Chapter 70: The Palace That Killed Its Guests

The white road stretched across the hills.

Every flower beside it had the shape of a small hand. They moved whenever Kai passed, their pale fingers reaching toward his boots. None of them touched him, but their presence made the road feel crowded.

Behind him, the dead villagers walked in silence.

Lysa carried Milo against her chest. Kael guarded their left side, while Sarah walked on the right with her staff raised. Jax moved ahead, searching for traps.

The man in the dark uniform followed behind Kai with his hands bound by red light. The cracked badge rested against his chest, and every few steps, his body shook from the pain.

Kai glanced over his shoulder. "How much farther?"

The man laughed weakly. "You are already inside."

Kai looked at the palace above the hills.

The black structure had not moved, but its towers seemed closer than before. Hundreds of bells hung from its walls. Some were made of metal. Others looked like bone. None of them had ropes.

"You said the palace would kill me before I reached the door," Kai said.

"I said it would try."

"Is there a difference?"

"The palace only kills people who enter as themselves."

Kai stopped walking.

The others turned toward him.

"What does that mean?"

The man looked at the cracked badge on Kai’s hand.

"Everyone who enters the palace must present a role. A name. A purpose. A place in the story."

"And if I refuse?"

"The palace chooses one for you."

Milo lifted his head from Lysa’s shoulder. "It chose mine."

Kai looked at the boy. "What role did it give you?"

Milo’s face became empty.

"The child who dies first."

Sarah’s grip tightened around her staff.

Kael looked at Kai. "We are not entering that place."

"My family is inside."

"Then we find another way."

"There is no other way."

The man in the uniform smiled. "There is always another way. It simply costs more."

Kai turned toward him. "You seem to know a lot about the palace."

"I have served it for forty years."

"You don’t look older than thirty."

"I have died many times too."

Kai studied him.

The man had not returned as Kai had. He had remained trapped in every cycle, repeating the same actions while carrying pieces of previous deaths inside his body.

"Your name," Kai said.

The man looked toward the road.

"Eren."

"Eren, if you try anything inside the palace, I will break the badge."

Eren’s expression tightened.

"You will kill every person in the village."

"I know."

"You would do that?"

Kai looked at the dead villagers following them.

"No."

He turned back toward the palace.

"But I would make you believe I would."

Eren said nothing.

They continued walking.

The road became steeper. The gray sky darkened as they climbed, and the rain stopped before reaching the ground. Drops hung in the air around them like beads of glass.

Jax returned from the front.

"There are three gates ahead," he said.

"Which one leads to the palace?" Kael asked.

"All three."

"That makes no sense."

"It gets worse. The left gate has no guards. The middle gate has two. The right gate has an entire army."

Kai looked at Eren.

"Which one kills us?"

"The left."

"Of course."

Eren pointed toward the three entrances. "The palace does not guard the door people fear. It guards the door people trust."

The middle gate opened slowly.

Two armored soldiers stood behind it. Their helmets were shaped like smiling faces, and their weapons rested against their shoulders.

The right gate remained closed, but hundreds of soldiers could be seen behind it.

The left gate stood open to darkness.

Kai walked toward the left entrance.

Kael caught his arm. "You just heard him say it was dangerous."

"He also told us the middle gate is guarded."

"So?"

"So the palace expects us to choose the empty path."

Kai pointed at the left gate. "It wants us to believe the danger is hidden there."

"And you think that means it is safe?"

"No. I think it means the middle gate is the real trap."

Eren smiled. "You are learning."

Kai looked at him. "I hate when you say that."

They approached the left gate.

The darkness beyond it shifted.

A whisper traveled across the road.

"Kai."

Another voice followed.

"Kai."

Then hundreds joined.

"Kai."

The dead villagers stopped walking.

Lysa hugged Milo tighter. "They know the name."

Kai held up the cracked badge.

The silver metal grew warm in his hand.

A pale symbol appeared on the gate: a crown above an empty chair.

Eren stepped backward.

Kai noticed.

"You are afraid of this gate."

"I am afraid of what is behind it."

"You said you served the palace for forty years."

"I served the other doors."

The darkness opened.

A narrow stone bridge appeared beyond the gate, suspended over a bottomless black pit. At the far end stood a single wooden chair.

Someone sat in it.

The figure had Kai’s face.

Not the damaged face from the tower window.

This version looked exactly like Kai. Same hair. Same eyes. Same thin scar beneath the left eyebrow.

It stood and walked toward them.

Kai raised the axe.

The figure stopped at the edge of the bridge.

"You came back," it said.

Kai felt his stomach twist.

"You’re the original."

The figure smiled.

"That is what you call me when you need to feel innocent."

"You were trapped in this palace."

"I was trapped in you."

The figure looked at the others.

"Kael. Sarah. Jax. You brought them too."

Kael raised his sword. "How do you know our names?"

The figure ignored him.

It looked toward the dead villagers.

"They will not cross the bridge."

Milo began to cry softly.

Lysa held him tighter.

Kai stepped toward the bridge.

The original Kai pointed at the cracked badge in his hand.

"You broke the caretaker’s anchor."

"Eren’s badge?"

"You carried it here."

"And?"

"And now the palace knows you remember."

The bells above the black towers began to ring.

One by one.

The sound shook the road. The flowers bent toward the ground, and the dead villagers fell to their knees.

The two guards at the middle gate turned toward them.

The army behind the right gate began marching.

The original Kai looked pleased.

"The palace is choosing your role."

Kai tightened his grip on the axe. "I’m not accepting one."

