The winds howled above Ravenwood as morning broke. Sunlight barely pierced the forest canopy, but something within Kai had already begun to change.
The System was no longer silent.
[System Notice: New Trait Unlocked – "Echo of Origin"]Your soul carries an imprint of the first godfire. Old memories may awaken. Proceed with caution.
Kai blinked. Memories? Whose?Before he could wonder more, Ilren stirred beside the fire.
The boy opened his eyes. "You were talking in your sleep again."
Kai frowned. "What did I say?"
Ilren looked up at him with a mixture of awe and fear.
"Burn them all."
The Obsidian Vault – Core of the Church of Eternal Silence
Far away, in a realm of chains and whispers, High Inquisitor Vaelis Myrrh walked barefoot across a floor of black glass.
Before him, a cage of bone pulsed with violet light. Inside it hovered a relic—ancient, cracked, yet still humming with power.
A single word drifted from the relic's core: "Kai…"
Vaelis narrowed his eyes."The Cursed Heir lives."
Behind him, a scribe trembled. "Shall I send the Silent Blades, Inquisitor?"
"No," Vaelis replied coldly. "This is a prophecy we cannot kill with knives. We will offer him a choice."
The Stranger in Chains
Kai and Ilren continued north. Two days passed. Rain soaked their path. Beasts avoided them now, sensing the cursed mark within Kai's aura.
On the third day, they reached the burnt-out ruins of a monastery built into the cliffside. Something called Kai toward it.
Inside, they found a man chained to a stone altar, half-starved, but his aura radiated danger.
His eyes opened. Piercing gold. Unblinking.
"Finally," he whispered, "the flame returns."
Kai stepped forward. "Who are you?"
The man smiled faintly. "I was the last Flamebearer before you. I failed. I ran."
Ilren looked uneasy. "Why did they chain you?"
"Because I remembered," the chained man said, struggling to breathe. "The gods we serve… aren't who we think they are."
A tremor echoed through the walls. Something beneath the monastery had awakened.
The chained man gasped. "They're here. Run."
[System Warning: Instability Detected – Temporal Rift Activating]
Kai grabbed Ilren and turned—too late.
The stone beneath them cracked, swallowing them whole.
Flash Rift Realm – Between Time
They fell through a realm of light and shadow. Memories—not theirs—flashed by in fragments:
A girl standing before a god's corpse, screaming.
A kingdom built on lies, burning from its own truth.
A young Flamebearer devoured by the power he once begged for.
Kai clutched his head. The visions hurt.
A voice echoed, soft and sad:
"The fire you carry is not your power… it is your curse to remember what others buried."
Then they landed—hard—on stone.
South Border of the Frozen Wastes
Two bounty hunters trudged through snowdrifts.
"Are you sure it's him?" asked the taller one, pulling his scarf tighter.
The shorter one nodded. "Said he walked into Ravenwood with nothing. Left with a kid and a death count."
"Another fake cursed heir?"
"No." He pulled out a scroll. Kai's face glowed on it in spectral ink.
"This one's real."
Beneath the Monastery
Kai rose slowly. They had landed inside a cavern of glowing crystal veins. Strange glyphs lined the walls.
Ilren groaned beside him. "Where… are we?"
The chained man's voice echoed from above:"Where every Flamebearer comes before they decide their fate. Some call it the Cradle of Gods. Others call it the Tomb of Betrayers."
Then Kai saw them—statues of twelve figures, larger than life, each radiating a different aura: Light, Shadow, Death, Time, Chaos, Balance…
But the thirteenth pedestal was shattered.
Kai touched its base—and suddenly, his vision blurred.
He stood in another memory—not his.
A boy, barely ten, screamed as priests branded his back. "You will never rise, cursed son. You are nothing."
A girl, a noble, spat at him as he begged for food.
A faceless man whispered: "Embrace the curse. Become the fire they fear."
Kai gasped and staggered back into the present.
Ilren was crying silently.
"You saw it too?" Kai asked.
The boy nodded. "Your past… It wasn't yours."
Kai's fists clenched.
"They want me to forget who I am. They want to make me what they need."
"I'll be none of it. I'm not their puppet. I'll burn my own path—through gods or demons."
Suddenly, a figure stepped out of the crystal walls. An armored woman, silver-eyed, blades drawn.
"You're awake too soon, Heir of Ash," she said. "That makes you dangerous."
Kai stood protectively before Ilren.
"I'm done hiding."
The cavern trembled.
The battle had begun.