There was no wind. No flame. Only absence.
As the team approached the threshold of Nyssara's fragment domain, Rei felt the familiar anchors of reality loosen.
They weren't stepping into a place — they were being unwritten from every known realm.
"Warning," Mireille muttered.
"We're not inside a spirit field anymore. This is proto-existence. Null-verse territory."
Noira flexed her fingers, her blade humming with restrained energy.
"Then why can we even breathe?"
Eirenne responded grimly:
"Because Nyssara allows it. For now."
Karasu's voice rasped within Rei's mind:
"Tread lightly. She eats potential. Not flesh."
Domain of Nyssara — Womb of the Forgotten Stars
It looked like a cathedral carved out of absence. Columns of gravity curled around them, forming ghost-like silhouettes of lives that never began.
Floating above were stars without light, each orb swirling with unborn futures.
At the center sat Nyssara — a woman-shaped void, skin glimmering like ink soaked in nebula.
Her eyes bore no pupils — only spirals of recursive entropy.
She regarded Rei not with interest, but irritation.
"You are flame. You reek of finality. You do not belong in the womb."
Rei bowed slightly.
"Then I'll only stay long enough to ask."
Nyssara floated forward.
"Ask what, little sovereign?"
Rei steadied himself.
"To carry your grief."
The void pulsed.
"My grief is not memory," Nyssara whispered.
"It is potential denied. Do you have room for what was never born?"
Rei didn't answer with words.
Instead, he opened his flame — not to burn, but to offer warmth.
From the resonance of Kuralis, Thrael, and Helvaris, came a single whisper:
Let us shelter the forgotten.
Nyssara paused.
"So they follow you. The broken, the erased, the incomplete."
"Because I don't seek completion," Rei said. "Only presence."
The stars above screamed.
Not in anger.
In want.
The unborn fragments spiraled downward, surrounding Rei.
Visions filled his mind — of universes never formed, of hearts that never beat, of songs never sung.
And from the center of that storm, Nyssara offered her hand.
[Integration Request — Nyssara, Warden of the Void Wombs]
Classification: Anti-Natal Flame
Warning: Risk of Identity Fragmentation
Rei accepted.
And for a moment, he was no one.
He was every child never loved, every idea unspoken, every whisper never heard.
But then—
His name burned back into existence: Kazenari Rei.
And Nyssara bowed her head.
[Integration Complete]
Slot 8 Assigned.
Flame Type: Void Embrace
System Stability: Holding at 87%
Recommend: Spiritual Re-Alignment Soon
Vereth's Loom Crypt
The chamber had gone dark.
Vereth stood alone, bleeding data from his chest.
"She… joined him?" he whispered.
The Loom snapped. The red thread split into two.
"No. No no no. You're rewriting the weave…"
He screamed.
[Deploying Final Three Fragments]
Override Limiter: Lifted
Next Deployment: Veyra, the Crownless God
Immediate Activation
Rei's Shrine — Inner Flame Chamber
Rei sat surrounded by eight flickering flames.
Each one hummed in harmony, but a thread of shadow now weaved between them.
Nyssara's presence did not comfort — it stared back.
Mireille placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You're holding too many regrets. Even your fire is flickering."
Noira paced nearby.
"So what's next?"
Rei opened his eyes.
"The fragment called Veyra. The one that remembers godhood—but never wore the crown."
Karasu cawed.
"This one will not ask. It will command."
Rei rose.
"Then let's remind it who rules this flame now."