The cursed sigil burned cold against Kai's palm, its frostbite-like ache seeping into his veins. Torren's betrayal had reduced the hammer to dead weight, its eye-rune dim and silent. Outside the derelict forge, the howl of Eclipse scouts echoed through the Shattered Wastes.
"You've got two choices, heir," Torren said, pocketing a jingling pouch of Council gold. "Die here, or die there." He nodded toward the horizon, where the Soulforge loomed—a floating fortress wreathed in storm clouds, its underbelly glowing with captured souls.
Kai's void essence flickered weakly. "Or I kill you first."
Torren smirked. "Sigil's keyed to my pulse. Kill me, and that hammer's dead forever."
The Brassclaw Devourer's voice slithered from the weapon: "Free me… and I'll peel his flesh from his bones."
Kai hesitated. The hammer trembled.
"Your sister's soul fades by the second,"the Devourer pressed. "Or is her life worth less than your pride?"
With a snarl, Kai rammed the hammer into the forge's anvil. The cursed sigil shattered, and the Devourer's molten claws erupted from the eye-rune, seizing Torren's throat.
"Gold can't burn, traitor,"it hissed. "But you can."
Torren's scream died as flames consumed him.
The Devourer's molten form oozed from the hammer, its brass claws clicking against the stone floor. "The Soulforge's core is a twin to your Clock. Shatter it, and your sister's chains break."
Kai glared at the abomination. "And you? What do you want?"
"The Eclipse Queen's heart," it purred. "I'll settle for yours… if she dies first."
The sky cracked with thunder as the Soulforge began its march. Kai climbed onto the Devourer's back, its molten brass searing his legs. "If you betray me, I'll shove you into the sun."
"How human," it laughed. "Let's fly."
The storm swallowed them. Revenant dragons—skeletal beasts armored in Eclipse steel—dove from the clouds, their jaws spewing acid. The Devourer banked sharply, Kai clinging to its spine as void-fire erupted from his free hand, corroding a dragon's wing.
"Left!" Kai yelled.
The Devourer rolled, claws raking a dragon's underbelly. Rotted flesh and machinery spilled into the void. "You fight like a child," it taunted. "Let me in."
"No."
"Then perish."
A dragon's tail slammed into them, hurling Kai into open sky. He plummeted, the Devourer's laughter echoing as the ground rushed up—
—until talons caught him. The Devourer's molten jaws closed around the dragon's skull, crushing it. "You're welcome."
Kai's blood dripped onto the hammer, its eye-rune flickering. "Open the cage," the Devourer whispered. "Just a little."
Reluctantly, Kai relaxed his grip. The Devourer's essence surged, their minds merging.
Suddenly, he understood—every weak point in the Soulforge's armor, every tremor in the storm.
"There!" Kai pointed to a glowing fissure in the fortress's hull. "The core's exposed!"
They crashed into the Soulforge's docking bay, the Devourer's claws shredding Eclipse guards. Kai leapt free, hammer blazing, and sprinted toward the core's pulsating light.
A shadow blocked his path.
Elyse stood motionless, her scythe humming with stolen souls. The Eclipse Queen's voice echoed from her lips: "Submit, heir. Your sister's soul is mine."
"Elyse—fight her!" Kai pleaded.
Her scythe trembled. For a heartbeat, her eyes flickered amber. "Kai… run."
The Eclipse Queen reasserted control, and the scythe swung. Kai parried, void-fire clashing against soul-energy.
"I'm not leaving you!" he roared.
"Then join her," the Queen hissed.
Elyse's scythe split into a dozen blades, each striking from impossible angles. Kai dodged, but one grazed his chest—and the Clock in his core screamed.
The world froze.
The Forgotten King's spirit materialized, his form translucent and fraying. "The Clock's true purpose is not to devour—it is to preserve. Your ancestors locked the Void's corruption inside it… and your sister's soul is the key."
Kai's breath caught. "How do I free her?"
"Break the Soulforge's core. But know this: the Void will claim you in her place."
The vision faded. Elyse's scythe plunged toward his throat—
—and the Devourer intercepted it, molten claws locking against the blade. "Go!" it snarled. "I'll keep the puppet busy."
