Chapter 32: Gate of Echoes
The sky had changed again.
Where once the stars had been fixed like grim sentinels, now they moved—shifting ever so slightly in their strange constellations. Four remained above them, pulsing with unnatural rhythm, as if beating in time with Liam's heart. They no longer simply watched—they anticipated.
The air was cold, but not the chill of wind or weather. It was the quiet, penetrating cold of a truth drawing close, the kind that seeped into your bones long before you understood what you were about to face.
Liam stood beside Ella atop a ridge carved of ancient obsidian, staring down at the massive stone arch buried halfway in the ruined earth.
The Gate of Echoes.
Unlike the Bastille, there was no entrance to descend into. No doors to push open, no mechanisms or sigils to solve. The gate simply stood, impossibly tall, half-shattered, suspended over nothing. Behind it, the world ended. Literally.
There was no ground. No sky. Only a thick curtain of shimmering black mist that swallowed everything.
"Why does it look like the world just... stops?" Liam asked, jaw tight.
Ella didn't answer immediately. Her crimson eyes traced the runes carved into the remaining halves of the gate, her fingers hovering above symbols that shimmered in dull silver.
"Because it does," she said softly. "The Gate of Echoes doesn't lead to a place. It leads to a possibility—one that was never meant to survive."
Liam turned sharply. "You said this gate holds my past."
She nodded. "A version of you. The you that wasn't. Or shouldn't have been."
He swallowed. "And what if I meet him?"
Ella's voice was quiet. "Then don't let him replace you."
---
Entering the Gate
The key forged from the Sovereign's chain responded to Liam's touch before it even reached the gate. The runes surged to life—burning with spectral light, casting distorted reflections across the ridge. Winds began to scream around them, not from the sky, but from the rift itself, howling with voices that spoke in languages Liam didn't recognize, yet somehow understood.
They were memories.
Memories that weren't his.
Ella took his hand.
"You don't let go," she said.
He nodded. "Not even if the world ends."
They stepped through the Gate of Echoes together.
---
The Reflection World
The sensation was unlike anything Liam had experienced before—not falling, not flying, not even teleporting. It was like being unraveled and rewoven by sound.
When he opened his eyes, they were no longer in the wastes.
They stood in a world that looked like Ashenhold, but wrong. Buildings shimmered like glass, frozen in time mid-collapse. The sky was fractured—like someone had taken a hammer to a mirror and painted stars over the shards. Color bled where it shouldn't: red grass, golden shadows, blue fire.
And in the distance, a palace of silver and bone pulsed with familiar energy.
It was… his.
The version of him that had taken the throne.
"Liam?" Ella asked carefully.
But he wasn't looking at her.
He was looking at the man walking toward them.
A man who looked exactly like him.
---
The Other Liam
He was dressed in black-and-silver robes, etched with runes Liam hadn't learned yet. His eyes weren't brown anymore—they were gold, burning faintly from within. A circlet of bone crowned his head, and on his chest was a brand shaped like a blood droplet wreathed in flame.
The symbol of the Bloodbound Flame.
Liam's symbol.
"You're late," the other Liam said, voice deeper, smoother. "But then… I always was."
Ella immediately stepped forward, aura rising.
The Other Liam chuckled. "Easy, Queen of Midnight. I'm not here to fight. Yet."
Liam clenched his fists. "What is this place?"
"A future that never came true," the Other said simply. "But still could. This gate was meant to collapse. But I kept it open."
"Why?"
The Other smiled. "Because I need you to remember who you really are."
---
Memories That Burn
Suddenly, the world pulsed, and Liam fell to his knees.
Flashes hit him like lightning:
—A cradle on fire, a woman screaming his name.
—A boy with glowing hands burning an executioner alive.
—A young man commanding legions of vampires with a whisper.
He saw himself, not as he was—but as he could have been. A tyrant. A savior. A god. All versions walking different roads… yet all ending at the same throne.
"No," he gasped, "That's not me!"
The Other Liam crouched beside him. "Not yet."
Ella struck him with a bolt of crimson lightning.
But it passed through.
He was not entirely real.
"You brought him here to break him," she hissed.
"No," the Other replied, calm. "I brought him here to prepare him. Because something is coming, Queen. Something neither of us can face alone."
He reached out to Liam again.
And this time, Liam took the hand.
---
The Fusion of Echoes
When their fingers touched, the world shattered again.
But not into darkness.
Into knowledge.
Liam saw timelines. Lives. Entire empires rising and falling at his command. He saw the Blood Contract rewritten with celestial fire. He saw Ella beside him on every path—sometimes his queen, sometimes his jailor, once even his executioner.
But she was always there.
And then he saw the End.
A city floating in the void, stars crushed under a massive chain-bound god whose face was a burning eclipse. The same creature he saw in the Bastille—the Prime Captive.
It wasn't coming.
It had always been here.
Trapped.
Waiting.
Feeding on his echoes.
When he woke, the Other Liam was gone.
And a blade was in his hand.
Forged from every version of himself.
The Flamebrand.
---
The Gate Closes
They emerged from the Gate of Echoes as the mist behind them began to implode.
It had fed on too much.
The false world collapsed inward, devouring itself in silence.
Liam stood in the real sky again, heart pounding.
He felt… heavier.
More complete.
Ella looked at him cautiously. "Are you still you?"
Liam gave a weak smile. "I'm everyone I could've been. But I choose to be this one."
He looked down at the Flamebrand in his hand. The blade whispered softly.
Ella nodded. "Then we go to the next."
Liam exhaled. "How many left?"
"Three stars remain," she said. "Three thrones unbroken. And the next is the Sanctum of Silence."
Liam groaned. "Let me guess. It screams."
Ella smirked. "No. Worse. It tells the truth."
---
Far Away...
Beneath the ruins of the world, something massive stirred.
Chains cracked.
Eyes opened in the dark.
And a voice, older than death, whispered:
Flamebearer… come home.
---
End of Chapter 32