Light.
That was all anyone could see.
A blinding silver light erupted from the moment Mirror's hand grasped Myreiya's.
It spread across the battlefield like a tidal wave.
Every shadow stopped.
Every soldier froze.
Even the rain remained suspended in the air.
Drops of water hung motionless around them like countless tiny stars.
Silence.
Complete silence.
Mirror looked around in confusion.
"What..."
His own voice sounded distant.
Almost unreal.
"My Queen?"
Myreiya stood beside him, equally stunned.
She slowly lifted her free hand.
The rain surrounding her refused to fall.
Time itself had stopped.
"No..."
she whispered.
"This isn't possible."
Only three people could still move.
Mirror.
Myreiya.
And the stranger dressed in black.
The stranger looked neither surprised nor frightened.
Instead...
He smiled.
"So..."
"It finally happened."
The silver light surrounding Mirror and Myreiya formed countless glowing threads.
Each thread connected them to something beneath the earth.
Ancient.
Hidden.
Sleeping.
Mirror felt warmth spread through his chest.
For the first time since the mark had awakened...
The pain disappeared.
His breathing steadied.
His heartbeat slowed.
The voice inside the mark remained silent.
As though something far greater had taken its place.
The stranger approached them.
Each step echoed despite the frozen world.
"You should be dead."
Mirror frowned.
"What?"
"The last time."
Mirror's expression darkened.
"I don't understand."
"You will."
The stranger looked toward Myreiya.
"And she will remember."
Myreiya instinctively reached for her sword.
The blade refused to move.
It remained frozen inside its scabbard.
The stranger noticed.
"Relax."
"If I wanted either of you dead..."
"I would have done it a thousand years ago."
Silence.
Mirror stared at him.
"What did you just say?"
The stranger ignored the question.
Instead, he pointed toward the Black Tower.
"Look."
The tower had changed.
Its crimson glow disappeared.
Now...
It shone with silver light.
The same light surrounding Mirror and Myreiya.
Ancient runes began appearing across its surface.
Thousands of them.
Symbols no scholar could read.
Yet...
Mirror somehow understood one.
Only one.
HOME
The word appeared in his mind without explanation.
He staggered backward.
"No..."
The stranger watched carefully.
"You can read them."
"I..."
Mirror pressed both hands against his head.
"I've never seen this language."
"Not in this life."
The answer struck like lightning.
Mirror slowly looked up.
"What do you mean..."
The stranger sighed.
"I had hoped your memories would remain buried longer."
Myreiya stepped between them.
"Enough."
Her voice carried the authority of a queen.
"Tell us who you are."
The stranger met her gaze.
His golden eyes softened.
"So much like her."
"Stop saying that!"
For the first time...
Myreiya lost her composure.
"Who am I supposed to remind you of?"
The stranger remained silent.
A deep sadness crossed his face.
Finally...
He answered.
"The greatest queen this world ever knew."
"My mother?"
"No."
"My grandmother?"
"No."
He smiled sadly.
"You."
Myreiya's blood ran cold.
"What?"
"Not this version."
"The first one."
Mirror looked from Myreiya to the stranger.
Nothing made sense.
First version?
Another life?
Impossible.
His rational mind rejected it.
Yet...
His heart did not.
Something inside him recognized the stranger.
Recognized the tower.
Recognized the light.
And that frightened him more than anything.
The frozen battlefield suddenly trembled.
Hairline cracks spread through the air itself.
Mirror stared in disbelief.
The sky...
Was breaking.
Tiny fractures covered the heavens.
Behind those cracks—
Darkness.
Endless darkness.
The stranger looked upward.
"We're out of time."
"What is happening?"
Mirror demanded.
"The Second Seal."
The stranger raised one hand.
"The prison exists outside time."
"But once it begins opening..."
"The world remembers."
Another crack split the sky.
This one larger.
Something moved beyond it.
Not a creature.
Not a god.
A shadow so vast it covered the stars.
Mirror instinctively stepped in front of Myreiya.
He didn't think.
He simply acted.
The stranger noticed.
Again.
"There it is."
Mirror frowned.
"What?"
"The oath."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You don't have to."
"The soul remembers what the mind forgets."
Without warning—
Myreiya grabbed Mirror's wrist.
He turned toward her.
She looked genuinely frightened.
The sight shocked him.
She was the Queen of Ashes.
She never showed fear.
Yet now...
Her fingers trembled.
"Mirror..."
"I don't know why..."
"...but I feel like I've lost you before."
The words echoed through the silent world.
Mirror's heart skipped.
He had felt the same thing.
From the moment he first saw her.
A strange familiarity.
A sadness without reason.
As though they had met...
And separated...
Long before this life.
Before either could speak—
The stranger's expression changed.
His smile disappeared.
He looked toward the tower.
"No."
A low rumble shook the frozen world.
"The seal shouldn't be breaking this fast."
The cracks across the sky spread rapidly.
Silver light poured through them.
The tower began shaking violently.
Ancient chains wrapped around its walls snapped one after another.
Mirror's mark suddenly burned again.
Not painfully.
Urgently.
The familiar voice returned.
But this time...
It sounded afraid.
"Run."
Mirror froze.
"What?"
"RUN!"
The voice roared inside his mind.
For the first time—
It was terrified.
The stranger's golden eyes widened.
"It woke up."
The ground split open beneath the tower.
A colossal hand reached out from the darkness.
Not human.
Covered in black scales.
Each finger larger than a castle.
The stranger whispered only one word.
"Impossible..."
The hand tightened around the tower itself.
As if something imprisoned beneath the earth was trying to pull itself free.
The frozen rain shattered.
Time started moving again.
The battlefield erupted into chaos.
Soldiers screamed.
Horses bolted.
The shadows charged.
And above them all—
A deep voice echoed from beneath the world.
A voice so ancient that the mountains themselves trembled.
"Who... dares... awaken... me?"
Mirror felt every drop of blood leave his body.
Because...
The voice wasn't speaking to the army.
It wasn't speaking to Myreiya.
It was speaking directly...
To him.