Theon could only stare.
His mind refused to accept it. The image kept sliding off him, like water off stone. What he was seeing felt too big to be real.
"Lyra!"
The name tore out of him a second before the flames exploded outward.
*Boom.*
A wave of heat and pressure slammed into his chest. He barely got his hand up in time.
"Shadow Shield!"
A wall of dark mana snapped up in front of him. The fire crashed into it like a wave hitting a rock, once, then twice, then a third time, and each hit sent thin cracks spreading across the surface. The shield held, but only just. Theon felt the strain of it grinding through his teeth.
He slid backward across the ice, his boots cutting long grooves into the frozen ground, until Fen’s shoulder pressed against his own. Fen’s crimson eyes never left Lyra. When he finally spoke, his voice had lost its usual lazy tone.
"This mana." He paused, like he was tasting something old and unwelcome. "It’s the same feeling I sensed twenty thousand years ago. That night the flames burned Frostfang Forest to the ground."
Theon turned to him sharply. "What?"
"I thought it was gone." Fen kept his eyes on the throne. "I thought it had disappeared for good."
A cold feeling spread through Theon that had nothing to do with the ice under his boots. Another secret. Another buried piece of a truth he was only now starting to dig up with his own hands.
Above them, Lyra’s eyes opened slowly.
They were no longer silver.
They burned gold, like two small suns set into a face he barely recognized anymore.
Diablo lowered his head even further. "The Empress has only begun to wake."
"No." Theon’s fists clenched so hard his nails bit into his palms. He stepped forward, ice cracking under his heel. "She’s still Lyra."
Diablo’s eyes slid over to him, calm as still water. "For now."
Those two words hit harder than the blast had. Theon felt them drop into his stomach like a stone thrown into a well with no bottom.
The black crystal throne glowed brighter. Ancient markings crawled across its surface like veins filling with light. The flames around Lyra grew bigger, reaching further into the sky, and the heat in the air climbed fast. Sweat broke out on Theon’s forehead despite the frost clinging to his coat.
If this kept going, the whole cave would come down on top of them.
He couldn’t just stand there and watch it happen.
Theon threw both hands forward. "Ancient Ice Wall!"
A huge slab of blue ice tore itself out of the lake and rushed toward Lyra, groaning under its own weight, trying to force itself between her and the world. Diablo didn’t even stand up. He lifted one finger, and black fire licked out to meet the wall.
It shattered like glass hitting stone.
Theon didn’t stop. "Ancient Ice Javelin!"
Five spears of ice formed behind him in an instant and shot forward, cutting through the cave so fast they left trails of frost hanging in the air. Diablo moved for the first time, really moved, sweeping one arm through the air. Black flame swallowed all five spears at once, snuffing them out before they even got close.
Theon’s jaw tightened until it hurt. Still not enough. Not even close.
He dropped to one knee and slammed his palm flat against the ice. "Ancient Ice Chains!"
Icy chains burst out of the frozen ground with a loud crack, twisting and coiling toward Lyra and the throne like something alive and hungry for her. This time Diablo’s eyes actually narrowed. It was the first real attention Theon had earned from him all night.
The chains wrapped tight around the throne. For one short second, the flames dimmed just enough for Theon to see Lyra’s face clearly again.
His breath caught. "It worked!"
Diablo studied the frozen chains, something like real surprise crossing his face. "You made this technique yourself."
Theon didn’t answer. He didn’t have air to spare for talking. He pushed more mana into the chains instead, watching frost creep across the throne in thin cracking lines, watching the flames shake like a candle in the wind.
Then Lyra looked straight at him.
For a split second, just one, her eyes turned silver again.
"Theon."
Her voice came out thin and broken, like it was traveling from somewhere very far away.
"Help me."
Theon’s whole body froze. "Lyra!"
The golden flames exploded again. The chains shattered into a thousand pieces. The force threw him backward through the air, and he hit the ice hard enough to knock the wind out of him and cough up blood.
When he lifted his head, Lyra’s eyes had turned gold again. Whatever small window had opened had already slammed shut. The throne began to crack, not the thin surface cracks from before, but deep splits that ran down the whole length of the black crystal. A dark red light leaked out from somewhere inside it.
Diablo slowly stood up.
Theon’s breath caught in his throat. Inside the throne, sitting where a heart would sit in a chest, was a crystal. A flame burned steady at its center, and the whole thing seemed to pulse, almost like it had a heartbeat of its own.
It looked alive.
Understanding hit Theon like a second punch. "That’s what he wants."
