The first shot burned a line of white fire through the darkness.
Kael felt the heat pass inches from his face as Lysandra yanked him backward. Stone exploded where his head had been a heartbeat earlier.
"MOVE!" she shouted.
They ran.
The Veins screamed now—not in alarm, but in agitation. Red warning glyphs bled across the walls as Sunbound Sentinels flooded the chamber behind them, boots hammering stone in brutal rhythm.
"Eliminate the target!" "Don't let him reach another node!" "Fire at will!"
Energy bolts carved through the air, ricocheting off Vein pillars and shattering ancient conduits. The ground shook violently, dust raining down as the cavern began to destabilize.
Kael's lungs burned. His thoughts scattered.
The hero must die.
The words looped in his skull, sharp and merciless.
"Why?" he yelled as they sprinted through a collapsing corridor. "Why would they come down here just to kill me?"
Lysandra didn't slow. "Because the order didn't come from soldiers."
She vaulted over a fallen beam, dragged him after her. "It came from the Veins."
That made his blood run cold.
They burst into a narrower passage, lights flickering erratically. Lysandra skidded to a stop and slammed her palm against a recessed symbol on the wall.
A hidden door irised open.
They dove through just as a volley of blasts turned the tunnel behind them into molten rubble.
The door sealed.
Silence slammed down hard enough to ring in Kael's ears.
They stood in darkness, gasping.
Kael doubled over, hands on his knees, vision swimming. His head felt too full—like his skull couldn't contain what was trying to surface.
"That recording," he said between breaths. "That wasn't just a warning."
Lysandra lit a low Vein-lamp. The soft blue glow revealed a small, circular chamber—older than the others. Untouched.
"No," she said quietly. "It was a failsafe."
The Veins hummed.
Then the chamber responded.
Symbols ignited along the walls, spiraling inward. The floor warmed beneath Kael's feet. His relic pulsed once—hard.
"Oh no," Lysandra muttered. "It recognizes you."
"I don't want this," Kael said desperately. "I didn't ask for any of it."
The Veins didn't care.
The air thickened. Light condensed at the center of the room, forming another projection—clearer this time. More stable.
The same figure appeared.
Kael's face.
But wrong.
Colder.
Older.
Eyes stripped of softness.
Behind the hologram stretched a devastated world—fractured continents suspended in Vein-light, oceans pulled apart like torn fabric.
Kael felt sick.
"This is the rest of it," Lysandra said softly. "The part they tried to bury."
The hologram spoke again—but this time, its voice wavered.
> "If you're hearing this… then I didn't succeed."
Kael's chest tightened.
> "I thought I could end it by becoming the monster they feared."
The image shifted—cities collapsing, fire blooming like flowers of annihilation.
> "I was wrong."
Kael's hands shook.
"That's not me," he whispered.
Lysandra didn't answer.
> "The Veins don't reset the world out of cruelty," the recording continued.
"They do it out of logic."
Symbols flared brighter.
> "They correct deviations."
The girl appeared.
Aurelia.
Not screaming.
Not commanding.
Just standing there, eyes wet, face hollow with regret.
She looked directly at Kael.
> "I tried to stop it by erasing myself," she said.
"But the system doesn't allow absence."
Her image flickered.
Kael felt tears burn behind his eyes. "She's real," he whispered.
"Yes," Lysandra said. "And she's inside you."
The hologram shifted back to Kael's other self.
> "If Kael Arden lives," the voice said, harder now,
"the Veins will complete the cycle."
The symbols locked into place.
A final line burned across the projection in stark, unforgiving text:
> THE HERO MUST DIE
The chamber trembled.
Kael stumbled back like he'd been struck.
"They're going to kill me," he said blankly.
Lysandra grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to look at her. "They're going to try."
Before he could answer, the Veins pulsed violently.
Not in warning.
In confirmation.
Far above them, across Sunbound territory, every Vein node flared red simultaneously.
In the Capital, alarms wailed.
In command chambers, officers froze as a single directive propagated through every system, overriding human authority.
TARGET RECLASSIFIED
KAEL ARDEN — EXISTENTIAL THREAT
LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED
Back in the tunnels, Kael felt it like a switch flipping.
The world turned against him.
"I didn't do anything," he said, voice breaking. "I haven't destroyed anything."
Lysandra's grip tightened. "Not yet."
That word terrified him more than anything else.
The walls exploded inward.
Sunbound soldiers poured through, armor gleaming, rifles raised, visors glowing red.
"KAEL ARDEN!" a commander barked. "DROP TO YOUR KNEES!"
Kael froze.
For one horrifying second, he considered obeying.
Then Lysandra stepped in front of him.
"No," she said coldly.
The soldiers opened fire.