The return to the sanctuary was not greeted by trumpets or cheers—only the rustling of sakura petals falling in the quiet dawn. Rei walked slowly, footsteps heavy, not with fatigue but contemplation. The Second Flame fragment pulsed faintly beside the first, and already he could feel them attempting to resonate, to merge—but something held them apart.
[System Notice: Fragment Resonance Incomplete — Emotional Disparity Detected]
Karasu, ever vigilant, voiced what Rei already suspected."Two flames. Two truths. They won't combine until you resolve the conflict within yourself."
"What conflict?" Rei asked aloud, voice low.
"You burn to protect… yet you destroy with the same hand."
He entered the courtyard to find Mireille waiting. She didn't speak at first, only looked at him with that unreadable calm.
"You brought it back."
"Yes."
"Good," she said, then handed him a small scroll. "You received this while you were gone."
Rei opened it and found a seal marked in triple flame—a sign not used in centuries. It was an invitation.
"The Council calls you," Mireille confirmed. "Formally."
Rei didn't answer at once. His thumb brushed over the edge of the scroll, and the ember fragments pulsed within his cloak, reacting to the seal's ancient resonance.
"Will you go?" she asked.
Rei turned his gaze to the horizon. "I need answers. If they're willing to speak… I'll listen."
Later, in the Spirit Conflux Chamber—where fragments of the spirit world briefly touched the material realm—Noira stood beside the crystalline pool, her obsidian eyes fixed on Rei as he prepared.
"You'll be outnumbered," she said simply.
"I usually am," Rei replied.
"I'm not talking about strength. I'm talking about influence. Each council member holds dominion over something fundamental—memory, silence, endings... and beginnings."
Rei adjusted his mantle. "Then I'll offer them what they don't expect—uncertainty."
Noira allowed herself a faint smile. "Then may your fire burn with ambiguity."
The journey to the Council's realm required no road, only intention. Rei stepped into the gateway forged of both spirit and time, and the world shifted.
He emerged onto a bridge suspended in stars.
Beneath him: nothing. Above him: the memory of light. The path led to a circular platform, where five figures stood cloaked in ash, fire, shadow, void, and ice. The Council of Ash and Silence.
"You are Kazenari Rei," spoke the figure wreathed in ash. Her voice was ancient—soft, but weighted with unbearable gravity.
"I am," Rei replied.
"You gather fragments not meant to coexist. Do you know what that will awaken?"
"I don't care what it awakens. I care what it protects."
A murmur rippled through the council.
The second figure stepped forward—shrouded in flickering silence. "Even if the cost is yourself?"
Rei met their gaze without flinching. "I already paid that price once. Dying didn't stop me. Nothing will."
The third, cloaked in shadow, extended a hand. "Then take the test. The Trial of Flame and Reflection. If you survive, we speak. If you fail… you become fuel for what follows."
Without waiting, Rei stepped forward into the offered darkness.
He fell—not in body, but in spirit.
And found himself in a place of infinite mirrors.
Each reflected not his face, but his past: mistakes made, people lost, power misused. His first death, the moment his humanity slipped away, the moment he first burned another soul to protect his own.
"You want to wield our legacy?" a voice whispered. "Then show us you haven't lost what mattered."
Rei closed his eyes and placed a hand against one of the mirrors.
"I'm not here to deny what I did. I'm here because I know what I must do next."
The mirror shattered.
So did the others.
And in their place: fire.
He awoke on the bridge once more.
The Council stood unchanged, but something in the air had shifted. A recognition. A nod from the figure cloaked in flame.
"You have passed."
"Then speak," Rei said.
The final figure—cloaked in ice and sorrow—lifted her head. "The fragments you gather are pieces of the First Will. Before heaven, before devils, before the system of gods… there was only Spirit and Flame. You seek to remake what was shattered."
"And others," the ash-cloaked woman added, "will kill to stop you."
Rei clenched his fist. "Then let them come."
[System Notice: Flame Synchronization Increased — 61%]
[New Quest Added: Ember Reforged — Locate the Third Fragment]
The stars began to collapse inward, signaling the end of the meeting.
As Rei was pulled back toward the waking world, one final voice followed him.
"You are not the first Flamebearer… but you might be the last."