"I gave the world everything I had left. What happens to me now is between me and the flame."
When Ren stepped out of that house, the sky felt wider.
Not safer. Not calmer.
Just… wider.
Like it finally had room for him again.
He hadn't noticed the weight until it was gone.
The Core was out of him.
The glyphs, every last one — from summoning marks to combat threads to forbidden sigil-binds — had melted from his skin the moment Azrin took the Core.
They didn't scream.
They didn't resist.
They just… slipped away.
Like they'd never belonged to him.
SNARKSTEEL (softly from his side):
"You feel that?"
REN (walking, eyes up at the sky):
"Yeah."
SNARKSTEEL:
"You're not one of us anymore."
REN (smiling faintly):
"I never was."
Blaze flared in the sky above, quieter than usual.
Time shimmered beside a broken tree, arms crossed, eyes not playful for once.
Frost watched from the distance, saying nothing.
Gravity stood unmoving at the edge of a cliff, like a sentinel made of silence.
And Va'theran?
He was already waiting.
VA'THERAN:
"You gave him everything."
REN:
"Yeah."
VA'THERAN (gently):
"Then you know what comes next."
REN (nodding):
"Now I burn."
This wasn't punishment.
This wasn't death.
This was release.
The collapse was still coming.
The universe still staggered.
But for the first time in forever — Ren wasn't the one holding it back.
He was just… Ren.
And that was enough.
TIME (softly, walking beside him now):
"You could walk away, you know.
Live. Hide. Be normal."
REN:
"I don't want normal."
He reached the edge of the sector.
The ground split beneath his feet — a faultline ready to swallow whatever stepped across.
The air shimmered with leftover glyph-code, drifting from the sky like snow.
Ren stepped into it.
FROST (quietly):
"What do we call you now?"
REN (smiling):
"Just Ren."
The earth opened.
Fire rose.
Not destructive — cleansing.
He walked into it without looking back.