When the Sky Burns

The moment Elira's hand struck the Binding Throne, the world didn't just react—it screamed.

A deafening crack split the Temple of Binding, a sound like ancient gods roaring awake after a thousand years of silence. The obsidian throne shattered—crystal laced with bone exploded outward, frozen midair for one trembling heartbeat before bursting into blinding light.

Elira staggered backward, boots scraping against fractured stone. Raw force surged through her, blazing down her spine like wildfire. It wasn't just the throne's power—it was something older. Something buried in her blood, uncoiling.

"Elira!"

Kael's voice pierced the chaos, cracked with panic.

He sprinted toward her through the storm of flying shards, arms raised to shield his face. The ground shook. Pillars groaned. From the altar, a crimson glow rose like smoke and magic—like the temple itself was bleeding.

Elira looked down at her hands.

They burned.

Veins lit gold-red beneath her skin, pulsing like they were alive. Magic swelled inside her—wild, incandescent, terrifying. The curse wasn't just breaking.

It was becoming her.

Kael skidded to a stop, grabbing her wrist, breath ragged. "What did you do?"

She stared at him, dazed, glowing. "I broke it," she said. "I broke fate."

And for a moment… silence.

Then the air tore open.

A jagged wound ripped through the space above the altar—like the sky itself had been gashed. From it came the sound of drums. Chains. Whispering in a dead tongue. Not just sound. Memory.

And then—him.

Eryx stepped through the tear like a ghost draped in flesh. The boy they once knew was gone. What emerged wore his face, but his eyes burned coal-red, shadow curling off him like smoke. Behind him, the veil split wider, something vast shifting in the dark.

"Elira."

Too calm. Too soft.

Kael raised his sword.

Eryx smirked. "Still playing protector, cousin?"

But Elira moved first.

She stepped forward, vision burning with pieces of the mirror realm—the Bound Queen's voice still whispering from somewhere deep. The Undying King's presence pressing down on her soul.

No.

Not this time.

"You used my blood," she said. "But the throne is shattered. The bond is broken."

Eryx tilted his head, amused. "You broke a chair. Not the chain."

The wound in the sky pulsed wider.

And then the world changed.

The temple lit in fire and memory. Across the realm, the heavens split—people looked up and saw it: not just flame, but history unraveling. War. Sacrifice. Screams etched into time.

Kael swore under his breath. "He's thinning the veil."

"He's not just waking," Elira whispered. "He's watching."

Then her knees buckled.

A vision seized her—not dream, not prophecy. Possession.

She stood in a field of ash. Her hands dripping with Kael's blood. Her crown broken. The Undying King beside her—not as a stranger, but as her reflection.

She screamed.

Kael caught her before she hit stone. "Stay with me!"

"I—I saw it," she gasped. "I become him."

"No." Kael's grip tightened. "That's his lie."

Eryx moved closer, shadows rippling off his back like wings. "It's not a lie. She was born from the cursed line. She is the vessel. And now—" he spread his hands, "she's ready."

Kael raised his sword. "You'll have to go through me."

But Elira pulled away, shaking, rising to her feet.

"No," she said. "I face him."

"Elira—"

"I'm done hiding behind everyone. I carry the curse. I carry the crown. I decide what that means."

Her hands lit—not golden. Not cursed.

Hers.

Eryx faltered.

"You're afraid," she said. "You wanted a queen on her knees. You got a storm instead."

The temple convulsed with power.

Eryx snarled. The rift howled. A skeletal hand clawed through the tear.

Elira turned. "Kael. That hand touches ground—it's over."

He didn't hesitate. "Don't die."

"You either."

They split—Kael toward the limb, Elira straight for Eryx.

When they collided, the temple screamed.

Shadow met flame. Flesh met fury. The floor cracked beneath them. Eryx hurled black fire. Elira countered with searing light. Every spell, a memory rejected. Every clash, a future rewritten.

High above, Kael vaulted across broken pillars, slashing at the anchoring hand. Each strike drew a shriek that shook the sky.

"Elira!" he shouted. "It's feeding off your power!"

She felt it. Every spell she cast, the King grew stronger.

So she did the impossible.

She stopped using her magic.

Eryx's smile faltered. "What are you—?"

She tackled him.

No spells. No fire. Just fists, fury, grit. They rolled across the floor. He tried to summon shadow—nothing. She'd cut the link.

Grabbing a shard of the broken throne, she drove it into his shoulder.

Eryx screamed. "You don't understand! You stop this—you stop everything! The King isn't coming—he's already here!"

And from the rift above, a voice answered.

Low. Eternal.

"Child of ash… destroy me, and you destroy yourself."

Elira froze.

Kael was still fighting, bleeding. Eryx beneath her, grinning despite the pain.

"You think you can kill me?" he rasped. "You are me. You're the chain. The storm. The curse."

But something clicked.

The Undying King didn't want resurrection.

He wanted remembrance.

And her blood, her pain, her story—that was the door.

She stood.

Raised her hands.

And for the first time, she didn't fight the vision.

She let it in.

The sky darkened. Time bent. She saw everything: the queen she once was, sealing the King away. The love she lost. The vow she broke. The curse she became.

But she wasn't that queen anymore.

She was this one.

This Elira had chosen love. Chosen fire. Chosen herself.

"I'm not your vessel," she said. "I'm your end."

Power surged inside her—not to bind, but to burn.

She called on all of it.

Her curse. Her grief. Her hope.

And hurled it toward the sky.

Light shot upward.

The skeletal hand recoiled. The rift shuddered. The King let out a cry that fractured every mirror in every temple across the realm.

And then—

Silence.

Eryx collapsed. Shadows tearing from him like breath.

The veil sealed shut.

The temple stilled.

Elira fell.

Kael caught her.

"You did it," he whispered, holding her tight.

"No," she murmured, eyes barely open. "We did."

Above them, the stars broke through the storm.

And for the first time in days…

The world exhaled.