Kaito floated in a void made of light.
The golden radiance stretched endlessly, neither warm nor cold, only aware. It pulsed like a heartbeat, echoing in time with his own.
A voice surrounded him — neither male nor female, soft yet immense.
"You have entered the Flame's Memory, child of shadow. Be still, and remember what the world chose to forget."
The light thickened, swirling into shapes — mountains, seas, a vast sky lit by fire. Kaito stood on a field of gold, watching a memory long buried in eternity.
---
He saw Soryana, the First Dragon Queen — vast, silver-scaled, her wings spanning the horizon. Her eyes held galaxies. Around her stood twelve lesser dragons, her council. Before them knelt a group of mortals — the first humans.
One of them, a woman draped in white armor and golden hair, raised her hand. Astraea.
But younger — uncorrupted.
"We are dying," she said, voice breaking. "The sky burns, the seas rise. Our magic fades. Please, lend us your fire. We only seek to live."
Soryana gazed down at her. "My fire is life itself. To share it with you would change what you are — and what we are."
"Then change us," Astraea whispered. "Or watch us perish."
A silence followed — deep and trembling.
At last, Soryana lowered her head. "So be it."
She breathed out a single spark of her essence — the First Flame. It drifted into Astraea's chest, and she glowed like a newborn sun.
For a moment, it was beautiful.
Then came the screams.
The other dragons howled in fury. "You've doomed us all!" one roared. "Our flame will fade if shared!"
Soryana faced them calmly. "Better that our light guides another than burn the world in pride."
But pride was all they had left.
---
Kaito saw it — the war between dragons and humans. Cities burning in blue fire. The sky black with wings. Astraea standing over a battlefield, her eyes no longer golden but white, pure and cruel.
The Flame within her had changed her — twisted her love into hunger.
She no longer sought to live; she sought to rule.
When Soryana came to stop her, Astraea turned the First Flame against its source.
"Your mercy made me this," Astraea said. "Now I will perfect what you began."
The light exploded. Soryana's wings shattered, her body turning to crystal and falling from the heavens.
And as she died, she whispered one prophecy:
> "One day, the fire will choose again — not the pure, not the proud, but the broken. From shadow, light will rise anew."
The world dimmed. The dragons scattered. The humans forgot.
And Astraea, the woman once saved by mercy, became the goddess of conquest.
---
The vision dissolved. Kaito fell to his knees.
He understood now — the "Dragon's Betrayal" wasn't the dragons turning on humanity. It was humanity's betrayal of mercy.
Soryana had given them her light.
Astraea had turned it into a weapon.
And the dragons, broken by grief and shame, erased the truth, naming it treachery to preserve their pride.
"Why show me this?" Kaito whispered.
The voice of the Flame answered:
"Because you carry her last wish. You are neither dragon nor human, born of both their failures. The world will burn again — unless you choose differently."
The void around him began to shatter like glass, every crack blazing with light.
"Choose?" Kaito shouted. "Choose what?"
The Flame's tone deepened, echoing through his bones:
"Mercy or mastery. To save the world, or to rule it."
And then the light collapsed.
---
He woke gasping, snow clinging to his lashes.
Lira and Yù Lóng were beside him, their faces pale in the flickering glow of the cavern. Mira crouched nearby, blade drawn, her violet eyes wide.
"You've been gone for hours," she said. "Your body burned — but didn't die."
Kaito sat up slowly. His hands still glowed faintly, the sigil of the First Flame pulsing like a heartbeat. "I saw it all," he murmured. "Soryana… Astraea… it wasn't betrayal. It was mercy turned to war."
Yù Lóng's eyes widened, pain flickering behind her ancient calm. "Then it is true," she whispered. "The sin was never hers — it was ours, for believing the lie."
Mira sheathed her blade. "If what you saw is real, Astraea isn't divine. She's a thief of fire."
"And I carry what she stole," Kaito said quietly.
Lira touched his arm. "Then you're what the prophecy meant. The broken flame."
Before Kaito could reply, the mountain trembled. A crack split the cavern wall, spilling blinding light.
Mira hissed. "She's found us."
From the fissure poured a column of radiant energy — Astraea's voice echoing like a hymn and a scream combined.
> "The First Flame answers to me alone. Surrender it, or burn in your borrowed mercy."
The dragons in the cavern stirred, hissing, wings unfurling. Yù Lóng bared her fangs.
"She comes," she said grimly. "The War of Ashes begins anew."
Kaito rose, his hands blazing with gold. "Then let her come. This time, the flame chooses its own destiny