The Second Beacon

“Keito?”

Her voice was a whisper. She stumbled toward him, her legs heavy, and placed a trembling hand on his shoulder. His skin was cold, his muscles locked tight.

“Keito, wake up. Please.”

There was nothing.

She shook him harder, panic clawing at her chest. “Wake up!” Her cries got louder. She spun to Heidi, to Baro, to Corin, to even Kivarus, grabbing their arms, their faces, their clothes. No one stirred. Their bodies were still here, but their souls… gone. Trapped somewhere she couldn’t reach.

Her voice broke into a scream. “Please!”

A soft, melodic voice cut through her panic.

“They cannot hear you.”

Elysia froze, her heart stuttering as she turned. Malphas still had not moved. He stood at the base of the corrupted Orrery, hands folded loosely in front of him…

Baro

Baro’s chest heaved. “I’m trying.”

“Trying?” His father spat the word. “Trying is for weaklings.”

The world changed…The yard blurred into a road, a wagon looming before him, its wheels massive, its frame made with iron. He barely had time to react before something hooked onto his legs and yanked.

He crashed onto his back, breath snatched from his lungs, and then he was being dragged. The wagon pushed forward, dust choking him as the ground tore at his skin. He clawed at the dirt, desperate, but the grip on his ankles was absolute.

He twisted to look back.

It was his father’s hand.

The man’s face was calm, unreadable, as he held his son beneath the wagon.

“You’re no warrior,” his father said, voice booming over the roar of wheels. “You’re a burden.”

Baro screamed.

Corin

He shook his head. “I tried, I…”

Her eyes cleared with sudden clarity. Her hand tightened like a claw.

“Then why…” her voice croaked, “…couldn’t you save me?”

The breath left him.

Her chest seized. Her body convulsed. And with the last strength she had, she rasped, “I hate you.”

The words struck hard. He froze, unable to breathe, unable to speak, as her body went limp in his arms. Her head rolled to the side, her lifeless eyes fixed on him, they held no life but only judgment.

Heidi

“Look at her.”

“She’s so small.”

The voices overlapped, louder and louder, until the square rang with cruel delight.

“The runt Goliath.”

“Barely taller than a child.”

“She’ll never be one of us.”

Heidi’s chest heaved. “Stop,” she whispered.

The circle of villagers closed in, their mocking voices growing into a roar. They pointed, they laughed, their eyes filled with disgust. Even the other children joined in, laughing until tears streamed down their faces.

“No…” Heidi’s voice cracked. “Please.”

She turned her back.

The world collapsed with the sound of Heidi’s sob.

Keito

The air reeked of smoke. Heat blistered his skin.

Keito’s eyes snapped up to see the stake, the flames already climbing.

“NO!” His scream ripped from him as he staggered forward, legs heavy as stone. Elysia was bound to the post, fire crawling hungrily up the wood. Her face was streaked with tears, eyes wide not with fear, but betrayal. Her cries turned to screams as the fire reached her legs. Her body thrashed in agony, the flames devouring her inch by inch.

“You said you’d protect me!” Her voice screamed at him. Her skin blackened, her hair burned, and still her eyes locked on his with searing hatred. “This is your fault!”

The flames soared higher, swallowing her whole. Her final scream echoed in his ears, carved into his soul.

Kivarus

“It isn’t safe here,” he told her, his voice strained with urgency. “Go. I’ll follow.”

She frowned. “Promise me.”

“I swear it.”

The memory shifted. Darkness swallowed the balcony, and suddenly he was standing on the outskirts of the abyss. The demon lord loomed before him, his presence filled him with fear.

And she… she lay crumpled at his feet. Beaten. Broken.

Kivarus jumped forward, but the demon lord’s voice froze him. “Love is not welcome here.” He sneered. “I must realign your allegiance, reset your mind… watch.”

“No!!!!” Kivarus’s voice cracked, desperate, frantic.

The demon lord raised a hand.

Her body convulsed as his magic touched her skin, melting flesh from bone. Her screams tore through Kivarus. She reached for him, her eyes wide with unbearable pain.

“This is your fault!” she shrieked.

Her body dissolved in the fire, her voice breaking into cries, leaving only the echo of her agony.

Kivarus fell to his knees, his pride shattered, his soul ripped bare. He, who had commanded legions, who had faced armies without fear, was undone by the sound of her death.

