Valec nodded grimly. "Into the flame. Where it all started."
A flash of memory surged through Amina: Amariel in a temple of glass and fire, tearing her soul in two to bind the Hollow Flame for the first time. That choice had broken her… but it had also saved the world.
Amina stepped out into the open again as the Hollow Flame descended like a falling god. Kai's form hovered above the scorched plain, wings of molten fury spreading wide.
"I offered you peace. A way out. You chose suffering."
The Hollow Flame raised a hand. The fire surged—and struck.
Valec lunged forward, arms crossed, catching the brunt of it. His scream was short but raw—real. The shield of ash shattered.
Amina's Flame exploded in response, a brilliant bloom of sapphire fire erupting around them, pushing the Hollow Flame back momentarily.
"You're not Kai," she said, stepping forward alone now, her silhouette wreathed in blue flame. "You're a parasite. And I'm the cure."
For a split second, something flickered in the Hollow Flame's eyes—regret? Recognition?
Then it screamed, and the world twisted.
Reality warped as they were pulled upward, inward, into the Hollow Flame itself. Time lost meaning. Amina felt herself unraveling, scattered across a thousand memories that weren't hers.
Valec's voice reached her through the chaos. "Amina! Remember who you are!"
She reached for the sound—anchored by it—and the world snapped back into place.
They stood not on earth, but inside a realm of fire and thought.
The Core.
At the center was Kai, suspended in flame like a marionette, threads of molten energy wrapped around him. His eyes were closed, face contorted in agony.
The Hollow Flame coiled around him like a serpent made of emotion and vengeance.
"You can't save him. You're too late."
Amina stepped forward, her voice steady. "I am the Flame. And I'm not afraid of you."
Valec stood at her side again, blood on his arms, face lit by the shifting glow. "Let's tear him out."
They raised their hands together. Her blue Flame met his grey shadow-fire, swirling in tandem.
They cast it forward.
The Hollow Flame shrieked as the combined force ripped through the bindings, searing the corruption with purifying fire.
Kai gasped—his eyes opened, golden and confused.
"Amina…?"
She reached for him, heart hammering. "Come back."
But the Hollow Flame wasn't done.
It surged, pulling inward to collapse the core—and Kai with it.
"No!" Amina shouted, lunging.
Valec grabbed her hand. "Don't you dare let go."
They reached for Kai—
And everything exploded in light.