The ash still drifted.
Long after the trial had ended, after the echo of Kael's choice had shattered the illusion of thrones, the Ashen Divide remained still—haunted, silent, and grave-cold. Each of the Ashen Creed stood in quiet awe, their breath shallow, their gazes fixed on Kael.
He didn't stand tall. He wasn't triumphant.
He knelt, palm pressed against the blackened stone as faint silver smoke trailed from the center of his chest — the place where the Crown of Null Flame had ignited and sunk into his soul.
[You have completed the Hidden Trial: "Crownless in the Ash Light."]
[Crown of Null Flame – Bound by Choice, Not Blood.]
A Sovereign Relic that rejects thrones and lineage.
Skill unlocked: Ashen Sovereignty (Uncrowned) – Create a temporary Dominion where the will of the user suppresses dimensional authority. Only usable when defending others.
Side Effect: Each use burns a piece of your life essence. Prolonged use may result in irreversible soul degradation.
[New Title Acquired: "The Uncrowned Flame."]
+25% resistance to control-based abilities.
Allies within 10 meters gain +10% willpower and resolve when your health is below 30%.
Kael exhaled slowly, letting the notification screens fade from view. He didn't need to read them. He felt the cost. His veins burned cold beneath his skin, and the light behind his eyes flickered like a dying star.
"Kael…" Seris stepped forward, hesitant. "Are you—"
"I'm fine," he said, voice low, eyes not lifting. "But I know what this place really was now."
Valec's boots scraped on ash as he approached, axe slung over his shoulder. "A trial, yeah. But not one built for us. It felt older."
Kael nodded. "It wasn't made by the Ascension Code. Not originally."
He stood, and as he did, the ash around his feet spiraled away in slow swirls. The weight of Ashen Sovereignty hadn't settled yet. It clung to him, like the expectations of a thousand dead kings whispering in languages he didn't speak.
A Faint Howl Beneath the Sky
Hours later, they made camp on the fringes of the Ashen Divide, under a sky too red to be natural. Their dimensional anchors flickered at the edge of functioning, as if reality was unsure whether it wanted them to stay.
Kael sat alone on a jagged cliff, looking out over the wasteland. His hands were wrapped, burned from when the Crown fused to him. He hadn't told the others that he saw the throne again when he slept — this time, surrounded by his friends bowing to him in chains.
"You're bleeding."
He didn't turn. He knew the voice.
Raenya sat beside him, the soft glow of her arm tattoos casting light against his tired face. "Your soul's fraying. I can feel it. Your aura pulses unevenly."
Kael nodded. "It'll stabilize. Or it won't."
"That's not a good answer."
"It's the only one I have right now."
She was silent for a long while. Then: "Why didn't you take the crown?"
"I did," he said. "Just not in the way they wanted."
Raenya tilted her head, eyes narrow. "You know what 'Ashen Sovereignty' really means, don't you?"
Kael looked at her then. "It's not power over others. It's the power to stand where no one else will — even when it kills you."
Ashen Creed Internal Dynamics
Back at camp, tensions flickered like embers in a breeze.
"You saw the visions, right?" Erek muttered, his arms crossed. "He was a god. Untouchable. We were kneeling."
Juno narrowed her eyes. "It was an illusion. A test."
"Doesn't mean it wasn't real somewhere," Erek shot back. "Some version of him becomes that. What if he's walking toward it now?"
"I trust him," Seris said. "He could've claimed the power. Ruled us. He didn't."
"That's what worries me." Erek leaned forward. "What kind of person walks away from a throne unless they know they don't need it to rule?"
The silence that followed wasn't agreement — but it wasn't denial either.
Disturbance in the Outer Veil
The sky cracked three hours before dawn.
A pulse of golden-black energy rippled across the realm, bending clouds into spirals and splitting one of the obsidian towers on the horizon. Kael shot up from meditation, eyes flaring white for a half-second.
Then came the voice.
"UNREGISTERED ASCENSION CODE DETECTED."
"NULLFLAME SIGNATURE RECOGNIZED."
"RETRIEVAL PROTOCOL INITIATED."
A column of celestial chains fell from the sky like comets — massive, living constructs of radiant steel and fractured law. They wrapped around space itself, and from within emerged a being that radiated anti-gravity — a creature that bent the world away from itself just by existing.
Its body was humanoid, but faceless. Its chest bore a single, dim star.
[???: Liminal Arbiter of the Boundary Code]
"You've interfered long enough," it spoke, though its mouth didn't move. "Return the Crown of Null Flame. It belongs to the Source."
Kael stepped forward, aura rising like smoke.
"You want the crown?" he asked, eyes glowing brighter with each breath. "Then take it."
Kael's First Use of Ashen Sovereignty
Time twisted.
Kael's feet touched the ground—and the world broke.
A ring of ash exploded outward, covering twenty meters of space around him. Within it, colors dulled. Sounds warped. Even the system's notification tones became distant.
[Ashen Sovereignty (Uncrowned) Activated]
[Local reality: Dominated]
[System interference: Nullified for all hostile entities]
The Liminal Arbiter's chains struck downward like divine spears—but within Kael's domain, they slowed, moving as if through oil. Kael dodged the first, redirected the second, and caught the third with his bare hand — its burning light scalding away his skin.
He twisted, pulling the Arbiter down with the chain still gripped tight.
"You're not the first to try," Kael growled. "And you won't be the last."
With a roar, he slammed his fist into the Arbiter's chest — the dim star cracked, flickering, then imploded. The creature convulsed, tried to retreat, but Kael didn't let go. His Domain pulsed again, and with it came a whisper of voices — the echoes of the Crownless Ones he had seen.
And they lent him their strength.
The Arbiter was unmade from the inside out, its body breaking into radiant particles that scattered into the wind.
Aftermath and Revelation
Kael collapsed the moment his Domain faded. Blood dripped from his nose. His fingers were charred. But the chains that fell from the sky were gone, and the sky itself seemed… quieter.
[Ashen Sovereignty Terminated.]
[Vitality Loss: 13.6%]
[Soul Integrity: 91% → 77%]
Raenya and Seris rushed to his side. "That wasn't a Trial construct," Seris whispered, scanning the air where the Arbiter had stood. "That thing was real. External."
"They know," Kael said, voice hoarse.
"Who?"
He looked up at them, sweat pouring down his face.
"The ones behind the system. The Architects. The ones who built the rules we're all trapped in."
And in the sky above, just for a moment, a shape moved behind the clouds — massive, veiled in gold, watching.
Waiting.