Elysia clutched her chest, gasping. Even without being inside their prisons, she felt the edges of their torment. Each scream, each sob, each curse echoed faintly against her soul. She stumbled, eyes darting between their bodies…stiff, trembling, locked in invisible agony.

And Malphas watched her with that same calm smile.

“It is a futile effort,” Malphas said, his voice a silken murmur that coiled in the still air. “You are trying to wake them but you can’t.”

Elysia froze, her hands still on Keito’s shoulders. Malphas didn’t need to raise his tone. His words slid beneath her skin.

“Their prisons are not here,” he continued, his eyes flickering across the frozen forms of her friends. “They are within. Crafted from the very fabric of their own pathetic regrets.”

“What did you do to them?” Elysia shouted.

Malphas’s lips curved upwards. “I offered them the truth. I am a mirror, little mage. I simply show them what already lingers inside.” He tilted his head, studying her the way one might study an insect pinned beneath glass. “But you… you remain outside. Fascinating.”

He took a step forward, his robes flowing behind him. “Their souls are cracked vessels. Keito’s devotion makes a perfect fracture for betrayal. The warriors doubts fester like rot. The girl’s body is her curse. And the demon…” Malphas’s smile widened faintly. “Oh, the demon is the most delicious. A fortress built around a wound so ancient, so raw, I could feast on it for centuries.”

His hand lifted, and then gestured toward her. “But you… your soul is like a stone. Smooth. Polished by a simple life, a child’s morality. No cracks to pry open. No regrets to cultivate. You are… unburdened.” He narrowed his eyes slightly. “And ultimately, uninteresting.”

The insult landed harder than she expected. Simple. Uninteresting. Was that all she was? While her friends fought nightmares of betrayal and grief, she was untouched because she had… nothing? She had so much but this new life may have allowed her the means to save her friends.

Her gaze darted, tearing away from Malphas, desperate for any weapon, any chance. And then she saw it…the Orrery. The massive crystals pulsed with sick orange light. She looked back at her companions. Their bodies twitched faintly, shuddering as if struck by invisible lashes. And every shudder matched the pulse of the crystals.

A horrible realization struck her.

The Beacon was the amplifier. Malphas wasn’t creating these illusions from nothing, he was feeding on the Orrery’s corrupted power, using it to sustain the prisons in their minds.

She couldn’t fight him. She couldn’t drag her friends back yet. But she could if she did something to this machine.

She turned to Umbra. The little black dragon hovered near her shoulder. It seemed he wasn’t affected because he just had a new life as well… Their bond needed no words. She pushed the thought into him, an image of the largest crystal, and a desperate command. Destroy it.

Umbra’s throat rumbled with a chirp, then he darted forward. Malphas’s head snapped toward the sound, just in time to see the dragon open its jaws.

A stream of violet black fire erupted, striking the crystal’s base. The flame didn’t burn…it actually seemed to erase. Where it touched, the corruption simply vanished, dissolving into ash. The crystal shuddered as chunks of orange flaked away.

Malphas’s expression flickered. Annoyance. Then disdain. “A curious pet.” He turned his eyes back to Elysia. “But futile. You cannot hope to undo what I’ve woven before their souls unravel completely.”

He raised his hand.

Elysia braced herself, every muscle tensing. He couldn’t strike her physically, not without losing his hold on the others… right?. And then his full attention slammed into her.

Her vision exploded with colors. Pain split her skull as flashes of horror burst across her mind…Baro torn beneath wheels, Corin’s mother whispering hatred, Heidi shunned by her own blood, Keito watching her own body burn. Each vision seared into her, tearing at her spirit. Voices screamed in her ears, overlapping, endless… You’re weak. You’re useless. You’ll never save them. They’re dying because of you.

Her skin prickled with this phantom fire. Her chest constricted as though she were drowning. Her legs burned with frostbite and heat all at once. Her own senses turned traitor, twisting into endless torture.

She stumbled but didn’t fall. She clung to one image… the Orrery.

“No,” she gasped, her voice barely audible.

Umbra’s fire still ate at the crystal, but too slowly. The gears beneath glowed red, strained to breaking. Elysia forced her arms upward. Every motion felt like it was through mud, her joints screaming against invisible chains. She ignored the phantom flames licking her arms, ignored the visions of herself screaming in death. She reached for her magic.

