The night after the battle was silent.
Only the footsteps of patrols and the crackling of fire broke the silence.
The air was thick—the smell of blood and smoke still lingered in the air like a shadow.
Arden sat on the hillside above the battlefield, fox mask in hand.
The black flames that had erupted from him during the fight were now gone, but ash still clung to the edges of his armor.
His face was scratched, and the scar over his left eye burned like a living wound.
His hands were shaking, but not from fear—from the weight of what he had done.
Behind him, footsteps.
Lyra approached him quietly, draped in a medical squad cloak.
Her gaze was gentle but full of sadness.
Lyra:
"Arden…or should I say, Vex?"
Arden (without looking):
"It doesn't matter. The name doesn't erase what I've done."
Lyra:
"You saved us all. If you hadn't…we'd all be dead."
Arden:
"I saved? Or I just destroyed them before they could destroy us?"
Silence.
Lyra looked at the battlefield. Hundreds of bodies, burned, blackened. The flames are still burning on the horizon.
Lyra:
"You didn't start this war. You just survived it."
Arden gets up, puts the fox mask back on.
Arden:
"No, Lyra. I didn't survive tonight. Tonight I became something else."
________________________________________
[Crossing — Solinaris, capital of the Pyra Empire]Great Hall of the Holy Flame.
The news of the bloody battlefield has already arrived.
In the center of the hall stands the Lord of Fire — Rhaegar Solis, and next to him is Captain Eugene Dalis, Arden's father.
The flames in the torches flicker as if listening to every word.
Rhaegar:
"So your son…single-handedly ended the battle in the north? Two thousand plus dead. Even the Dominion is retreating."
Eugene:
"Yes, my lord. It is… Arden."
Rhaegar (coldly, looking down):
"He is no longer a child. Nor a warrior. He is a weapon."
Short break.
Eugene's fists clench, but he doesn't say a word.
Rhaegar:
"We'll let him stay in the north. If the Heartless Blade can intimidate Voltaris… let him burn. The world must know that the flames of Pyre are relentless."
Eugen slowly looked up, his eyes filled with sadness.
Eugene:
"But remember, my lord…a weapon that burns too long—eventually burns its creator."
________________________________________
[Return to Camp]
As Lyra leaves, Arden is left alone.
The wind blows across a field full of ash.
In the sky you can see the outline of a phoenix made of smoke and fire — a symbol of the nation, but also a reminder of what was lost.
Vex stands alone in the shadows.
The fire on his katana still smolders, and the starless sky is reflected in his eyes.
Narrator (Japanese trailer style voice):
"In the night where the flame gives no light...
…a force is being born that even the gods do not understand."Night fell over the northern front.
Snow had begun to fall—for the first time in years of fire.
The world was grey, and ash and snow mixed in a thin layer on the ground.
At the edge of the camp, by the extinguished fire, sat Arden — without his mask.
The katana lay in his lap, the tip spattered with dried blood.
His emerald green eyes were now empty.
He didn't cry. He didn't speak. He just breathed, hard, as if every thought hurt him.
Footsteps behind him.
Silence and then familiar voice — quiet, fragile:
Nia:
"You know… I didn't think it could hurt so much. I've seen war a thousand times. I've buried people, burned them, lost them. But… when I held him in my hands…"
He paused for a moment.
Her hands are shaking, and her eyes are wandering.
Nia:
"…it wasn't war. It was emptiness. It was as if someone had extinguished everything inside me."
Arden doesn't answer.
She looks up only when her tear falls on the snow in front of him.
Arden (quietly):
"Tears are a luxury. We can't have them anymore."
Nia looked at him—at that face that bore thousands of deaths and one indelible memory.
Into those eyes, cold as ice, but inside — painful, fragile, eaten away by sadness.
Nia:
"Arden… you pretend not to feel. But I see. You're falling apart inside."
Arden (looking towards the horizon, his voice low, hoarse):
"Maybe. But if I fall apart… then everything that Minato was—disappears with me. I must not fall. Not yet."
Pause.
Nia dropped down beside him, quietly, almost reverently.
Then he took out Minato's sword—broken in half—from his sheath.
Nia:
"His sword. He said to bring it home one day. But there's no home left, is there?"Arden (looks up):
"No. The house burns with us. Until this war ends."
The air froze.
Nia looked at him, and her voice, although quiet, carried the force of an oath:
Nia:
"Then let it burn a little longer. Until the Dominion feels what it means to lose everything."
Arden (closes eyes, cool tone):
"No, Nia. They will feel more than that.
They will feel me.
The wind passes between them, carrying snow and ash, and in the background the black flame on Arden's katana smolders quietly—a sign that he is still alive, but that the humanity in him is slowly disappearing.
Narrator (deep, Japanese tone):
"In a sunless night, when pain overcomes fear..."
"In the heart of a warrior who knows no peace..."
"The power that once burned the world has awakened."
"Forgotten power, buried in the ashes of time..."
"…breathing again."
The wind swept through the camp. The torches flickered, and the fire changed color for a moment — from red to deep black, almost heavenly.
Rin, who had been sleeping, jerked awake, Taro felt a cold wave through his body, and Lyra was awakened by an unfamiliar sensation — as if someone was breathing from inside the planet.
Arden didn't know what was going on.
He just felt the weight.
A weight that was a thousand years old, returning to his blood.
His voice, quiet, hoarse, barely audible:
Arden:
"What… are you?"
The flame in his scar only flickered—and in the distance, somewhere deep beneath the ground, a low, echoing tone was heard.
A sound like a heartbeat that the world has forgotten.
Narrator:
"And so… what was once lost… found a host again."