Far Beneath the Ashlands – The Hollowed Core
It began as a ripple.
Not on water, but stone.
Molten rivers that had slept for centuries trembled. Deep under the surface—far from light and memory—the world pulsed with a heartbeat it had long forgotten.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
The flame cracked open.
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A New POV – The Flame-Bearer
He was nameless.
The priests had called him Vauryx in fear, a title meaning "burning mouth."
His flesh was obsidian, his eyes rings of solar fire. His body was forged in the planet's core—born when the first gods wept and bled into fire.
And now… he remembered.
"They come," he whispered, standing amidst a ruin of bone.
Ashren. The boy-child of cindered blood.
Ashrel. The traitor flame.
Vaelira. The broken queen.
None of them knew what they had awakened.
Vauryx raised one hand, and the flame obeyed. Not like Vaelira's—small, selfish. But vast. Cosmic. It bent the sky.
"Let them walk toward me," he said, voice echoing like magma breaking earth. "And I shall teach them what it means to carry godfire."
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Back to Ashren – The Journey Begins
The sky changed as they entered the Ashlands. Gray sandstorms roared like beasts. Lightning split open clouds that bled rust. This was a dead land—but it breathed.
"We're being watched," Seris whispered.
Ashren didn't reply.
He could feel it too.
Not a presence.
A pull.
Each step closer made his flame more unstable. It leapt toward the east, as if eager. As if... home.
They came upon a burned-out temple—flame runes etched in languages no one should remember.
Ashren stepped into its center and whispered:
"Vauryx."
The temple answered with flame.
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Final Scene – Fire from the Sky
A bolt of golden fire tore from the heavens, slamming into the earth before them.
From the crater rose a figure draped in robes of volcanic silk, his face veiled, his body surrounded by ten flame spirits chained to him by burning sigils.
He bowed to Ashren.
"Prince of Embers," he said. "The First Flame invites you home."
Ashren stepped forward, unflinching.
"Then let him speak to me himself."