And behind them, unseen for now, the tower walls cracked further.
From deep in the dark, a form began to stir—not Alicia, not a wraith… but the first vessel of the Shadow Prince's soul.
The next trial had already begun.
Stone split like old bark, and from the shadows crawled something ancient.
Not alive. Not dead.
A memory that refused to fade.
It wore no name—only a crown of rusted thorns and a shroud stitched from the screams of forgotten kings. Where it passed, the walls wept ash. Its eyes glowed not with hatred, but hunger. It had waited lifetimes, locked in the bones of the tower, buried beneath Alicia's seal.
Now, the seal was cracked.
Now, it remembered.
In the chamber above, Jian shivered.
"You feel that?" she asked, turning sharply.
Jackson's flames flared in response. "Yeah. Something just woke up."
A distant sound echoed up the stairwell behind them. Not a roar. Not footsteps.
A heartbeat.
Slow. Measured.
Coming closer.
Jian's staff glowed with a defensive pulse, the three scales harmonizing in warning.
"We're not done here," Jackson said, stepping between her and the stairwell.
"No," she replied, raising her staff. "This is the tower's last secret. The one Alicia tried to bury."
And as the ember behind them pulsed brighter, they turned to face the dark once more—
not knowing that what rose toward them carried not just power…
…but memory twisted into flesh.
The vessel of the Shadow Prince had awakened.
And it remembered them.