The moment the golden eye opened beneath the altar, something inside Elliot shifted — not like a tremor, but a split.
A fracture in his soul.
The eye didn't glow. It didn't blaze. It just was.
Unblinking. Unmoved.
But staring directly at him, like it had been waiting all this time.
Waiting… for him.
---
Kaelith stepped in front of him, sword out. Her posture screamed readiness, but her hands trembled.
"Elliot," she breathed, "what the hell is that?"
He couldn't answer. His mouth was dry, tongue heavy, mind lost in the thunderous silence between heartbeats. The flame in his chest roared — but not with power.
With fear.
---
Then the voice came.
Not sound. Not thought.
A presence.
It slid into his skull like a nail made of light.
> "Do you remember how it felt… to burn the sky?"
Elliot dropped to his knees, clutching his head as screams filled his ears — screams not his own, but divine.
Memories crashed into him like lightning:
A body of flame descending from heaven with arms outstretched.
Mortals bowing. Gods kneeling.
A name whispered across the stars.
> "Eli'ar…"
---
That name — that ancient, unbearable name — shattered something inside him.
His mind buckled under it.
He wasn't just chosen.
He wasn't just flameborn.
He had been something else.
Something terrifying.
A being who made gods tremble.
And that golden eye?
It knew.
---
The room blurred. The altar cracked. And blood dripped from Elliot's nose as he fell forward, gasping.
Kaelith grabbed him, pulled him back, hands on either side of his face.
"Elliot—talk to me! What did it do to you?!"
He looked at her. Through her. His eyes burned faint gold.
> "I think I remember what I was."
Kaelith's mouth parted. "What you were?"
He nodded once, voice hollow.
> "I was a weapon. A god's last curse."
---
Behind them, the altar crumbled.
The golden eye closed — but not in defeat.
In patience.
As if it had seen enough… for now.
---
A fresh rune was burned into the stone floor, carved by no hand:
> 𐤕 — the Rune of Ending.
It pulsed once. Then vanished.
---
The flame in Elliot's chest surged — hotter, sharper.
But it didn't scream this time.
It whispered.
> "They're coming."
He clenched his fists. Sweat soaked through his collar.
Not fear. Not anymore.
Just readiness.
---
Kaelith stared at him, like she didn't fully recognize the boy she had kissed, the boy she had held close.
> "Elliot… what are you becoming?"
He looked up at her, eyes steady.
> "Something the gods should've buried deeper."
---