The horizon bled violet. The Devourer's twin stood atop a ridge, its silhouette a warped reflection of Alex—sunsteel gauntlet glinting, eyes burning with inverted light. Behind it, an army of rift-walkers seethed, their jagged blades carving the air in unison.
"You're kidding me," Lira hissed, daggers trembling in her grip.
Alex's gauntlet flared weakly, still drained from sealing the Spire's rift. The black veins along his arm pulsed anew, tendrils creeping toward his collarbone. "It's not the Devourer. It's… something else."
The twin raised its gauntlet. The ground screamed.
Fissures split the earth, vomiting geysers of void energy. Rift-walkers surged forward, faster and sharper than before, their armor fused with shards of corrupted starlight. Lira parried a blade, the impact numbing her wrist. "Alex! We need to retreat!"
He didn't move. The twin's gaze locked onto his, and the scar beneath his gauntlet *burned*. Memories flooded him—not his own, but the Devourer's. The First Flame's betrayal. The hunger. The rage.
"Alex!"
He snapped back. A rift-walker's blade grazed his ribs, drawing black blood. Pain shocked him into motion. His gauntlet flared gold, incinerating the attacker, but the corruption in his veins hissed in delight.
Yes, the scar whispered. Let me in.
The twin descended the ridge, each step warping the earth into glass. Lira fought toward Alex, daggers a blur, but the rift-walkers closed ranks. "Use the gauntlet! Burn them!"
Alex clenched his fist. Fire erupted—gold laced with violet. The blast tore through a dozen rift-walkers, but the recoil seared his flesh. He stumbled, choking on smoke. The twin laughed, its voice a distorted echo.
"Pathetic ember," it sneered. "You wear the flame like chains. Let me free you."
It lunged. Gauntlet met gauntlet in a detonation of light.
The Battlefield
Lira carved through the fray, her daggers finding gaps in rift-walker armor. Her breaths came ragged. The twin's presence thickened the air, every movement sluggish, as if time itself resisted them.
Alex and the twin clashed again, their blows cratering the ground. Gold and violet flames spiraled, incinerating everything nearby. Lira saw it first—the corruption spreading faster with every strike. Alex's gauntlet was now half-blackened, the rot climbing his neck.
"You're losing!" the twin taunted, its gauntlet seizing Alex's wrist. "Your fire is a dying spark. Mine?" It flexed, and the void flames swelled. "Infinite."
Alex roared, breaking free. His counterpunch shattered the twin's jaw, but it reformed instantly, molten void dripping like saliva. "You cannot kill a shadow, little ember."
Lira ducked a rift-walker's swipe, rolling to Alex's side. "We need to break its connection to the army! Find the source!"
Alex's eyes flickered gold and black. "The gauntlet… it's linked to the rift-walkers. If I destroy it—"
"You'll destroy yourself," the twin interrupted. It raised its gauntlet, and the rift-walkers froze. "But let's make it fair."
It snapped its fingers.
The rift-walkers collapsed, their armor dissolving into smoke that funneled into the twin's body. Its form swelled, void flames condensing into a corona. "Better?"
Lira grabbed Alex's arm. The corruption burned her palm, but she held firm. "We run. Now."
"No." He pulled free, gauntlet crackling. "It's feeding on fear. I have to—"
The twin stuck.
The Corruption Awakens
Alex's world dissolved into fire and pain. The twin's blows weren't just physical—they erased. Each hit frayed his edges, the void gnawing at his essence. His gauntlet sputtered, gold dimming under violet.
Let go, the scar urged. Let me fight.
He resisted, but the twin's knee slammed into his gut, driving him to his knees. "Weak," it hissed. "The First Flame chose poorly."
Alex's vision blurred. The scar's whispers grew louder, drowning Lira's shouts. He glimpsed her fighting toward him, daggers snapping against the twin's aura.
She'll die, the scar said. You know you want to save her.
Alex's gauntlet went dark.
Then—release.
The scar's power exploded. Violet flames engulfed him, mending broken bones, sharpening his senses. The corruption surged, flooding his veins with icy strength. He stood, the twin's grip on his throat now meaningless.
"*You talk too much," Alex growled, his voice layered with the scar's rasp.
He tore the twin's arm off.
Lira froze. Alex moved like liquid shadow, his corrupted gauntlet shredding the twin's void flesh faster than it could regenerate. But with every strike, the rot spread. His eyes were fully black now, his laughter harmonizing with the scar's.
"Alex!" she screamed. "Fight it!"
He didn't hear her. The twin, despite its wounds, grinned. "There he is. The true heir."
Lira sheathed her daggers and ran. Not away—toward the Spire's ruins.
The battle raged behind her. Alex had the twin pinned, pummeling it with fists wreathed in hybrid flames. But the corruption had reached his face, veins pulsing like parasitic roots.
Lira skidded into the Spire's shattered chamber. The pedestal lay in pieces, but the lens—cracked and dim—still glinted among debris. She grabbed it, ignoring the shards slicing her palms.
"Hurry," she breathed.
Alex's gauntlet clamped around the twin's throat. "You lose."
The twin chuckled, void blood bubbling. "Look… at yourself."
Alex hesitated. His reflection glimmered in the twin's eyes—a monster wreathed in violet flame, the scar's mark glowing like a third eye on his forehead.
This is power, the scar purred. No more weakness.
Lira's voice cut through. "Alex! Catch!"
He turned. She threw the lens.
Instinct made him grab it. The second his corrupted gauntlet touched the starlight glass, the world screamed.
Gold and violet clashed. The lens amplified both, tearing into Alex's soul. The scar roared, thrashing against the light.
"Now!" Lira shouted. "Break it!"
Alex's body wasn't his own. The scar fought for control, but he clung to one memory—his mother's smile before the baptism. You are not your fear.
He drove the lens into his gauntlet.
Light detonated.
Afftermath
When the glare faded, Lira found Alex kneeling in a circle of ash. The twin was gone. The gauntlet—now a mangled blend of sunsteel and glass—smoked on his arm. The corruption had retreated, but fresh black veins coiled around his elbow.
"Did we win?" he croaked.
Lira crouched beside him. "You tell me."
He flexed his hand. The gauntlet sparked weakly, gold and violet flickering. "It's… quiet. For now."
She helped him stand. The Dead Plains stretched silent, no sign of the twin or its army. But the horizon still shimmered, a faint violet stain lingering.
"It'll be back," Alex said.
"Then we'll be ready." Lira eyed his gauntlet. "Can you control it?"
He touched the scar, now throbbing softly. "It's part of me. But next time… I'll be stronger."
They walked east, toward the faint glow of the temple's wards. Behind them, unseen, a shard of void glass twitched in the ashes.