Diablo started walking toward the throne, unhurried, like he had already won and just hadn’t bothered to say so yet.
Theon forced himself back up. His whole body screamed with pain, his muscles torn, but he ignored all of it. He could not let that crystal end up in Diablo’s hands. Not after everything it had already cost him.
He pulled together what little mana (he hasn’t unlocked the infinite mana pool yet) he had left and set his feet, ready to make one last stand.
The red light pulsed brighter. The flames licked at the ceiling. And the cave began to shake.
The shaking grew worse fast. Cracks spread across the ceiling like spiderwebs, and chunks of ice and stone crashed down into the frozen lake with heavy, echoing splashes.
Diablo reached the base of the throne.
Theon forced his legs to move. "Stop!"
Blue light and dark shadow twisted together around his fists.
"Ancient Ice Javelin!"
This time only one spear formed. But it was bigger than all five from before combined, its surface wrapped in black shadow mana that made the ice look almost bruised, darker and colder than anything he had made all night. Theon threw it with everything he had, and it tore through the cave air like a bolt of frozen lightning.
Diablo finally turned to face it head on. For the first time all night, his face turned serious. He raised one hand, and black flame slammed into the shadow wrapped ice in a blast that shook the whole underground lake down to its bones.
*BOOM.*
Ice shattered in every direction. Steam rolled up off the surface of the lake and filled the cave like fog. Theon was thrown backward again, his body slamming into the cave wall hard enough that he heard something crack. He honestly couldn’t tell if it was the ice or one of his own ribs.
Pain tore through his chest. His vision blurred, doubled, swam in and out of focus. He tried to push himself up and found his legs simply wouldn’t listen anymore.
Diablo glanced at the broken javelin still stuck in the ice, then looked back at Theon. "That one came close."
Theon spat blood onto the ice and forced a tired, stubborn smile. "Then I’ll make the next one hit."
Diablo’s golden eyes studied him a moment longer than they needed to. "A prince who can use both ancient ice and shadow mana." He paused, almost thoughtful. "How rare."
Theon dragged himself upright again, a thin line of blood running from the corner of his mouth. Above them, Lyra’s flames burned hotter than ever, and the red light from the throne pulsed faster.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then the throne split wide open.
A crystal the size of a human heart rose into the air, ancient fire burning steadily inside it, and the moment it appeared the whole cave shook like the mountain itself had flinched.
Fen’s eyes went wide. "Master. That’s the source."
Theon stared at the floating crystal, feeling the sheer weight of mana pouring off it like heat off a forge. It was like staring straight into a piece of the sun and not being able to look away.
Diablo stepped toward it, and Theon moved on pure instinct.
"Shadow Leap!"
He vanished from where he stood and appeared right in Diablo’s path. Their eyes met for one split second before Theon swung his shadow blade in a tight, desperate arc.
Diablo caught it with one bare hand.
Black flame wrapped around his fingers, and the blade started to melt where it touched his skin, dissolving like ice held too close to a fire.
Theon’s eyes widened in shock. That shouldn’t have been possible.
Diablo moved, not fast, not hard, just one calm strike. His open palm pressed flat against Theon’s chest.
*Boom.*
Black flame burst outward, and Theon was thrown clear across the cave, slamming into the far wall hard enough to rattle every bone in his body. The world went white at the edges, then white everywhere.
Fen was already running toward him. "Master!"
Theon tried to answer. Nothing came out. No sound, no breath, nothing at all. His vision kept going dark at the edges, spreading inward like ink dropped into water.
Far away, like it was coming through thick glass, he could hear Fen shouting his name.
"Wake up! Master, wake up!"
The voice kept getting quieter, pulling further and further away, until the cave, the flames, and Lyra herself all dissolved into one wall of darkness.
Then, a blue light bloomed inside that darkness.
Not around him. Inside him, somewhere behind his own eyes, in a place with no walls and no floor.
A familiar voice unfolded through his mind, calmer than anything else that had happened in that cave.
**System**
*Critical Condition Detected*
*The host has lost consciousness during a life threatening battle.*
*New Function Unlocked*
**Instinct Resonance**
*Allow the body to fight using accumulated combat instinct and mana memory?*
**[ YES ]** **[ NO ]**
Theon stared at the glowing words floating in the void of his own mind. He couldn’t feel his body anymore. He couldn’t feel anything at all, except the faint, distant echo of Fen’s voice still calling out to him from somewhere beyond the light.
He looked at the two choices in front of him.
Then he took a slow breath, even though his lungs weren’t really there to take it.
And he chose.
**YES.**