The Spire was silent. The roar of the beast was gone, replaced only by the ragged breathing of a boy holding his dying mother.
Heavy footsteps echoed at the door. Vorn limped into the Throne Room, his armor battered, his shield dented. Behind him, the three orphans—Kael, Rian, and Elara—peered into the vast chamber, their eyes wide with awe and fear.
They saw the ash of the monster. They saw the golden light fading from Zoran's skin. But mostly, they saw the tears of a King.
"Vorn..." Zoran's voice was small, cracking under the weight of the moment. "She's cold. Why is she so cold?"
Vorn dropped his greatsword. He crossed the room, falling to his knees beside the dais. He looked at Queen Eliana. Her skin was translucent, the veins beneath showing a web of exhaustion. The life force she had expended to save Zoran in the ruins, combined with Malakor's ritual, had left her with nothing.
"Your Majesty," Vorn whispered, his granite voice trembling.
Eliana's eyelids fluttered. She took a breath—a shallow, rattling sound. Her eyes found Zoran.
"Zoran," she whispered.
"I'm here, Mom. I'm here." Zoran gripped her hand. He tried to summon the Edict's power. "I can fix this. The Royal Arts... there has to be a healing rune. Rage! What's the rune for healing?"
There isn't one, Rage's voice replied in his head, surprisingly quiet. Not for this. You can fix a wound, kid. You can't fix a candle that's burned all its wax.
"No!" Zoran poured his golden aura into her, but it washed over her like water over stone. It wouldn't stick.
"Stop, my fire," Eliana whispered. She reached up, her cold fingers brushing his cheek. "Save your strength. You... you need to see."
"See what?"
"The truth," she gasped. "The burden your father carried. The reason... we are here."
Eliana placed her hand over Zoran's heart, directly over the Celestial Heart and the absorbed Edict.
"Open your mind, Zoran. Witness the sin of Solmir."
THE VISION
The Throne Room vanished. The pain in Zoran's ribs vanished.
He was standing in the sky, looking down at Terra. But it wasn't the Terra he knew. It was green, vibrant, and whole. This was the past.
He saw a golden city—Solmir in its prime. But at the gates, there was a procession. Thousands of people were being herded in chains. They weren't criminals. They were sick. Their skin was touched by faint patches of violet—the mark of Void corruption.
Who are they? Zoran thought.
Our people, Eliana's voice echoed in the vision. Solmir's citizens. Touched by wild magic, but not evil. They needed help.
Zoran watched as a King on the throne—his great-grandfather—raised the Edict. He didn't heal them. He opened a portal.
"Banish the tainted," the old King commanded. "Let the Divine Realm be their prison, so our world remains pure."
Zoran watched in horror as families were torn apart. Men, women, and children were shoved through the portal into the twilight hell of the Divine Realm. They screamed for mercy, but the Kings of Solmir turned their backs.
These banished people... they were the ancestors of the Hidden Society. Malakor, Kaelus, the orphans—they weren't invaders. They were exiles.
The vision shifted.
Years passed. Zoran saw a man standing before the portal. It was King Avelon Kai. His father. He looked younger, stronger, but his eyes were filled with horror.
Avelon had discovered the truth. He had found the records.
"We must bring them back," Avelon argued with his council. "We sentenced them to hell for being sick."
"If you open that door," a councilor warned, "the Void they have adapted to will flood Terra. It will destroy us all. The infection has grown too strong."
Avelon looked through the portal. He saw the hatred in the eyes of the Hidden Society. He saw that they had been twisted by the darkness, becoming living weapons of the Void. If they returned, Terra would fall.
Avelon fell to his knees, weeping. He had to make a choice. Save the exiles and doom his kingdom, or keep the door locked and live with the guilt.
"I cannot let them destroy my home," Avelon whispered.
The vision zoomed in. Zoran saw his father raise the Edict. Avelon didn't just lock the door; he poured his own divine essence into the seal to reinforce it.
Zoran watched the light drain from his father's body. The invincible King became mortal. His power waned, his aura dimmed. He gave up his godhood to keep the sins of his ancestors locked away.
This is why he fell, Eliana's voice whispered. When the Legion of Nirvalis invaded... your father was already half-dead. He had given his strength to the seal.
Zoran gasped, snapping back to the present. The Throne Room rushed back into focus.
He looked down at his mother with wide, horrified eyes.
"We did this," Zoran whispered. "The Hidden Society... we created them."
"Your father... carried that weight every day," Eliana breathed, her voice barely audible now. "He wanted you to know. He didn't want you to be a King of lies."
Tears streamed down Zoran's face. The hatred he felt for Malakor, for the Society—it suddenly felt heavy, complicated. They were monsters, yes. But Solmir had made them.
"Mother, please," Zoran sobbed, gripping her hand tighter. "Don't go. I can't do this alone. The burden is too big."
Eliana smiled. It was the same smile she used to give him when he scraped his knee in the palace gardens.
"You are not alone, Zoran," she whispered. Her eyes drifted past him, to Vorn, and then to the three orphans huddled in the doorway. "You have... a new kingdom now."
Her breathing hitched.
"Break the cycle, my son," she breathed. "Be the King... Avelon couldn't be."
Her chest rose one last time. And then, it didn't fall.
The light in her eyes faded, leaving them like dull glass. The hand gripping Zoran's went slack.
"Mom?"
Silence.
"MOM!"
Zoran buried his face in her chest. He screamed—a raw, broken sound that echoed off the cold black walls of the Spire.
Vorn bowed his head, tears carving paths through the dust on his granite face. At the door, Elara covered her mouth to stifle a sob. Kael and Rian took off their ragged caps, bowing awkwardly in respect for a Queen they had never truly known, but whose son had saved them.
Inside Zoran's mind, even Rage was silent. The entity stood in the back of Zoran's consciousness, arms crossed, watching the grief with a strange, solemn respect.
King of Ash, Rage thought. Welcome to the throne, kid.
Zoran cried until there were no tears left. Slowly, the shaking stopped. The sobbing stopped.
When Zoran Kai lifted his head, his face was changed. The boy who had run from the palace was gone. The young man who hunted beasts in the ruins was gone.
He reached out and gently closed his mother's eyes. He kissed her forehead one last time.
Then, he stood up.
His golden aura flared, but it wasn't bright and hopeful like before. It was tempered, solid, and heavy. He turned to face Vorn and the orphans.
He held the Edict of Solmir in his hand. It wasn't just a key anymore. It was a testament to a crime.
"Vorn," Zoran said. His voice was hollow, but steady as steel.
"My Prince?" Vorn choked out.
"Prepare her for transport," Zoran commanded. "We will leave this place. We are going back to the fortress."
"And then?" Vorn asked, wiping his eyes.
Zoran looked up at the swirling purple sky, the prison that had held his people's sins for centuries.
"And then," Zoran said, "we are going to open the door. Not to banish anyone. But to take our world back."