The northern skyline of Valoria burned with embers. The Citadel loomed, jagged and impossibly tall, its spires clawing at the storm-heavy clouds like black teeth. Smoke curled from collapsed rooftops below, casting the streets in a dull, ashen twilight.Mira limped beside Terry, still catching her breath. “So… Citadel. Again. I feel like we’ve been here before, except this time it’s… worse.”“Worse is relative,” Terry muttered. Sword at his side, afterlight flickering weakly. “At least the Choir is gone… for now.”Corvin’s absence weighed heavily in the ruins. His disappearance into the void had left more than a physical gap, he had left questions. Dangerous, gnawing questions.Ardan trailed behind them, cracking his knuckles. “Choir gone, storm quiet… for now. So, what’s the plan, genius?”“Citadel,” Terry said, scanning the shattered skyline. “We go in. We find the source. We stop whoever’s pulling strings above the storm.”Mira frowned. “And what about the storm itself? The Meridia

The Citadel trembled beneath them, but not from the storm. Its own energy pulsed, alive, still resonating with the Afterlight that flowed through Terry’s veins. Shards of golden and black light drifted like smoke across the shattered halls.Mira stood beside him, daggers still gleaming with residual energy. “Terry… whatever just happened… I don’t even know how to process it.”“Neither do I,” he admitted, wiping rain and blood from his brow. “But one thing’s clear: the Meridian isn’t just a weapon. It’s a mirror.”Ardan leaned against a cracked column, grinning despite bruises. “Mirror? Great. So we broke a giant magic mirror that’s probably plotting to kill us?”Terry ignored him. His gaze was fixed on the Citadel’s core, where the collapsed vortex still thrummed faintly. “It shows what we could become… and what we could destroy. We’re going to have to make choices. Hard ones.”Mira glanced at him. “Choices? Terry, the last three days have been nothing but hard choices. And now you’re

The streets of Valoria were empty, save for the remnants of fires that had scorched buildings during the Meridian’s upheaval. Smoke rose in lazy spirals, twisting against the early dawn light. Terry walked carefully, sword in hand, every footstep echoing through the ruin like a muted drumbeat.Mira moved beside him, daggers drawn but her eyes scanning the rooftops. “Terry… do you ever feel like we’re just patching holes in a city that’s already dead?”He glanced at her, expression hard. “If we’re patching, then we’ll patch. But dead? Not yet. Valoria isn’t dead, it’s bleeding. And we’re the ones holding the stitches.”Ardan kicked at a piece of rubble. “Poetic as always. Can we patch faster? I’m starving, and my fists need action, not philosophy.”Terry ignored him, scanning the skyline. The Citadel’s spire still pierced the clouds, its jagged silhouette humming faintly. Though the immediate threat of the Conclave had passed, the energy in the city was restless. Something beneath the

The moment Terry, Mira, and Ardan stepped out of the Citadel, the sky cracked.Not thunder. Not magic. Something in between, like the sound of the horizon pulling apart.Mira froze mid-stride. “Terry… tell me that wasn’t the tower.”“It wasn’t,” Terry said quietly.Another pulse boomed across Valoria. The ground trembled. Windows exploded outward in glittering bursts.Ardan ducked as shards rained down. “If that wasn’t the tower, then WHAT was it?!”Terry didn’t answer.He couldn’t.Because the pulse wasn’t coming from the Citadel.It was coming from beneath it.A low, deep rumble rolled through the streets. Lamps flickered violently. Stray magic sparked across rooftops in thin, jagged streaks.Mira grabbed Terry’s arm. “What did the core do to you in there? Tell me now.”Terry pressed a hand to his chest. “It didn’t do anything to me. It showed me what’s happening.”“And what’s that?” Ardan asked.“That the Meridian hasn’t been sleeping,” Terry said. “It’s been dreaming.”A third pul

The world shook around Terry as the cavern groaned like a dying beast. Shards of violet light pulsed from the cracked monolith ahead, Corvin’s prison, the source of every whisper gnawing at his mind.“Closer,” murmured the spectral presence of Corvin, curling through his thoughts like smoke. “We are almost whole.”Terry grit his teeth. “Not we. Not anymore.”Behind him, the rebellion, what little remained, fought to hold the hall. Screams and steel clashed with the armored zealots of the Circle of Dominion who poured into the depths like ants defending a queen. He didn’t look back. He couldn’t afford to.He stepped toward the monolith.The sword in his hand throbbed in response, heat flooding his arm. A pulse of Corvin’s magic burst outward, rippling dust and fractured runes across the floor.“The door opens,” Corvin whispered. “Let me through, and I will save them. I will save all of them.”Terry exhaled shakily. “You don’t get to save anyone.”A Circle commander vaulted into view, c