Chapter 25: The Message in the Flame

The skies above the Realm Beyond Time had dimmed.

Wang Chung stood on the obsidian cliffs overlooking the River of Still Hours, its surface reflecting not water, but memories of worlds that had already been erased. Echoes of what had once been—realities devoured by the unraveling will of the False Sovereign.

A ripple tore through the air, and a figure collapsed at Wang Chung's feet.

Kaelis.

The once-magnificent Flame Sentinel, guardian of the Celestial Archive, was a ruined reflection of his former self. His golden armor now webbed with cracks of deep blue—Void poison. Flames sputtered from his back like the dying breaths of a star, and his radiant eyes flickered like candles in a storm.

> "I reached the edge…" Kaelis croaked, his voice brittle as crystal. "I touched the Source…"

Wang Chung knelt beside him, his expression unreadable, but his hands trembled ever so slightly.

Kaelis opened his palm.

Floating above it was a shard—no larger than a teardrop, yet impossibly heavy with presence. Reality distorted around it, colors bending and warping.

> "A sliver of Fate itself," Kaelis whispered. "Stolen from the Mouth of the Weave."

Wang Chung's pupils constricted. "You crossed the Threshold of Threads?"

Kaelis nodded weakly. "And what I saw there—"

His voice broke. He gritted his teeth, forcing the words out.

> "There's a future—one that's solidifying. Not a vision. Not a maybe. A future someone is forcing into being."

He paused.

> "And in that future… Yu Meilan is gone."

Wang Chung's breath caught in his throat.

> "Gone… how?"

Kaelis's voice quivered. "Not killed. Erased. Her soul is being devoured by something called the Echo Crucible. It's feeding on the threads of her existence. Not her body. Not even her spirit. Her meaning."

A long silence.

Then Wang Chung asked, very quietly, "Who's doing this?"

Kaelis looked up—his eyes full of terror not even time could cleanse.

> "It's Long Tian."

Wang Chung staggered back.

> "That's impossible. He sacrificed himself. He sealed himself—"

> "He lied."

Kaelis gritted his teeth. "The Long Tian we knew did seal part of himself away… but another part, corrupted by the Void Sovereign's Will, escaped. That part found the Echo Crucible. And now… he's rewriting existence. Erasing hopes. Unmaking futures."

> "Yu Meilan… was the brightest thread in the Weave. She was the tether that held multiple fates together. If she falls…"

Kaelis didn't need to finish the sentence.

Wang Chung turned his gaze to the horizon, where the sky bled into violet ruin.

> "Why Meilan?" he asked, voice raw.

> "Because she was your anchor," Kaelis said, barely able to sit up. "And if you lose her… you lose yourself. And with that, the final barrier breaks."

> "He's not trying to defeat you in battle."

> "He's trying to destroy the reason you fight."

Silence fell between them.

Then, quietly, Kaelis reached into his chest and pulled out a flickering flame—the last of his sentient core.

> "This… is her last untouched memory. A moment the Crucible hasn't yet devoured. Find her, Wang Chung. Or all is lost."

And with that, Kaelis dimmed into light.

He didn't die screaming.

He died smiling—knowing the message had been delivered.

Wang Chung stared into the flame.

It pulsed once—and a voice echoed from it:

> "If you find this, it means I'm already forgetting you… but I'll keep waiting. Even if I no longer remember why."

Wang Chung's eyes burned—not from rage, not from pain, but from something more ancient.

A promise unfulfilled.

He rose.

And for the first time, the heavens above the Realm Beyond Time cracked.

> "Long Tian," he said, voice cold and infinite. "You were my brother. But now… you are my reckoning."