The winds had calmed, but Steven's mind still surged with stormfire.
He now wielded the power of shadows and storms — Maeron's shadows, Vaelstrom's lightning — but he needed more. The Codex's unraveling was accelerating. Pain's lieutenants had already claimed fragments of the old reality. If Steven didn't reach the next guardian soon…
Everything could collapse.
They returned to the Aethergate Nexus — a floating sanctum between realms where spellpaths converged.
Maeron traced a sigil across the map. "The next Warden hides in a place outside time. The Labyrinth of Stars."
Steven narrowed his eyes. "You mean the one created by the Architects of Eternity?"
> "Yes," Maeron confirmed. "Only those marked by fate can enter… and survive."
Steven clenched his fist. "Then let fate try to stop me."
—
The transition was instant.
One step through the Nexus Gate, and they stood beneath a cosmic dome filled with spinning stars, celestial beasts, and impossible geometries. Every step shifted the ground. Every breath changed direction. The laws of reality twisted with each heartbeat.
> "This place isn't just a maze," Steven muttered. "It's a test."
A golden statue loomed before them — a giant with a blindfold and wings made of constellations.
"Answer, or be forgotten," it boomed.
Then the stars rearranged themselves into words:
"What weighs more than worlds but cannot be held?"
Steven's thoughts raced. Trick question? Magic riddle? A trap?
> "Hope," he said, stepping forward.
Silence.
Then — the statue bowed.
> "Correct. Proceed, Starcaster."
Maeron raised an eyebrow. "You've done your riddle reading."
> "No," Steven smirked. "I've lived it."
They passed deeper, now walking on a glass floor showing infinite versions of themselves. Steven saw himself as a tyrant. As a corpse. As… Pain.
> "These are not illusions," Maeron said quietly. "They're truths. Potential futures."
Steven stared down at the reflection of himself in golden armor, eyes hollow.
> "I won't become that," he whispered. "I can't."
Before Maeron could answer, the maze opened into a starlit chamber — floating in its center was a woman wrapped in veils of galaxy light, surrounded by orbiting tomes.
Selyra Omnis, the Celestial Warden.
> "So… the Starcaster dares walk the path of forgotten fate," she said, voice like a lullaby in a supernova.
> "The universe is dying," Steven said. "I need your power. Your oath."
Selyra's books snapped shut, stars swirling around her.
> "Then answer one final question," she said. "What is the one truth you fear?"
Steven's breath caught.
He didn't answer with power. Or magic.
> "That I'm not enough," he whispered. "That I can't save them."
The room fell still.
Then… Selyra smiled. "Then you are enough."
A comet of light struck Steven's chest — not pain, but understanding. The celestial glyphs engraved themselves in his aura.
> "The stars are yours now," Selyra said, eyes glowing. "Use them wisely."
As she faded into the aether, Steven turned to Maeron.
> "Two more," he said. "Then we face Pain."
Maeron's shadow pulsed. "And not a moment too soon…"
(To be continued)