"Reckoning and Rise"
The descent felt endless. Jason stood beside Elias on a spiraling bridge of obsidian, surrounded by galaxies twisting in silence. Below them waited the heart of the Bloodline Gate.
Jason asked quietly, "What happens after this?"
Elias replied, "You carry the Gate with you."
They reached the core.
A massive chamber opened, like the inside of a cosmic engine—rings of energy circling a pulsing orb of red and gold. At its center was a stone altar. Floating above it: a sealed scroll, wrapped in shadow and fire.
Elias stopped at the edge. "This is the Codex of Lineage. Only a true descendant may open it. But once opened… you are marked forever."
Jason stepped forward.
But something stirred.
A new presence entered the chamber.
A cloaked figure with a curved blade and a silver mark glowing on her hand.
Jason's eyes widened.
"Leah?"
The girl removed her hood—but it wasn't Leah.
It was someone with her eyes.
"You opened the Gate," she said, circling the altar. "Then you've doomed us both."
Jason raised his hand, flames glowing. "Who are you?"
She smiled sadly. "I am Kaelith. My bloodline once kept the Gates sealed. Yours? Opened them."
Elias stepped back. "She speaks truth, Jason. Kaelith is of the Wardens."
Jason's heart raced. "But... why would I open it?"
Kaelith stepped forward. "Because the war is already coming. And your father was the first to fall."
Jason staggered. "My... father?"
Elias placed a hand on his shoulder. "You weren't told. He was the last bearer of the Bloodline Key. Before he vanished, he warned us: a darkness would rise again. That darkness is returning now. Through you, it will be challenged."
Jason stared at the Codex. It throbbed like a heart.
Kaelith's voice softened. "If you take it, Jason, you awaken the war. But if you leave it... you leave the truth buried forever."
He remembered the house. The forest. Leah's scream. Evelyn's whispers. The reflection of himself in fire and ash.
He stepped toward the Codex and reached out.
The moment his fingers touched the seal, an explosion of memory surged into him.
His father—standing in the same chamber—bleeding, wounded, whispering, "Protect the line…"
A child—Jason—crying in a cabin.
A mother—Evelyn—placing the mark on his wrist and saying, "He must never know until the Gate calls him."
Jason screamed as the magic surged.
The Codex unraveled.
Runes poured into his arms, his spine, his soul.
When it was done, he collapsed—heart pounding, eyes burning.
Kaelith knelt beside him. "You bear the knowledge now. The Gate is in you."
Jason gasped, "Then let it burn."
He stood.
And the world shook.
The chamber cracked. The altar collapsed.
From below rose a serpent of shadows, ancient and roaring—one of the original Gatebound beasts.
Jason stepped forward. "Elias, Kaelith—get behind me."
He summoned fire—but not ordinary flame.
Bloodfire.
Red, ancient, burning with symbols, it curled around him like a storm.
The beast roared.
Jason charged.
The clash was titanic.
His flames carved through the shadowy hide, but the beast struck back with claws of ice and memory. Jason was thrown into a pillar but stood again.
He whispered, "I am the Gatewalker."
His birthmark blazed, and from it, chains of light erupted—binding the creature.
Kaelith added her blade. Elias chanted in tongues lost to time.
Together, they banished the serpent into the void.
Silence fell.
Jason collapsed again, breathless but smiling.
"I felt him," he whispered. "My father... He's not gone."
Kaelith helped him up. "No. He's waiting. On the other side of the Gate of Thrones."
Elias nodded. "And now, Jason... you're strong enough to reach it."
—
As they exited the collapsing Gate realm, Jason looked back once more.
The path forward wasn't easier now.
It was darker.
But he wasn't afraid.
He carried the fire of his bloodline, the strength of his trials, and the weight of a war that had only just begun.
The Gate was open.
The Bloodline War had started.
And Jason was ready.