Chapter 42: The Traitor's Flame
The air in the Vault was heavy.
Not with dust or age, but with expectation. Every step echoed like a drumbeat, and the glow of Ashren cast dancing shadows against walls carved with ancient runes. The deeper Andrew went, the more familiar it all felt—not as a memory, but as a haunting.
The murals had changed.
They no longer showed a king.
They showed a war.
One where the Shadow King was betrayed.
- The Forgotten Name -
Mihai paused before a cracked slab, tracing its shattered surface.
"These are old flame runes. Not shadow. This part of the Vault wasn't yours."
Andrew knelt beside the runes, eyes narrowing.
Ashren pulsed once, deep and angry.
A single name burned across the surface in ancient tongue:Kaelreth.
"He was one of mine," Andrew said, his voice low."Flamebearer. Loyal. Or so I thought."
Mihai's jaw tightened.
"History has a habit of repeating itself. Let's hope this ghost doesn't finish what he started."
- The Flame Returns -
As they stepped into the central chamber, a wall of light ignited. Fire circled a broken throne, and from the heart of it stepped a figure cloaked in orange-red flame, wrapped in charred armor cracked with glowing magma veins.
His face was half-burned, his eyes flickered with gold.
"You wear his skin," Kaelreth said."But you are not yet him."
Andrew raised Ashren instinctively.
"You betrayed me."
Kaelreth didn't flinch.
"I saved the world from you. And now it rises again to finish what I started."
He extended a hand, summoning a massive flaming glaive.
"Come, Andrew. Let me see if the man reborn can defeat the flame that ended gods."
- Clash of Echoes -
Their weapons collided with a shockwave that split the air.
Ashren shrieked as it clashed against Kaelreth's fire-forged glaive, black smoke clashing with living flame. Andrew struggled—the memories were flooding too fast now. Moments of standing beside Kaelreth, of trusting him with secrets, of marching to war together.
"You were my brother," Andrew growled, swinging wildly.
"And you were a god," Kaelreth spat, parrying. "But gods are meant to fall."
The Vault trembled around them, old magic awakening from centuries of slumber. Ghostly soldiers lined the walls—some cheering, others weeping.
Ashren pulsed again—and this time, opened.
Andrew's eyes flashed silver and black.
- The Choice -
Kaelreth paused mid-swing, sensing the surge.
"No… you're awakening.""You don't even know what you're becoming!"
Andrew lowered Ashren slightly.
"I'm not becoming what I was."
He struck forward with a burst of shadowlight that shattered Kaelreth's blade in half. The flamebearer tumbled backward, stunned.
"I'm becoming what I should've been all along."
Kaelreth vanished in a flash of flame, leaving only scorched stone and a single whispered warning:
"Then I'll gather the others. And when you're whole, we'll break you."
- Aftermath -
Mihai looked over the ruined chamber, breathing heavily.
"That was no illusion. That was an echo made real."
Andrew gripped Ashren.
"They're coming back. My former generals. My mistakes."
He turned toward the exit, face unreadable.
"Let them come. One by one. I'll bury the past with my own hands."