The path to the volcano's maw was paved with bones.
Human. Dragon. And stranger things in between—rib cages grotesquely distended, as if stretched to accommodate something far larger than a heart. Lion's boot crunched through a finger bone, the sound obscenely loud in the dead air.
"Where dragons execute their traitors," Calvin said, prying open a rusted cage bolted to the cliffside. The skeleton within wore crimson armor. "That sigil? Three-hundred-year-old Dragonlord Commander."
Selene led the way, her crystallized arm shedding glinting shards with every step. "The altar's at the summit. The final shard is—"
BOOM.
The ground gave way.
As Lion plummeted through darkness, his last glimpse was of Selene's outstretched hand—and Calvin reeling from a sudden gout of dragonfire.
Falling.
Blackness.
Then—
Light.
He slammed onto an obsidian dais, its surface polished mirror-smooth. Seven pillars surrounded him, each wrapped in chains that vanished into a central lava pool. Above the molten rock hovered the third shard, its resonance with Lion's two pieces screaming through the air like a blade on glass.
"At last."
The voice came from across the pool. Greyscale stood there—but the observer was transformed. His left side gleamed with emerald scales; his right was rotting flesh, his lizard-pupil blown wide across the entire eye.
"That Shadowheart in your chest," he rasped, "was my brother's."
The lava surged, reflecting a scene from centuries past: A younger Greyscale driving a dagger into his twin's chest, ripping out the still-beating darkness as the Silver Dragon Queen coiled the first golden chain around it...
"Every Observer must bind a loved one," Greyscale clawed at his own decaying cheek. "But seals weaken. Require fresh vessels... like you."
Lion stepped back. The Shadowheart pounded against his ribs. The shards' whine climbed to a fever pitch as geysers of flame erupted from the pool.
"Why do you think Selene brought you here?" Greyscale raised a rune-carved scale. "Phoenix fire needs shadowblood to burn! She's always known you'd—"
Steel flashed.
Calvin's greatsword erupted through the Observer's chest, its tip dripping blackish-red. "Talk less," the knight panted, his lone eye alight with something unhinged. "Kid—take the shard!"
Lion lunged—
The chains moved.
Living serpents of metal wrapped his limbs, hauling him toward the lava. The Shadowheart detonated in response, the entity within howling:
"NOW! BREAK THEM!"
Lion seized the nearest chain. Pulled—
The second lock shattered.