G.A AYANDOKUN
They were ten.
The first flames of power.
The Guardians of Magic.
Each bore a trait unlike any other — light, shadow, balance, dream, beast, mirror, silence, bloom, phantom… and flame.
Together, they shaped the blueprint of every gift that came after.
But unity did not last.
One rose against the rest.
The Flame Sovereign, once a beacon, burned with pride and fury. His fire sought not to protect, but to consume.
The war shattered the earth.
The nine stood against the one.
And though they sealed him, the price was everything — their names buried, their power scattered through bloodlines.
The world remembers them as myth.
But chains do not last forever.
And what was sealed in fire… always waits to burn again.
"Name's Nesshou Genta.
Funny, right? I used to say it loud, like it meant something.
Like I mattered.
Like I was free.
But after that night… I don't even know who's speaking when I open my mouth.
Me… or him.
They look at me different now.
Not like a classmate. Not like a friend.
Like I'm carrying something I was never meant to touch.
A curse.
A monster.
A fire that isn't mine, burning me from the inside.
And maybe they're right.
Maybe I was never supposed to exist.
Because every time I close my eyes, I hear him.
That laugh.
That roar.
That promise…
"Next time… no chains.'
And when I wake up… I don't feel like a boy anymore.
I feel like a weapon waiting to be used.
Or worse… unleashed."
PREVIOUSLY ON CLASS 24:
A boy who failed eight scans.
No power. No spark.
But silence can hide fire.
---
An escape under red alarms.
A grandfather's eye blazing blue.
A name whispered in fear — "Subject 24."
---
Five students thrown together.
Steel. Petals. Shadow. Lock.
And the boy who carried nothing… but something far worse.
---
The Commander's blade of darkness.
His words cutting deeper than steel.
"Same flame… same eyes as before he fell."
---
The Trial turned into war.
Chains broke.
Flames howled.
"I am awake."
---
Knights against the Beast.
Children against the Commander.
A clash that shook everything.
---
Chains sealed.
Dust fell.
Silence.
Nesshou's ember eyes opened.
And with another's voice, he whispered:
"Next time… no chains."
"I… I don't even know how it happened.
One moment it was me, and the next… it wasn't.
It felt like I was standing behind my own eyes, watching someone else move my body.
His fire, his rage — it swallowed everything.
I saw him burning through stone, tearing into people I swore I'd never hurt.
And the terrifying part? I could feel his strength.
Every strike, every roar — it was intoxicating.
But me?
I was nothing in that storm.
Weak. Powerless.
Just a shadow chained inside my own skin."
After it ended, I felt… empty. Not broken, not weak — like whatever had taken over had ripped everything from me and left only a shell. My body was mine, but it didn't obey me fully. My limbs felt hollow, my heartbeat loud in a silence I couldn't shake.
And yet, somehow, my lips moved. Words I barely recognized came out: "Next time… no chains…" A promise spoken by someone who didn't feel strong enough to mean it.
Then my vision blurred, the world tilted, and consciousness slipped away.
And when I finally regained consciousness, days had passed. My head throbbed, my limbs stiff, and the air around me reeked of damp and decay.
I was chained — bound hand and foot, locked in a cell deep within the darkest reaches of Ssub. Every movement was a struggle, every breath a reminder that I was completely trapped, at the mercy of whoever had put me here.
Alone with nothing but my own thoughts, the silence pressed in, heavy and suffocating. Every heartbeat reminded me how powerless I was, how small I felt against the storm I'd barely survived.
But all I could really think of was… what do I have inside?
The question lingered, unanswered.
Far above the silence of Ssub's dungeons, another silence reigned.
The council chamber.
The same long table, the same figures seated in shadow. The man in white, elevated at the far end, his eyes like stone. But this time, it was not children standing before them.
It was the Knights of SSUB.
Daichi Moriyama. Kenzo Takahara. Rikuya Hoshino. Yua Minazuki. Hayato Fujimori.
Five pillars of presence, their stillness louder than thunder.
