The sealed passage beneath the Warden's remains groaned open at dawn, revealing a spiral stairway. Kael stood at the edge, the fire blade strapped across his back, Oma resting weakly behind him, and Lyra silent at his side.
"This path… it's pulling me," Kael said, staring into the dark.
Eren stepped forward. "We'll follow. No more surprises."
Lyra didn't respond. Her hand was inside her cloak, clutching something she'd taken from Oma's pouch last night: a sliver of crystal marked with the symbol of the Black Flame King.
Kael looked at her. "You good?"
Lyra forced a smile. "Yeah. Let's move."
As they descended, torches flickered to life along the walls, it not by flame, but by memory.
Flashes of the past surged around them visions etched into the walls: a boy with Kael's eyes standing before the Black Flame King… an army of fire-kissed warriors… a betrayal by one cloaked in white.
Kael paused, shaken. "Why do I know these faces?"
"They're echoes," Oma said softly. "Pieces of what you were… or could be."
Lyra narrowed her eyes. Or what you were made to make him.
They reached the first chamber, The Flame Mirror Hall.
Dozens of mirror like panels reflected not their bodies, but their souls. Kael's mirror shimmered gold and black, half righteous, half wrath.
Eren's glowed with loyalty.
Lyra's? Flickered between steel… and sorrow.
And Oma's?
Nothing. Her reflection did not appear.
"I—I don't understand," she stammered.
Kael turned to her. "Why didn't you glow up?"
Oma shook her head. "Maybe it's broken. I don't know."
Lyra whispered, "Or maybe you're not real enough to be seen."
"Enough both of you! " Eren ordered angrily. "let's keep moving".
Later that night, as they rested near the ancient fountain of embers, Lyra slipped away. She returned to the earlier vision etched wall, placing the crystal from Oma's pouch against it.
The wall reacted.
A hidden glyph flared to life, revealing a forgotten file carved in glowing runes:
"Subject: O.M.A.
Objective: Obedience. Manipulation. Attachment.
Purpose: Bind the Heir emotionally. Guide him to resurrection.
Fail-safe: If Subject develops independence… terminate."
Lyra's eyes widened.
She touched her sword's hilt.
Back at camp, Kael sat beside Oma. She looked tired… real. Human, even.
"I don't know who I was made to be," she murmured, "but I know where I choose to be now. With you."
Kael hesitated… then gently held her hand.
Behind them, Lyra returned to camp, eyes burning with both confirmation and conflict.
....
....
The air inside Ashveil's lower sanctum was thick with smoke and secrets. Kael, Lyra, Oma, and Eren had made camp beside a flickering lava stream, the ground humming with magic.
But something had shifted.
Kael felt it first. A weight in the air. A wrongness.
Then came the voice- cold, and familiar.
"You shouldn't have come this far."
Eren stepped into the firelight.
But something was off. His gaze was distant, his movements sharper—like a man no longer walking on his own will.
Kael stood. "Eren? What—"
Eren raised his blade.
"Forgive me."
He lunged.
---
The fight was brutal. Eren's strikes were precise, calculated—not wild. He wasn't fighting to kill… but to delay.
Lyra blocked one of his swings. "He's stalling!"
"For what?" Kael growled, clashing steel against steel.
That's when the walls of the cavern shuddered—and an army of ash-forged warriors rose from the lava stream.
Oma whispered, eyes wide, "No… he led them to us…"
Eren dropped to one knee, fighting his own body. "I didn't… want this… The mark… they branded me months ago… back when I vanished in Tareth's Hollow. I thought I was free…"
Lyra's eyes narrowed. "You've been compromised since then?"
"I never told them anything. I swear. But now that he's awakened…" Eren looked at Kael, desperate. "They're coming for you."
The army surged forward.
Kael raised the Heavenblade, flames spiraling up his arm. "Then let them come."
Lyra and Oma stood beside him.
Together, they fought—pushing back the first wave of ash beasts. But even as they struck down one after another, the numbers didn't stop. The fight had a cost.
Oma took a spear to the side.
Lyra was nearly crushed by an ogre-like brute before Kael saved her.
Eren fought too—against the army, but more so against himself. Every time he landed a blow, a rune on his chest flared red-hot.
Finally, he turned to Kael. "You have to run."
"No," Kael shouted.
"You don't understand!" Eren roared, voice trembling. "He's already watching."
The lava split—and from it emerged a figure in obsidian robes and a crown of bone.
The Flamebound King.
---
Kael's heart stopped.
Not because of the power emanating from the figure.
But because the King… looked like him.
An older version. Eyes like fire. Expression like a mirror.
"Hello, Kael," the King said, his voice smooth and venomous. "I've waited so long for you to wake up."