The Labyrinth of Echoes
The Frostspire's innards were a maze of black ice and fractured light. Every surface hummed with a subsonic vibration, like the growl of a starved beast. Kairos led the way, his plasma blade casting jagged shadows on the walls. Behind him, Anara and Li Na moved in sync, their breaths fogging the air in ragged unison.
"Stay clear of the ice veins," Li Na warned, pointing to glowing fissures that pulsed with viscous, tar-like liquid. "They're alive."
Anara's boot crunched a frozen puddle. The sound echoed endlessly, morphing into whispers. "Kairos… Kairos… Kairos…"
"Ignore it," Kai snapped, though his own name clawed at his resolve. "It's not real."
"Isn't it?" Cassian's voice slithered through the walls. "You left me to rot in the Storm. Now you'll rot with me."
[The ice shifted. A corridor sealed shut behind them.]
The Trial of Memory
The labyrinth spat them into a cavern dominated by a frozen lake. At its center stood Cassian—or the thing wearing him. His body was a marionette of black ice, veins glowing with void-crystal. The Forgotten God's presence thickened the air, suffocating.
"Cassian!" Kai shouted. "Fight it!"
Cassian's head twitched, a flicker of panic in his void-dark eyes. "Kai… run—"
The god reclaimed control, its laugh cracking the ice. "Sentiment. How quaint."
The lake erupted. Spectral figures clawed free—echoes of Kai's past. His father, throat slit. Lyra, her body disintegrating. Isvalla, wings broken.
"Illusions," Anara hissed, but her sword trembled.
"No," Li Na said. "Memories. The god feeds on regret."
Kai stepped onto the ice. "Let him go. Take me instead."
"You?" The god sneered. "You are already mine."
The Fracture
The ice split. Kai plunged into frigid water, dragged down by skeletal hands. Visions assaulted him:
Cassian as a child, handing Kai a wooden sword. "For when you're king!"
Cassian at the feast, poison in his cup. "I'm sorry, brother."
Cassian in the Storm, screaming as the god hollowed him out.
[Corruption Threshold: 15% (Residual Veil Energy Detected).]
Kai's lungs burned. The plasma blade slipped from his grip.
"Pathetic," Isvalla's voice whispered. "You need me."
"No," Kai choked. "I need him."
He stopped fighting. Let the hands pull him deeper.
The Spark of Rebellion
Cassian's memories surged—a farmer's hut, a woman's laugh, sunlit fields. The god recoiled. "What is this?!"
"You said you remember everything," Kai spat, clawing toward the surface. "But you forgot him."
The lake froze. Cassian's body convulsed, black ice cracking. "Kai… kill me!"
"No!"
Anara lunged, slamming a Sunsworn grenade into the ice. "Do it now!"
The explosion shattered the lake. Kai grabbed Cassian, hauling him onto solid ground.
"Why…?" Cassian rasped, his eyes clearing. "I don't… deserve…"
"Neither do I," Kai said. "But here we are."
The God's Wrath
The Frostspire howled. Ice stalactites rained down as the labyrinth collapsed.
"Move!" Li Na shouted, severing a tendril of living ice.
They ran, Cassian stumbling between them. The god's roar shook the spire. "You cannot flee fate, Kairos Veyra! I am your shadow! Your reckoning!"
Anara triggered the stealth ship's engines. "Get in! Now!"
The ship tore free as the spire imploded, the god's scream echoing across the tundra.
The Aftermath
Back in Skybreaker, Cassian slept under heavy guard. Kai stared at the frostbite creeping up his fingers—a souvenir from the lake.
"The god marked you," Li Na said, her voice flat. "It'll hunt you. Forever."
"Let it try," Anara growled.
Veyra-7's hologram flickered. "The Sunsworn emissary's body was found. His mask… melted from the inside."
Kai tossed the void-crystal shard onto the table. It pulsed faintly. "Then we hunt it first."
[The crystal's glow intensified. A voice whispered: "We are coming."]