Not a word was spoken, yet the air itself felt drawn tight, as if the walls knew the weight of who stood within them.
At last, the silence broke.
The white-robed figure leaned forward, his voice low but carrying through the chamber like a blade across glass.
"What danger have we dragged upon ourselves?"
His gaze fixed on Daichi, cold and unblinking. "Do you understand what you've done? You've shaken the foundation of our security. Made it look fragile… belittled before the very eyes that should fear us most."
The weight of his words pressed heavier than the silence ever had.
Daichi did not flinch beneath the weight of the words. He bowed his head slightly, his voice steady, carrying neither excuse nor hesitation.
"I accept full responsibility," he said. "Every consequence falls to me alone. If judgment is required, let it be mine. But I ask only this—do not let my failure cast a shadow over the rest of SSUB."
A ripple broke through the chamber — voices low at first, then rising like a tide.
"Reckless."
"Unacceptable."
"You've endangered us all."
The robed figures leaned forward, their words sharp with anger, heavy with doubt. The chamber that had been silent now bristled with accusation, each voice pressing against Daichi like a storm.
The white-robed figure raised a hand, and the murmurs stilled. His eyes, still locked on Daichi, were hard as steel.
"Then handle it," he said. Each word dropped like iron. "You created this crack in our walls. You will be the one to seal it. No more slips. No more shadows. Prove that SSUB's name still carries weight."
The doors shut behind them with a deep thud, sealing the council chamber in silence. The five Knights walked side by side down the long corridor, their footsteps echoing against stone.
Kenzo was the first to break the weight. He whistled low, stretching his arms behind his head like a bored kid. "Man… talk about drama. You'd think we set the whole place on fire."
Yua snorted softly, visor glinting. "Careful, Kenzo. If you keep treating it like a joke, they'll toss you into the dungeon next."
"Eh," Kenzo shrugged, grinning. "At least I'd get some peace and quiet."
Rikuya's voice came calm, almost a whisper. "Don't joke about that. The council's anger was real. Daichi carries it heavier than he lets on."
Hayato folded his hands behind his back, eyes narrowing as he walked. "He carries it because he must. Still… their words cut deeper than they needed to. It wasn't failure. It was inevitability."
No one responded to that. The air between them tightened again.
Through it all, Daichi said nothing. His silence was louder than their voices, his steps steady, purposeful. He didn't look at them, didn't break stride. He simply walked — all the way down, deeper into the fortress, toward the dungeon.
The Knights followed Daichi into the lower levels of SSUB, their footsteps echoing against the iron stairwells that spiraled down into shadow.
Door after door greeted them — each one heavier, each one bound by layered seals and shifting glyphs. At every checkpoint, the walls pulsed with runes that scanned them, barriers of light rising and falling like silent sentinels. Security grew tighter the deeper they went, as though the fortress itself was warning them to turn back.
Kenzo muttered under his breath, half-grinning. "You'd think we were walking into a tomb, not a cell."
But even his voice felt muted here, swallowed by the weight of stone and steel.
Finally, after what felt like an endless descent, the last door groaned open — a slab of metal rimmed with frost. A breath of air spilled out, sharp and biting, coating their lungs in ice.
The room beyond was colder than winter itself. The walls glistened with a thin sheen of frost, and every sound echoed too loud, too fragile, in the frozen silence.
They had reached the final chamber.
The chamber was a vault of ice and silence. Frost spread across the walls like veins, the stone glazed over as if the cold itself was alive. Chains thicker than iron bars stretched from ceiling to floor, each one etched with runes that pulsed faintly blue, their light flickering like a heartbeat.
At the very center, bound to the floor by layers of restraints, knelt the Commander. His body was wrapped in shackles that glowed with suppression sigils, every link humming faintly as if straining to contain him. Even in stillness, he radiated danger — his presence pressing against the air, against their skin, like the echo of a storm waiting to break free.
His head was bowed, his long hair frozen into strands of black ice, but nothing about him felt defeated. Even chained, even sealed, he carried the weight of a predator watching its cage.