Kai sprinted to the core—a massive, pulsing replica of his Clock. He raised the hammer, but the Eclipse Queen's laughter stopped him cold.
"Strike it, and Elyse's soul shatters. Submit… and she lives."
The core's surface rippled, revealing Elyse's spectral form trapped within. Her voice whispered: "Do it, Kai."
Tears blurred his vision. "I can't."
"You must."
The hammer fell.
The core exploded, a shockwave of void-energy tearing the Soulforge apart. Elyse's body dissolved into light, her soul merging with the blast.
The Devourer roared in triumph. "The cage is open! Now… WE FEAST!"
Kai's Clock shattered, and the Void surged in—a tidal wave of darkness that consumed the sky.
As the world dissolved, the Forgotten King's final words echoed: "You were never the heir… You are the key."
Kai awoke to a sky choked with swirling void-storms, their tendrils licking at a desert of black glass. His right arm was gone—consumed by the Void up to the shoulder—and his remaining flesh pulsed with jagged cracks of dark energy. The All-Devouring Clock lay shattered at his side, its gears rusted and still.
A cold hand brushed his cheek.
"Get up."
Elyse's spectral form flickered above him, her body translucent and fraying at the edges. The Eclipse Queen's scythe was gone, replaced by faint amber light pooling in her chest.
Kai staggered upright. "You're… alive?"
"Not quite." She gestured to the cracks spreading across his skin. "And neither are you. Not for long."
They trekked across the glass dunes, Elyse's form flickering with every step. The Void's whispers dogged them—hisses of hunger, promises of power.
"Why are you here?" Kai asked, clutching his decaying arm.
"The Queen's hold broke when you shattered the core," Elyse said. "But my soul is anchored to yours now. If the Void claims you, I vanish."
Ahead, a jagged mountain pierced the storms. At its peak loomed a temple of black stone, its spires twisted like broken fingers.
"The Forgotten King's sanctuary," Elyse murmured. "Whatever's left of him is there."
The temple doors opened with a groan. Inside, murals depicted the Forgotten King not as a hero, but as a tyrant—crushing rebellions, forging the All-Devouring Clock from the hearts of his enemies.
"Lies," Kai muttered.
"Are they?" Elyse pointed to the central altar, where a skeletal figure sat slumped on a throne of bone. The King's corpse clutched a scroll in its withered hand.
Kai unrolled it. The words shifted—First Tongue, the language of the Void.
Elyse paled. "You can read it?"
"…Yes."
"To my heir," the scroll began. "The Clock was never yours. You are the lock. The Eclipse Queen is the key. Together, you will wake the Void—and I will rise anew."
The throne's eyesockets flared with violet light. The King's corpse rasped: "Right on time."
The temple shook. Outside, the Devourer's roar split the sky—its molten form now fused with Kai's shattered Clock, the gears spinning wildly in its chest.
"The Queen's coming," Elyse said. "She needs you both to reignite the Void."
Kai's decaying hand clenched. "How do we stop her?"
Elyse hesitated. "We don't. You let the Void take you… and I trap it inside what's left of my soul."
"NO."
"You'd rather doom every realm?"
Before Kai could answer, the temple roof exploded. The Eclipse Queen descended, her robes sewn from void-storms.
"Enough theatrics," she hissed. "Time to die… properly."
The Devourer lunged, Clock-gears shrieking. Kai raised his Void-corrupted arm, deflecting a clawed strike.
"You promised to kill her first!" Kai spat.
"I lied," the Devourer laughed. "The Void's song is sweeter."
The Queen's laughter intertwined with the Devourer's as void-energy engulfed the temple. Elyse's ghost began to dissolve.
"Now, Kai!" she cried.
He hesitated—then plunged his fractured arm into the Devourer's Clock-core.
The Void surged into Kai, devouring the Devourer's essence. The Eclipse Queen screamed as her storms unraveled.
But as the light faded, Kai stood alone. Elyse was gone. The Forgotten King's corpse stirred, its bones knitting together with Void-energy.
"Thank you, heir," it rasped. "You've served your purpose."
The throne room dissolved, leaving Kai kneeling in ashes—his body fully consumed by the Void, his sister's soul extinguished.