The fire still lingered in the air.
Even after the battle had ended, the scent of scorched stone and blood mixed with the damp perfume of the valley's night-blooming flora. A thin fog had crept along the ground, curling like curious fingers around the ancient steps that led to the heart of the sanctuary.
Rei stood atop the northern spire, cloak fluttering behind him like the wings of a dragon poised for flight. From this height, the sanctuary resembled a sleeping colossus—ancient, dangerous, and slowly awakening.
Karasu's voice stirred in his mind again, quieter now.
"They were scouts. Vanguard souls of something older than the Three Factions. Their presence disrupts the leyline below your base."
Rei nodded to no one, eyes narrowing as his gaze drifted toward the eastern horizon. There, buried beneath layers of stone and secrecy, lay the remains of something older than even he could yet comprehend.
"They weren't here just for the Flame Fragment," he murmured. "They were here to remind me that I'm not alone."
Behind him, a soft footstep interrupted the stillness.
"I assumed you'd be here," said Mireille, her voice warm, smooth—like velvet over steel. The maid's uniform she wore was immaculate despite the earlier conflict. A small silver tray balanced in one hand, upon it a single cup of steaming black tea.
He accepted the drink with a slight nod. "You always know where I'll go."
"You leave footprints even when you think you don't," she replied. "Not in the earth. In people."
He sipped the tea. "Eirenne?"
"She's resting. Noira's watching over her. And the remaining defensive array has been restored."
A long silence stretched between them.
"I'll need to leave soon," Rei finally said.
Mireille tilted her head. "To find the next fragment?"
"Yes. And to find out what this 'Council' is."
The older woman's eyes glinted with something deeper than concern—curiosity, perhaps, or warning. "Are you sure you're ready for what waits outside this sanctuary?"
Rei smiled faintly, gaze still cast toward the storm building on the edge of the sky.
"I wasn't born ready. But I died once already. That counts for something."
Later that night, Rei stood before the central conduit—where the sanctuary's leyline intersected with the Spirit System Core. He placed his palm against the crystalline node, and shimmering light pulsed outward.
[Spirit System Access: Interface Engaged]
[Sync Check: Noira - Stable (68%). Eirenne - Recovering (44%). Mireille - Locked (???%)]
"Still hidden," Rei murmured, glancing toward Mireille's name on the display. "Just who are you really?"
Karasu responded only with silence.
Then a new message appeared:
[Message Received - Source: Untraceable]
[Contents: 'When you reach the Ashlands, do not bring the Obsidian Flame. She is bound by the old accords. — C.']
Rei's eyes narrowed.
He departed at dawn.
Noira wanted to come, but he insisted she remain—Eirenne's recovery would need both her strength and her spirit energy to stabilize. Mireille didn't argue, merely handed him a satchel of elixirs and a list of locations where anomalous spirit energy had been detected.
His path led him far beyond the mountain's cradle, past the reaches of devil, angel, and fallen territories. The land he entered bore no name on maps—it was scarred, abandoned after the first Great War. Locals called it the Ashlands.
There, everything burned slowly. Trees stood like cinders frozen mid-ignition. Rivers steamed with sulfur and metal. The sky held no birds, only crows made of smoke.
And at its heart—stood the Council.
They did not gather in a palace, nor a temple, but around a circle of broken thrones suspended in the air, floating above a pit of violet fire.
Seven in total.
Three masked. Two visibly mutated by spirit cores gone wrong. One a child with eyes too old for her face.
And the last… was a shadow.
"Welcome, Flamebearer," one of them said, the mask covering his face like a bone cage. "We've been watching."
"Then you know I don't kneel," Rei replied calmly.
"We don't want obedience," the child said, "We want understanding."
Another voice—this one from the shadow—spoke. "You carry a piece of the End. And the system that mimics what should not exist. You are convergence."
Rei said nothing.
Then the bone-masked speaker gestured toward the pit. "Before you can take the next step, you must offer something."
"What?"
"Truth."
A pulse surged from the pit, dragging a memory from Rei's soul like a magnet pulling iron from flesh.
He screamed.
He saw it again.
The life before this one. Not just his death—but the betrayal. The moment he, as a mortal man, had been chosen by a will not his own. The woman who had led him into that final fight. The deal he made at the edge of eternity. The voice that had whispered, "We'll give you one more chance… but you'll be cursed to remember."
He dropped to one knee, breath ragged.
The shadow spoke again. "Now you remember the price. Do you still walk forward?"
Rei raised his head, eyes burning with fury and resolve.
"I do."
The Council of Ash and Silence, in unison, nodded.
"Then go to the Ruins of En'thel. There lies the next Flame Fragment. But be warned—it is not alone."
As the council faded into smoke and ash, Rei stood again, the wind howling around him.
One down. Six more flames. And the truth buried in all of them.
He turned his back to the fire—and walked into the storm.