The five Knights stood still, their breaths misting in the frozen air. For a long moment, no one spoke.
Kenzo's lip curled, his usual grin replaced with something sharper. "Tch… just looking at him makes my stomach turn."
Yua tilted her head, visor catching the pale light, her tone colder than the room itself. "What I want to know is how. How did he even get inside SSUB's walls?"
Rikuya's eyes lingered on the chains, his voice quiet, heavy with thought. "And more importantly… why? What was his purpose in coming here at all?"
Hayato's arms were crossed, expression unreadable. "Every move he made was calculated. Even in failure, I don't believe he came without reason. Which means… we're missing something."
Daichi said nothing. His silence was its own presence, his gaze locked on the kneeling figure.
And then —
A sound broke the frost-bound stillness.
Low. Rough.
The Commander laughed.
It rolled through the chamber, echoing off the icy walls, a sound far too alive for someone buried in chains. The cold seemed to deepen with every breath of his amusement, a predator's mirth reverberating through their bones.
The Commander's laugh clawed through the chamber, low at first, then rising, bouncing against the frozen walls until it filled every corner.
Daichi's composure cracked. His fists clenched, veins standing against his skin, breath sharp with fury. And then he moved.
His boot crashed into the Commander's chest. The chains rattled violently. Another kick — harder, sharper. Then another. Each strike echoed like thunder in the cold chamber.
"Daichi!" Yua's voice cut through the air, sharp with alarm. Kenzo grabbed his arm, Rikuya pressed in from the other side, Hayato stepped forward to block him — but Daichi tore free, driving his heel into the Commander again, and again, and again.
Fury poured out of him, each blow harder than the last.
And the Commander?
He laughed.
Even as boots slammed into his ribs, even as the ice cracked beneath him, his head tilted back, laughter pouring out in cruel waves. It wasn't pain. It wasn't defiance. It was mockery.
Every kick seemed to fuel it, his laughter growing louder, sharper, until it filled the Knights' ears like a storm.
Daichi's strikes landed heavy — but it was the laughter that landed deeper.
At last, Daichi's kicks slowed. His chest heaved, breath steaming in the frozen air, his boot pressed against the ground as if one more strike might still break free.
But the Commander's laughter did not stop. It rolled on, cruel and jagged, until it seemed the chains themselves were shaking with it.
Then, slowly, the sound tapered off. He lifted his head just enough for his frozen hair to shift, his voice cutting through the chamber like a blade dipped in venom.
"You really think this… this pitiful cage can stop me?" His lips curled into a smirk, blood flecked against his teeth. "Chains, frost, kicks from a child dressed as a Knight… it's laughable. You're not holding me. You're feeding me."
The words hung in the air, heavier than the cold itself.
The Commander's smirk widened, his voice dripping with scorn.
"You think you can wring answers out of me? You must be dreaming." He spat to the side, the sound harsh in the frozen chamber. His eyes lifted, burning with cruel amusement. "Knights of SSUB… protectors, they call you. But all I see are children in borrowed armor, clinging to walls already cracking."
His chains rattled as he shifted against them, the frost groaning under the strain.
"Know this—" his voice dropped low, sharp as a whisper yet heavy enough to fill the room, "something's coming. And when it does… no chains, no fortress, no name will save you."
A beat of silence—then his laughter exploded again, rolling through the icy vault like thunder.
Kenzo tightened his grip on Daichi's arm, his tone hard for once. "That's enough. He's not giving us anything but laughter. Let it go."
Yua stepped closer, visor flashing in the frostlight. "Every second we waste down here, he wins. He's already done his damage. No answers are coming."
Rikuya's calm voice cut through, steady but edged. "Something already slipped past us. We need to deal with that first."
Hayato nodded, arms crossed, gaze cold on the chained Commander. "Exactly. Forget trying to drag truth from his mouth. The threat is already in play. Our job is to contain it."
Daichi's fists trembled, but he said nothing. The others pulled him back, step by step, until at last he tore himself free and turned away. His silence thundered louder than words, anger carried in every heavy stride toward the exit.
