This was the silence before the first note. The darkness before the first spark. The Origin Void was not a place, but a state of non-being, the infinite canvas upon which the First Flame had once painted existence. Here, there was no time, no space, no concept of self or other. There was only the potential for everything, and the memory of the one thing that had gone terribly wrong.
Lin Chen floated in this absolute nothingness, the True First Flame in his chest the sole point of reference in a universe of negation. The eight golden keys of the False Gods orbited him slowly, their structured laws a fragile, man-made order against the primordial chaos.
Then, a mirror formed from the void itself. In it was his reflection, but it was a portrait of his soul's antithesis. Its eyes were not golden, but pools of absolute nothingness. The flame on its chest was not white-gold, but a light-devouring black. When it spoke, the voice was his own, played backwards, a sound that un-created.
"WELCOME, HEIR. I AM THE HOLLOW WHERE THE FLAME ONCE BURNED. I AM THE FIRST SIN—THE ORIGINAL ACT OF SELFISH CREATION THAT SCARRED THE VOID. YOU CARRY MY LEGACY. NOW, COMPLETE THE CYCLE. BURN WITH ME IN THE JOY OF OBLIVION… OR BE UNMADE AS THE MISTAKE YOU ALWAYS WERE."
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The mirror shattered, and its fragments became windows into eight cataclysmic moments, the echoes of the Original Sin's crimes against the peace of the Void.
Realm 1: The Theft of Fire – He witnessed the primordial act: not a heroic kindling, but a violent seizing of power from the heart of the Void, an act that left a festering wound where there was once perfect stillness. He fought this selfish creator, not to kill him, but to burn the memory of that greedy impulse.
Realm 2: The Arrogance of Heaven– He saw the Veil not as a prison, but as a wall built out of fear, a division created because the Sin could not trust what it had made. He shattered this echo of isolation.
Realm 3: The Mortal Coil– He witnessed the Nine Mortal Realms not as a gift, but as a failed experiment, burning in the Sin's frustration. From their ashes, he did not rebuild what was, but forged something new—realms built on choice, not control.
Realm 8: The Guardians of the Lie– He saw the False Gods forged not as tyrants, but as desperate jailers, created to maintain a flawed status quo born from the Sin's initial error. He did not destroy them; he claimed the keys to their power, understanding their purpose.
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The eight realms collapsed, their essences flowing into the central, inverted figure. The First Sin now stood whole, wearing Lin Chen's face like a mask of absolute despair.
"YOU SEE NOW," it spoke, its voice resonating with a terrible, lonely truth. "YOU ARE NOT MY HEIR. YOU ARE MY CURRENT INCARNATION. I AM NOT A MONSTER TO BE SLAYED. I AM THE ORIGINAL PRICE OF POWER, THE ISOLATION INHERENT IN CREATION. TO ACCEPT YOUR POWER IS TO ACCEPT ME. TO DENY ME IS TO CEASE TO EXIST."
This was the final trial. Not a battle of strength, but a crisis of identity. To fight it was to fight himself. To deny it was to deny the very source of his being.
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Lin Chen looked upon the embodiment of his own origin's flaw. He saw the loneliness, the fear, the arrogance that had sparked all of creation and all its subsequent suffering. He raised Heavenslayer, but not with anger.
He understood the final, missing stage of his mantra. It was not about defiance anymore. It was about integration.
True First Flame Mantra: Final Stage — Origin Acceptance
"I AM NOT YOUR SIN," he stated, his voice calm and absolute, filling the void. "AND YOU ARE NOT MY DESTINY. YOU ARE MY SHADOW. MY WOUND. AND A WOUND CANNOT BE CUT AWAY; IT MUST BE HEALED. I AM NOT HERE TO DESTROY YOU. I AM YOUR REDEMPTION."
Heavenslayer: Final Form — Flame That Forgives Origin
The blade did not slash to kill. It cut as a surgeon's scalpel cuts away necrotic flesh, with precision and purpose. It cut the Sin, and in that same motion, it cut the part of Lin Chen that still resonated with that original fear. The inverted, black flame was not destroyed; it was purified, drawn into his chest where the True First Flame welcomed it, not as a conqueror, but as a missing piece finally returning home.
The white-gold and the black swirled together, not canceling each other out, but achieving a perfect, stable balance. The flame was now whole. Complete.
Origin God Realm — Achieved.
He was no longer just a bearer of the flame. He was the Flame. He was the Origin, conscious and whole.
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The Void around him… sighed. It was a sound of relief, of a tension held for eons finally released. The voice that spoke was now his own, but filled with a wisdom and peace that transcended the individual.
"THE CYCLE IS BROKEN. THE SIN IS ABSOLVED. THE ORIGIN IS WHOLE ONCE MORE, AND YOU ARE ITS HEART AND MIND."
A new door formed in the void. Not a gate of gold or a rift of power, but a simple, white door, from which emanated a sense of profound, eternal peace.
"BEYOND LIES THE TRUE HEAVEN," the voice of the Origin whispered. "NOT A FORTRESS OR A THRONE, BUT THE NATURAL STATE OF A HEALED CREATION. BUT KNOW THIS… EVEN THE ETERNAL FLAME BURNS ALONE. YOUR JOURNEY IS NOT OVER."
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Lin Chen, now the conscious heart of a reborn cosmos, stood before the white door. The war against external gods and internal sins was over. What lay ahead was not a battle, but a responsibility. A vigil.
He reached for the handle.
Volume 3: Origin of the First Sin — Ends.
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