Running toward ancient, unstable power hidden beneath a ruined kingdom should have felt like a bad idea.
Unfortunately, it felt familiar.
At this point, I was less a protagonist and more a professionally supervised bad decision.
I sprinted through the collapsing halls of Solareth's royal palace while black cracks spread across the stone like veins of old anger, finally remembering how to move.
Behind me, steel clashed.
Vira and Ashborn.
War and consequence.
Honestly, I was trying very hard not to think about how that conversation was going.
Mostly because I preferred surviving one emotional disaster at a time.
Captain Rhea met me halfway through the ruined corridor, twin blades drawn and expression set to murder.
Comforting.
Very comforting.
"You're late."
I pointed behind me while running.
"In my defence, your sovereign and my recurring problem were having an aggressively symbolic confrontation."
She accepted that instantly.
Professional.
We were becoming a team.
I distrusted it.
Three soldiers followed her, all carrying the specific panic of people who had been told to stop magical collapse before lunch.
One of them shouted—
"The lower vault is opening!"
Excellent.
Nothing good had ever started with that sentence.
We reached the shattered throne chamber beneath the royal hall.
Or what had once been a throne chamber.
Now it looked like the earth itself had decided monarchy was offensive.
The floor had split open.
Massive roots of black crystal rose from the depths below, glowing with red-gold fire, twisting through broken pillars and old stone like the skeleton of a kingdom refusing to stay buried.
At the centre—
The fourth fragment.
Floating above the abyss.
A shard of burning gold wrapped in black ash light, shaped like a broken flame trapped inside a crown.
Beautiful.
Terrible.
Absolutely, my problem.
ARINA flashed immediately.
Fourth Fragment Located Name: Ash Fragment Status: Seal Collapse Active Warning: Memory Trial Imminent Failure Result: Fragment Corruption / Realm Instability
Memory trial.
Of course.
Because apparently the universe had decided emotional suffering was a mandatory side quest.
I pointed at the floating fragment.
"No. I reject that."
Rhea stood beside me, staring into the abyss.
"It doesn't care."
Fair.
Very fair.
Black-armoured Covenant soldiers were already descending the broken crystal roots from the far side of the chamber.
Too many.
Armed.
Unreasonably motivated.
I disliked them immediately.
Captain Rhea drew her blades.
"We hold them."
I blinked.
We?
She looked at me like I had personally insulted logistics.
"No. We hold them. You touch the dangerous glowing artefact and make your life choices."
Honestly?
Clear leadership.
I respected it.
One of the soldiers beside her muttered—
"Why is it always him?"
I pointed.
"Thank you. Finally. Someone understands."
No one appreciated my suffering.
Terrible workplace.
Rhea stepped closer.
For the first time, the suspicion was gone.
Only trust.
That was somehow worse.
"If this place collapses, everyone above burns with it."
No pressure.
Excellent.
She handed me one small metal token.
A sun-shaped emblem cracked down the middle.
Old.
Worn.
"This was Solareth's crest."
I stared.
The open hand beneath the rising sun.
Trust.
Hope.
A kingdom stupid enough to stay kind.
My favourite kind.
Rhea's voice lowered.
"My mother was born here."
Ah.
There it was.
Not duty.
Personal.
Of course.
"She used to say Solareth's greatest flaw was believing kindness could survive without people willing to defend it."
That line stayed.
Because yes.
That was the problem.
Not kindness.
Isolation.
I closed my hand around the emblem.
"I'll bring it back."
She nodded once.
No dramatic speech.
Just trust.
Then she turned and met the Covenant charge head-on like violence owed her money.
Beautiful.
Terrifying.
I respected her deeply.
Steel exploded behind me.
I ran for the fragment.
Across broken stone.
Over-collapsing crystal.
Towards the burning centre of a kingdom's unfinished apology.
The Ash Fragment pulsed faster the closer I got.
Not hostile.
Hungry.