The Knights followed him out, the chamber doors sealing behind them, the echo of the Commander's laughter lingering in the cold like a curse.
The dungeon did not end with the Commander.
The Knights pressed on, their steps echoing through colder, narrower halls. Door after door parted before them, but these were not layered with the same suffocating seals of the chamber above. Instead, the air grew quieter, heavier, as though the stone itself was listening.
Finally, they reached another cell.
It wasn't as vast or overwhelming as the Commander's frozen vault, but its design spoke for itself. Chains — dozens of them — crisscrossed the chamber. Thick iron shackles bound wrists and ankles, thinner chains looped around the torso, shoulders, even the neck. Runes flickered weakly along their lengths, different symbols for different kinds of restraint, weaving together into one suffocating net.
And in the middle of it all… was me.
Bound, sealed, smothered by chains that refused to let me breathe. I could feel their eyes on me — the weight of their presence pressing down, the judgment already burning in their silence.
To them, I wasn't a boy. I wasn't a classmate.
I was a fire chained in human skin.
The Knights stood at the threshold, their eyes fixed on the boy bound in chains.
Disgust flickered across their faces — not the kind born of hatred, but of fear they didn't want to name aloud. None of them stepped closer. Not Daichi. Not Kenzo. Not even Yua, who never missed a chance to test her limits.
From a distance they watched him, the web of chains glowing faintly around his body, each link a reminder that what sat before them wasn't ordinary.
They were Knights of SSUB, trained to face monsters, soldiers, and even the Commander himself. Yet here, with a boy shackled and slumped in silence, none dared move forward.
Because deep down, none of them were certain what he truly was.
Daichi's voice cut through the silence, low and heavy.
"What are you?"
What am I?
The question echoed in my skull, over and over, louder than Daichi's voice, louder than the chains groaning against my skin. I wanted to know too. I needed to know.
And then… the walls of the cell bled away. The cold turned to fire. My mind split open, and from the flames stepped a shape.
A beast.
It rose beside me, towering, its body forged of smoke and burning ember, its eyes twin furnaces that seared straight into mine. Its breath scorched the air, and every word rumbled like thunder in my bones.
"You were privileged," it growled. "Born with me inside you. A vessel of fire and fury."
I tried to look away, but the vision swallowed me whole — images of people running, screaming, their faces twisted in terror. Cities burning. Shadows fleeing from my steps.
"People will run. They will hide," the beast hissed, its fangs flashing like molten blades. "Because they fear what you carry — your strength, your power. But do not be dismayed…" Its massive head lowered, pressing close, its heat suffocating. "…for I am always with you."
My lips trembled. My voice broke out, raw and desperate:
"What are you?"
The beast's molten frame shuddered, fire curling tighter around its body until the flames collapsed inward. The shape shrank, twisted, and when the embers died away… I was staring at myself.
But not me.
His hair was black as shadow, his eyes dark voids that swallowed every flicker of light. His skin was carved in sharper lines, colder, harder — a version of me stripped of all warmth, all hesitation.
He smiled — my smile, but poisoned.
"I am you," he said, voice low and steady, echoing in my skull. "I am the one who completes you. Without me, you are nothing but ashes. I am your strength."
He stepped closer, his hand brushing against the chains that bound me — and they glowed, like they recognized him.
"You," he sneered, tilting his head, "you are my weakness. And together…" His eyes burned with a terrible certainty. "…we are one."
"You are my weakness…" the dark version of me whispered, the words curling like smoke around my mind.
The chains rattled, my chest tightened — and then, a voice broke through the nightmare.
Daichi's voice.
"What are you?"
The fire and shadows shattered, the beast's grin dissolving into ash. My breath tore back into my lungs, and the dungeon's frozen air hit me like a blade.
My eyes snapped open.
One burned red, flickering like a living ember. The other glowed pure black, swallowing the light whole.
My voice rose, rough and unsteady, but certain enough to cut through the silence:
"I am… the flames."
NESSGEEORIGINAL