## CHAPTER 98: _"The Whisper That Split the Sky"_
Lightning split the sky the moment Lysia spoke her truth.
Not with thunder—but with a whisper.
And that whisper cracked every fate that had been written in the stars.
The battlefield held its breath. Swords trembled midair. Even time seemed unsure if it should move forward.
"I love you," Lysia whispered again, her voice a defiance to gods and monsters alike.
Arien's heart—which should not beat—slammed against his ribs.
The curse, ever hungry, coiled around them both like a vengeful god. The air grew heavier. The runes carved into Arien's skin lit up in agony.
But they did not flinch.
Love was never gentle in Elira. It was not romance. It was war. And now that war had begun.
—
From the ashes of the last battle, a ragged company emerged: the Remnants.
Witches, deserters, one broken paladin, a blind assassin, and two children who could speak to the stars. All marked. All hunted. All cursed.
Their goal: reach the Vault of Endings.
Their curse: if any one of them falls in love, the others die.
—
The land of Elira began to quake. The eastern mountains split open, revealing the chained city of Averdar—the prison of fallen gods. The curse had awakened something ancient.
In the capital, Queen Relis fell to her knees as the sky turned red. Her husband had long vanished. Her son—Arien—was now her enemy. Her heart, broken by power, whispered to her, "Kill the girl."
In her chambers, the Mirror of Yron reflected the future: a kingdom drowned in white flame.
—
Lysia's memories began to unravel. Her bloodline's secret clawed its way out.
She was not merely cursed.
She was the last Seed of the Heartfire—the divine power buried by the gods themselves. Her love was not poison. It was too powerful. Too pure. That's why it had to be chained.
The curse had never been a punishment.
It was containment.
—
Their journey led them through:
- The Fields of Hollow Echoes, where the voices of the dead ask riddles of the living.
- The Clockwood Forest, where time ticks backward and memories can kill.
- The Mire of Broken Names, where those who forget themselves become monsters.
Each place took something from them.
A voice.
A memory.
A future.
Arien began to hear her thoughts.
Not spoken. Not aloud. But through the bond.
"I'm afraid," Lysia would think.
And Arien would bleed.
"I miss my mother."
And flowers would die near her.
"I want to live."
And stars would flicker above them.
—
The Vault of Endings stood before them at last.
A monolith carved from obsidian and bone, singing with voices that no longer lived.
Inside, they found the Book of Unmade Promises.
It wrote their love like prophecy—and their death like a contract.
To break the curse, one of them must be erased from history.
Not killed.
Erased.
—
But Arien remembered something his father once told him:
"Sometimes, the only way to win a war is to refuse the terms."
So he kissed her.
Knowing what it would cost.
The world began to burn.
But something broke.
Not them.
Not the bond.
Not even the curse.
The gods themselves began to scream.
Because love… real, raw, defiant love… had survived.
And in the silence that followed, a voice spoke through the Vault.
"Arien?"
It was his mother.
But she was not the same.
Her eyes were galaxies. Her voice was a thousand whispers.
She had become something else.
And she did not want to save him.
She wanted the curse back.