It had been waiting for someone willing to ask the wrong questions.
Unfortunately, that described me perfectly.
I reached the centre platform.
Everything below was fire.
Not literal.
Memory.
A city burning beneath reality.
The kind of grief old magic learnt to preserve.
I could feel Solareth.
Not dead.
Remembering.
I touched the Phoenix Mark.
Lian's fire answered.
Moonlight from Yue Xiang's crest steadied my breathing.
Lei Mira's Stormguard Band hummed like distant thunder.
Three sovereigns.
Three promises.
Standing beside me, even here.
Good.
Because this felt like the kind of moment people wrote tragic backstories about.
I reached forward.
The Ash Fragment hovered inches from my hand.
Warm.
Too warm.
Like touching regret directly.
ARINA whispered—
"Final confirmation required."
A panel unfolded.
Authority Trial: Ash Fragment Core Question: Can peace born from sacrifice still deserve protection?
There it was.
The real question.
Not whether Vira had been right.
Not whether Solareth should have burnt.
Whether something built on terrible choices still deserved saving.
I stared at the fragment.
At the city beneath the city.
At the ghosts, everyone had survived instead of being buried.
And suddenly—
I thought of the orphanage.
Of being abandoned.
Of people who failed me and the people who stayed anyway.
A broken beginning did not make a life worthless.
A terrible past did not mean the future should be surrendered.
I laughed once.
Soft.
Because of course.
Every world kept asking the same question.
Different fire.
Same answer.
I spoke aloud.
"Yes."
The chamber shook.
I stepped closer.
"Yes, peace built on sacrifice still deserves protection."
Because the dead were not honoured by more ruin.
Because guilt was not justice.
Because if every broken thing were abandoned, there would be nothing left worth saving.
I looked into the fire below.
"But only if we stop calling the sacrifice acceptable."
Silence.
Then movement.
The ash fragment flared.
Golden fire erupted upward, swallowing the chamber in light.
The memory opened.
And suddenly—
I was standing in Solareth on the night it burnt.
Children crying.
Walls collapsing.
Smoke.
Fire.
People running toward gates that would never open fast enough.
And in the centre of it—
Young Vira.
Armour bloodstained.
Sword shaking.
Watching the city die because she had been told it must.
No wonder.
No wonder.
The fragment did not want judgement.
It wanted a witness.
I walked toward her through memory fire.
She turned.
Young.
Furious.
Broken.
And asked the question that had haunted everything.
"Tell me."
Her voice cracked.
"Was I still a protector the moment I chose who to abandon?"
And honestly—
There was only one answer.
The hardest one.
The truest one.
I looked at her and said—
"Yes."
Because being human meant failing.
Because protectors were not the people who never made terrible choices.
They were the ones who kept carrying the consequences instead of running.
Her eyes widened.
The fire around us trembled.
I continued.
"You were wrong."
A pause.
"But wrong is not the same as lost."
Tears mixed with ash on her face.
Not weakness.
Witness.
I stepped closer.
"Protect them now. Not by pretending Solareth didn't happen."
I placed the broken sun emblem into her shaking hand.
"By making sure no one else becomes the price."
The memory shattered.
The chamber returned.
The Ash Fragment dropped into my hand.
Warm.
Whole.
Accepted.
ARINA's voice rang like sunrise through smoke.
Fourth Fragment Acquired: Ash Fragment: War Path Resonance Confirmed Sovereign Synchronisation: Crimson + Moon + Thunder + Ash Next Gate Path Unlocking
Power surged.
Not strength.
Direction.
Another path opening.
Another sovereign is waiting.
But first—
this world.
This kingdom.
This woman.
The chamber was collapsing.
Above me, battle still roared.
I looked toward the ceiling.
Toward Vira.
Towards the war, she still thought she had to carry it alone.
And I smiled faintly.
Because apparently, I had developed a very bad habit.
I was going back.
Of course I was.