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“What’s happening to him?” she asked, her voice tight with concern as she took in Kai’s transformed appearance.

“The fragment,” I panted, still struggling to move him. “It’s inside him. We need to?—”

A scream cut through the air. Mira’s shield had faltered, and one of the guards had seized her by the throat, lifting her off the ground. Her wand clattered to the floor as she clawed at the armored hand crushing her windpipe.

“Mira!” Rhia’s head snapped up, her body instantly torn between helping Kai and saving Mira.

“Go!” I urged her. “I’ve got him!”

She didn’t need to be told twice. With a roar that would have made a dragon proud, Rhia launched herself at the guard holding Mira, her body becoming a missile of pure fury.

I turned my attention back to Kai, whose eyes suddenly flew open, the purple light within them brighter than before.

“The circle is nearly complete,” he said, his voice still that eerie mixture of his own and something ancient. “The end approaches, and also the beginning.”

“Kai, fight it!” I pleaded, gripping his shoulders. “Whatever’s inside you, don’t let it take control!”

“I can’t...” Kai’s voice cracked through the otherworldly tone, a glimpse of my friend breaking through. “It’s showing me everything, Oliver. The truth about Cindersea, about all of us...” His body convulsed, back arching as purple light leaked from his mouth and eyes.

Across the chamber, Sky fought with desperate intensity, his spear a blur of motion against Boromia’s gleaming blade. But the captain was toying with him, smiling that perfect smile even as he drove Sky backward step by step.

“Kai, please,” I begged, gripping his shoulders tighter. “We need you.”

His hand shot up, fingers closing around my wrist with bruising force. “The Architect was shattered,” he hissed, eyes blazing violet. “Broken into fragments by those who wanted to conceal the truth. This world… we didn’t choose to come here. They… lied .”

The chamber shuddered, dust raining from the ceiling as the obsidian sphere pulsed with renewed energy. Each beat sent waves of purple light rippling across the floor, following the lines of the celestial mosaic like blood through veins.

“Hurry up and kill them!” Boromia shouted to his remaining guards, driving Sky back with a vicious slash that barely missed his throat.

Kuro was bleeding from a gash across his forehead but still fighting, his movements slowing as exhaustion took its toll. Rhia had freed Mira, who was now frantically searching for her dropped wand while gasping for breath. We were losing.

“I need to complete the connection,” Kai, or whatever was speaking through him, said. He began to rise, dragging me with him as his grip tightened on my wrist. “We must find the rest of the pieces to restore Cindersea’s memory.”

“No!” I twisted, trying to break free of Kai’s grip, but the purple energy pulsing through him had granted him inhuman strength. “Kai, you have to fight it!”

Kai’s head jerked unnaturally, his neck cracking as his gaze fixed on the obsidian sphere. “The fragment calls to be whole again. I must?—”

A pained howl cut through the chamber. I whipped my head around to see Sky stumbling backward, blood streaming from a deep gash across his chest. Boromia advanced on him, that perfect smile still plastered across his face.

“Your mutt is running out of fight,” the captain called to me, pressing his advantage as Sky struggled to keep his spear up. “Surrender now, and perhaps I’ll let him live as my personal guard dog.”

Something inside me snapped. The exhaustion, the fear, all of it burned away in a surge of pure rage. I wrenched my arm free from Kai’s grasp with a strength I didn’t know I possessed .

“I am the Twilight’s champion,” I whispered, the words feeling right on my tongue for the first time.

White light erupted from my eyes, flooding the chamber. My staff, cracked and splintered from Boromia’s attack, began to mend itself in my hands, the wood knitting back together as power surged through it.

“Twilight Veil!” I roared, slamming my staff against the ground.

The spell exploded outward, stronger than I’d ever managed before. A dome of swirling shadow and light enveloped me, Kai, Mira, Kuro, and Rhia who had pulled close to me. I felt no drain, no weakness, only a righteous fury that seemed to feed the magic flowing through me.

“Impossible,” Boromia hissed, his perfect facade cracking as he stumbled backward. “What… What are you?!”

I advanced toward him, each step leaving glowing footprints on the stone floor. “I am what you fear most,” I said, my voice resonating with power that wasn’t entirely my own. “Someone who isn’t afraid of you.”

Boromia’s eyes narrowed, his smile twisting into something ugly. “Kill them all!” he screamed at his guards. “Now!”

There were only three elite guards still standing. They charged forward, weapons raised against my barrier. Their blades struck the Twilight Veil with showers of sparks but couldn’t penetrate. I held the spell effortlessly, drawing on reserves of power I knew I didn’t possess.

“Surrender now!” Boromia shouted from beyond the barrier.

My gaze found him beyond the magical shield and my heart dropped. He had Sky on his knees in front of him, a hand threaded through his dark hair. His head was pulled back, a gleaming blade pressed to his throat. Already a trickle of blood was running down his neck. Boromia cackled madly.

“Drop the barrier or I’ll kill him!” he shouted. “He won’t be the first dog I’ve put down today.”