Caelum's body reformed from light.
Not gently. Not gracefully.
The Astral Threshold spat him out.
He slammed onto solid crystal ground, air tearing back into his lungs. He pushed himself up, blinking through the dizzying glare. The world around him had shifted again.
No longer a glass plain. No longer illusions. No longer the Warden.
He stood at the base of a colossal staircase carved into the heart of a floating monolith. The entire structure radiated with alternating veins of gold and violet, pulsing like a beating heart.
Above him, at the top of hundreds of gleaming steps, hovered a single shape.
A crown.
Not forged of metal. Not tangible.
It was a constellation bound into form—a ring of shifting stars, connected by arcs of living light.
The Celestial Crown. The true Crown.
Caelum exhaled slowly.
"So this is the heart of it."
A voice echoed, softer than a whisper, louder than thunder.
"Caelum Vale. You have reached the Gate of Ascendance."
The Warden. But not the starlit silhouette from before.
Now it appeared as a massive astral figure coiled around the staircase, its form stretching into infinity. The cosmic glow of its body dimmed and brightened like breathing.
"You have passed the preliminary trials," the Warden said. "But the Crown does not choose easily."
Caelum squared his shoulders. "What now?"
"The ascent," the Warden replied. "Each step tests the truth of your soul. Each truth brings you closer to the Crown. Each lie brings you closer to annihilation."
Caelum's eyebrows rose. "Annihilation seems… extreme."
"The Crown does not tolerate unworthy bearers."
Of course not.
Caelum took his first step.
Light erupted beneath his foot—violet flaring, gold countering it. The step hummed as if recognizing him.
Then the hum sharpened.
A voice spilled from the staircase. His own voice.
"I don't think I can do this."
Caelum froze.
But the voice continued, overlapping with echoes.
"I'm not strong enough." "I'm not who they think I am." "I'm afraid."
Memories surged—his father's expectations, teachers' praises, classmates' whispers. The title he never asked for. Star Prince. Chosen. Future Crownbearer.
He swallowed.
"I know," Caelum said softly to the echoes. "But I'm still here."
The step glowed bright gold. The echoes faded.
He took another step.
This time the air trembled, rippling into an image.
Lyra—clearly fighting through tears—shoving him back toward the Titan's seal.
"Don't you dare die on me again."
Astra's scream. Seraphine's ice cracking. Elowen clutching Virren, eyes frantic.
Aradia, glowing with violet fire.
The scene hung above him like a suspended memory.
"You think yourself indispensable," the Warden's voice murmured. "Yet your fear is not of failure—
—but of being unworthy of those who love you."
"I know." Caelum pressed a hand over his heart. "And I'm done letting that fear lead me."
Gold flared. The vision dissolved.
He climbed. Step after step. Truth after truth.
A storm of illusions attempted to break him. Shadows whispered he was weak. Light tempted him with promises of ease. Faces he loved begged him to quit. Faces he feared urged him to kneel.
But Caelum didn't stop. He didn't falter.
He reached the final step.
The Crown hovered inches above his head, swirling with cosmic light, starlight dripping off its form like molten luminescence.
The Warden spoke once more.
"Caelum Vale. You stand at the threshold. One question remains."
The Crown's voice layered atop the Warden's. Ancient. Boundless.
"Why do you seek the Crown?"
Caelum inhaled. He thought of every expectation. Every prophecy. Every whispered destiny.
And he answered simply.
"I don't seek it."
The air pulsed. The world paused.
"I don't want power for its own sake," Caelum continued. "I'm not here to rule. I'm not here to dominate. I'm here because I want to protect the people who matter to me. And if the Crown helps me do that—then I'll take it."
Silence.
Then—
The Crown descended. Slowly. Carefully. As though weighing every breath he took.
Golden starlight touched his forehead.
Caelum felt warmth. Then fire. Then cold. Then everything.
His mind flooded.
A thousand stars. A thousand memories not his own. A thousand lifetimes of Crownbearers—all whispering, all guiding, all judging.
He gasped.
A voice—so ancient it felt older than time—echoed through his bones.
"You are not the strongest," it said. "You are not the most gifted." "You are not without fear."
Caelum clenched his jaw.
"But you are true."
The Crown flared.
"You may bear me."
Light exploded. Caelum staggered as cosmic fire laced through his veins, rewriting his very essence. Gold and violet streaked across his skin before fading into a soft glow.
Then everything stilled.
The Crown settled above him like a halo.
The Warden bowed.
"It is done."
Caelum blinked through the dissolving light. The Astral Threshold began to crack. The world around him destabilized.
"The path home opens," the Warden said. "Your allies await. But beware—your ascension has been seen."
"By who?" Caelum asked.
The Warden's cosmic eyes dimmed.
"The Harbinger. And others far worse."
The ground shattered beneath Caelum as the Threshold collapsed.
Light swallowed him.
And somewhere in the waking world— Lyra's head snapped up. Astra jolted. Seraphine froze mid-cast. Elowen gasped, clutching her chest. Aradia whispered a single word, trembling.
"He's coming back."
And the sky above Celestara Spire began to glow.