Chapter 2770: Story 2771: The Name That Killed the Stars

The first star vanished.

Ronan watched it disappear through a crack in the chamber ceiling. Then another died, followed by hundreds more, until the darkness beyond the broken roof became an endless, empty wound.

The crowned Cael spread his arms.

“Do you hear it?” he whispered. “Creation is remembering what existed before it.”

The golden light stolen from the real Cael twisted inside his crown. Beneath the bone, a second face appeared, screaming silently.

“Cael!” Ronan shouted.

His brother lay motionless on the stone, his body pale and trembling. Ronan rushed toward him, but invisible chains slammed into the ground between them.

The impostor smiled.

“You cannot save him. I have taken the part of him that remembers how to exist.”

Lyra stepped beside Ronan and raised her dagger.

“Then we take it back.”

She charged before he could stop her.

The impostor swept one hand sideways. The floor rose like a breaking wave, throwing Lyra toward the wall. She twisted in midair, caught a hanging chain, and swung herself onto a stone platform.

Her dagger struck the crown.

A sharp crack rang through the chamber.

The impostor screamed.

For one instant, the golden light inside the crown flickered—and the real Cael gasped.

“Again!” he shouted.

Lyra leaped from the platform, driving her dagger into the same fracture. The crown split another inch, releasing a burst of golden energy that hurled everyone backward.

Darian shielded Aren with violet fire. Elias wrapped his black chains around a pillar, anchoring himself against the blast.

Ronan remained standing.

The golden mark on his chest had opened like an eye.

A voice whispered inside him.

Give me the name, and I will restore what was lost.

Ronan recognized the voice beyond the door.

“You want the name too,” he murmured.

I want what belongs to me.

“And what happens to my brothers?”

They will become what they were always meant to be.

Ronan looked at Elias, Aren, and Darian. Their powers were being drawn toward the crown, their bodies slowly fading beneath streams of golden light.

He tightened his grip on his sword.

“No.”

The voice fell silent.

Then Ronan drove his blade into the floor.

Red energy erupted through the chamber, racing along the chains and wrapping around his brothers. Elias’s black power surged back into his arms. Aren’s silver barriers solidified. Darian’s violet flames burned brighter than before.

The impostor staggered.

“You cannot reject your origin!”

“I can reject you.”

Ronan charged.

Their swords collided, red against frozen white. The impostor struck with impossible speed, cutting Ronan’s shoulder and forcing him to one knee.

Then the forgotten child stepped between them.

“Stop hurting my brother.”

The impostor froze.

For the first time, fear crossed his face.

The child’s red heart shone through his chest, illuminating the broken crown.

“You stole Cael’s memories,” the child said. “But you forgot what he remembered first.”

Cael lifted his head.

His eyes widened.

“Run!” he screamed. “That isn’t my first self!”

The child turned toward the crown.

Something ancient smiled through his face.

“I remember you.”

And every dead king in the chamber knelt.