The void had become a gilded labyrinth, its walls shifting to the rhythm of Older Kael's pulse. He lounged on a throne of thorned vines, his infant form now ageless—a grotesque fusion of youth and decay. Golden veins branched beneath his skin, eyes hollow voids that drank the light. Survivors knelt before him, their faces frozen in rictus grins as he siphoned their seconds to feed the labyrinth's growth.
"Welcome home," he said, voice layered with Gideon's malice and Lyra's mockery.
Young Lira's shadow split—one half coiled around his throne, the other clawing at her ankles. "Kael… kill him…" it begged, amber flickering in her left eye.
Mara pressed the dagger into Kael's hand. "Aim for the crown. It's the Seed's nexus."
"And if I hit you instead?" he growled.
She smiled. "Then the cycle continues."
They struck at twilight, when Older Kael's crown dimmed to feed the labyrinth. Mara distracted the hybrids, her movements precise, lethal—too much like Gideon. Kael crept through the thorns, dagger dripping with his own blood.
Young Lira's shadow slithered ahead, guiding him. "He's weakest here," it whispered, pointing to a fissure in the throne's base. "But the dagger needs a heart to cut his."
Kael froze. "What?"
The shadow seized his wrist, plunging the dagger into Young Lira's chest.
She gasped, blood pooling gold. "Now… strike."
Older Kael roared, throne crumbling as the dagger's edge flared. Kael lunged, blade aimed at the crown—
—but Older Kael caught it, his laughter shaking the void. "You still don't understand. I'm not the guardian."
He ripped the dagger free and plunged it into his own chest. Golden light erupted, searing Kael's vision.
When the light faded, the labyrinth was gone.
Kael stood in a sunlit meadow, Young Lira's body cradled in his arms. No thorns. No gold. But her shadow clung to the grass, whispering: "The void wasn't the Seed. It was the cage."
Mara stumbled toward them, her dagger hand disintegrating. "The real Seed… it's been you. All along."
The ground split. A single rose sprouted, its petals blackening as Lyra's voice echoed: "Love is patient, Kael. But time? Time is hungry."