The portal to the Fire Realm pulsed like a living heart, its edges rimmed with flames that danced but did not burn. Jack hesitated for a moment before stepping through, Nyssa and Kael at his side. The world around them shifted—and suddenly, they were plunged into a realm of heat, smoke, and shifting crimson light.
The Ember Labyrinth.
It was a place of legend, whispered about in moon realm scrolls but never truly explored.
An endless maze carved from blackened stone and molten rivers, it twisted upon itself as if alive, reshaping with every step.
"Who built this place?" Jack asked, sweat already trickling down his temples.
"The Ancients," Nyssa said. "To keep the Ember Crown hidden. The artifact burns with truth. Only one with a pure heart can wear it."
Kael raised an eyebrow. "So… definitely not me."
The walls hissed with shifting fire. Symbols glowed faintly as they passed—warnings, puzzles, perhaps both.
They walked for what felt like hours, only to find themselves at the same scorched intersection again.
"It's moving," Jack said. "The maze is changing."
"No," Kael muttered. "It's testing us. Watching."
Just then, the fire around them surged.
Out of the molten river crawled a creature unlike any they'd faced—a beast of glass and flame, its body cracked with glowing magma lines, its eyes like burning coals. It roared with a sound like an erupting volcano and charged.
"Isolde's doing," Nyssa said grimly.
Jack stepped forward, channeling moonlight, but it fizzled against the beast's infernal heat. Kael summoned air to slow it down, but the vortex turned to steam. Nyssa's blades barely nicked its hardened hide.
"Water!" Jack shouted, but the Fire Realm had none.
And then he remembered the second artifact—the golden orb from the Sky Temple. He pulled it from his satchel. As it met the creature's gaze, the orb pulsed.
"Kael!" Jack yelled. "Channel the wind around this!"
Kael obeyed, summoning a spiral of rushing air. Jack held the orb high.
"Lumira Veritas!"
The orb exploded in radiant starlight, fusing with the vortex. The creature screeched, its flames flickering—truth burning away the false form. It shrank, shriveled, and shattered into ash.
The maze shifted again.
Before them, a staircase unfolded, leading into the heart of the labyrinth. At its center, on a floating dais of obsidian, rested a glowing crown of ember and light.
"The Ember Crown," Nyssa breathed.
Jack stepped forward. As he touched it, a memory unfolded within him—Thalon donning the same crown to drive back legions of darkness. Jack felt his father's strength rush into him. His fingers tightened around the artifact.
And then, a voice whispered—soft but unmistakable.
"You are ready, son of Thalon… but the final test awaits."
—
Back in her sanctum, Isolde stood before her scrying mirror, eyes narrowed.
"All three…" she whispered.
Behind her, a cloaked figure stepped from the shadows.
"Shall we prepare the altar?" the figure rasped.
"No," Isolde said. "Let them believe they have won. Let the boy come to me willingly, thinking he is strong."
She smiled, slow and cruel.
"And then, we take everything."