"You already did."

The bridge beneath him cracked.

A red mark appeared around his throat.

The same mark that had appeared around the villagers’ necks.

Sarah stepped forward. "Kai!"

The original Kai raised one hand.

A red line shot from the bridge and wrapped around Sarah’s wrist.

"If you interfere," he said, "the palace will assign her role instead."

Sarah pulled against the line. "What role?"

The figure looked at her.

"The one who dies saving him."

Sarah’s face went pale.

Kai turned toward her. "Don’t move."

"I wasn’t planning to."

The original Kai watched him carefully.

"You always say that before someone dies."

Kai looked at the bridge.

The red mark around his throat tightened. He could breathe, but every breath felt smaller than the one before it.

The palace was not attacking his body.

It was giving him a role and punishing him whenever he resisted.

He had to cross the bridge as someone the palace recognized.

He looked at Eren.

"What role does it want?"

Eren stared at the original Kai.

"The replacement."

Kai looked back at the figure.

"You want me to take his place."

The original Kai nodded. "The body was prepared for me to return. Then they placed you inside it. The palace has been waiting for the correct owner ever since."

"If I give you the body, what happens to me?"

"You disappear."

"Convenient."

"For me."

Kai stepped onto the bridge.

The red line around his throat tightened. His vision flickered. For a moment, he saw the black chamber from his first death. Then he saw the wooden village. Then the old house burning without smoke.

He kept walking.

The original Kai waited at the other end.

"You cannot keep stealing my life," he said.

Kai stopped halfway across the bridge.

"I didn’t choose your body."

"You stayed in it."

"I was trying to survive."

"So was I."

The bridge shook.

Behind Kai, the middle gate opened fully. The two smiling-helmet guards stepped onto the road. The army behind the right gate followed them, spreading across the hill.

Kael drew his sword.

"More soldiers."

Jax looked at the dark gate. "And whatever is inside that."

Sarah pressed her staff against the red line around her wrist. "Kai, finish this quickly."

Kai looked at the original.

"Why do you want me dead?"

The other Kai’s expression changed.

"I don’t."

"Then why attack me?"

"Because the palace will not let me leave while you are wearing my name."

"Give me another name."

The figure laughed bitterly.

"I had another name once."

"What was it?"

The bells stopped.

The entire palace became silent.

The original Kai looked down into the abyss beneath the bridge.

"Arthur."

The word struck Kai like a blade.

His knees weakened.

The name echoed across the bridge, through the gates, and into the city beyond.

Arthur.

A name he had not told anyone.

A name that belonged to the man he remembered being before the body, before the Tower, before the first death.

Kai stared at the other face.

"You’re lying."

"I am not."

"Arthur was inside me."

"No."

The original Kai stepped closer.

"You were inside him."

The red mark around Kai’s throat tightened again.

He could no longer breathe.

The guards reached the bridge entrance.

Kael charged them. His sword collided with the first guard’s weapon, and the impact pushed him backward. Sarah released a spell into the second guard, but the smiling helmet absorbed the light.

Jax vanished into the army.

Lysa pulled Milo toward the dark gate.

Eren screamed, "Do not cross the bridge!"

Kai dropped to one knee.

The original Kai reached toward him.

"Give me back my body," he said. "I will release your friends."

Kai’s lungs burned.

He could barely remain conscious.

A part of him wanted to accept.

He was tired of fighting for a body that did not belong to him. Tired of carrying memories that were not his. Tired of being called a vessel, a replacement, and a thief.

He looked back at Sarah.

She was fighting to protect him.

Kael’s sword had broken, but he was still standing.

Jax was surrounded by soldiers, cutting his way through them.

Lysa shielded Milo with her own body.

They had followed him into this place because they believed he was Kai.

Maybe that was enough.

Kai reached for the original’s hand.

The other Kai smiled.

Their fingers touched.

A violent force tore through Kai’s body.

His memories began leaving him.

The Tower.

The first plant.

The second plant.

His mother’s face.

Elara’s voice.

Sarah’s hand on his shoulder.

The pain of dying.

Everything was being pulled toward the original Kai.

Kai screamed.

The original leaned closer.

"Let go."

Kai looked at him through the blinding light.

"What if I don’t?"

"Then we both die."

Kai’s hand tightened around his.

The palace shook.

The bridge began to collapse beneath them.

Kai looked into the abyss and saw something moving below. A black shape climbed the underside of the bridge, wearing a cracked obsidian mask.

The nameless man’s voice echoed from the darkness.

"Kai."

Kai turned his head.

The masked man was hanging beneath the bridge with one hand, his black blade buried in the stone.

"Do not give him your name."

The original Kai snarled. "You escaped once. You will not escape again."

The nameless man looked toward him.

"I did not come to escape."

He pulled himself onto the bridge.

"I came to take something back."

The original Kai released one hand from Kai’s grip and attacked.

The two figures collided at the center of the bridge.

Their blades struck, black against black, and the force split the stone beneath them.

Kai fell backward.

The red mark around his throat disappeared.

He could breathe again.

The bridge collapsed.

The original Kai and the nameless man fell into the abyss together.

Kai reached for them, but both vanished into darkness.

The palace doors opened above the hill.

A voice echoed through the city.

"Role confirmed."

The red mark reappeared around Kai’s throat.

A title formed across the palace walls in letters made of blood-red light.

THE THIEF WHO STOLE HIMSELF.

Kai looked at the words.

Then the bridge beneath him broke completely.

He fell toward the darkness below.

This time, there was no hand waiting to catch him.