Water.

She seized it, clinging to it like a lifeline. Streams of liquid spilled from her fingertips, weaving into the exposed gaps Umbra had cleared. She guided them with trembling hands, washing away the ash, cooling the burning gears, soothing the machine.

The hiss of water on overheated crystal was so loud.

Every second stretched into eternity. Her head throbbed, the voices rising into shrieks. Images of her friends’ broken bodies flashed in time with her heartbeat. She could feel her grip on reality fraying, thread by thread.

But she refused to let go.

She wasn’t strong enough to save them herself. But she could buy them a chance.

Her knees buckled. She bit down a sob, forcing her hands steady. “Hold… together,” she whispered. “Just… hold.”

Nothing changed. Malphas’s power pressed harder. Her vision blurred. She felt her body start to collapse.

And then….

A sound.

Clear. Pure.

A chime.

One of the Orrery’s gears, freed from its prison, clicked back into place. The resonance shifted, a bell tone cutting through the storm like sunlight. The dissonant hum broke.

The pulse that had been sustaining Malphas’s web faltered.

The backlash hit instantly.

Malphas screamed. A real scream… raw, as his body bent under the weight of five collapsing illusions. His hands clutched at his head, eyes wide with disbelief as centuries of psychic mastery turned in an instant in his veins. The flood of shame, grief, hatred, and loss he had been feeding into others now slammed back into him all at once.

At that same moment, Elysia’s companions gasped awake.

Baro roared like a beast breaking free of chains, his chest heaving as if he had been suffocating. Corin collapsed forward, coughing, tears streaking his face. Heidi let out a strangled sob, clutching at her chest. Keito staggered, pale and shaking, his eyes locked on Elysia with a haunted, horrified stare. And Kivarus… Kivarus’s head snapped up, his gaze burning with a murderous fury that chilled the air.

They were alive. They were back.

And they all turned toward the same figure.

Malphas.

The proud general was on his knees, gasping, his once perfect composure torn apart. His eyes darted wildly, his form trembling. He was exposed. He was vulnerable.

And they had all suffered too much.

Baro was the first to move like usual. His roar split the courtyard as he charged. It came down shattering the stone at Malphas’s feet and throwing the demon back.

Corin’s bowstring sang before the dust even settled, arrows of fire raining down in volleys. Each shot seared Malphas’s silken robes, pinning him under a hail of vengeance.

Keito said nothing. His silence was focus. His hands glowed with moonlight, beams of frozen silver lancing out to bind Malphas’s limbs, locking him in a grip he couldn’t escape.

Heidi, trembling with the echoes of her nightmare, stepped forward and slammed her fists together. The earth beneath the courtyard cracked, jagged stone rising around Malphas, pinning him in. Her voice broke as she shouted, “You don’t get to take my home again!”

And then…Kivarus.

He moved without making a sound, a blur of shadows and rage. One moment he was yards away, the next he was right before Malphas. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes blazed with something older than hatred.

“You looked, not only that but you changed it…” he whispered.

His hand, bathed in black energy, pierced Malphas’s chest. The demon’s eyes widened, his form convulsing. No scream left his lips… His body unraveled into ribbons of shadow, dissolving into nothing.

And then he was gone.

The silence that followed was real.

Elysia stumbled back, chest heaving. She turned to the Orrery, forcing her weary hands upward one last time. Water flowed, gentle and steady, washing away the last residue of ash. Slowly, painfully, the great machine shifted. Its gears clicked into harmony. Its hum grew steady, clean.

The orange corruption flaked away, replaced by pure white light.

With a resonant chime, the Beacon was whole again.

From its heart, a shard of crystal floated free. The first Celestial Key fragment. At the same time, the Orrery cast a vision into the courtyard, a desert under a burning sun, ley lines glowing beneath the sand, converging into a hidden cave. The Nexus of Whispers.

Their next step.

No one spoke.

Baro’s hands trembled against his axe. Corin’s face was pale, streaked with salt from his tears. Heidi stared at the ground, shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Keito could not look at Elysia. And Kivarus… Kivarus stood apart, his face unreadable, but his eyes still haunted, still burning.

They had won. But no victory felt this hollow.

They stood together, but they were more broken than they had ever been.