Berlin greeted them with rain.
Not the natural kind—this was ashfall disguised as mist, descending from a sky that knew too much. Rei and his team stood at the edge of the Tiergarten, where the city's spiritual convergence had long hidden beneath layers of modernity and forgetting.
But now, with the echoes stirred across the continent, the final Sovereign of the Flame Arc had awakened.
Noira stared across the park, eyes narrowing. "The leyline tremor is consistent. It's a breath. Something… buried, is waking."
Eirenne adjusted her sensor brace. "Spiritual displacement off the charts. Like the earth itself is mourning."
Mireille, ever silent in solemn places, simply looked toward the distant Reichstag and whispered, "He's here."
Rei stepped forward.
Unterwelt Gate — Berlin's Forgotten Subterrane
The descent was not physical.
Each step downward took them not just below the city, but backward—through layers of fear, fire, and broken pride. The ruins of WWII had long been paved over, but beneath the stone and steel lay a city of ashes.
"Berlin was supposed to be reborn," Eirenne said. "But this… this is a mausoleum."
System Prompt:
[Sovereign Echo Detected: Unterwelt Core — Tag: Nihilvater]
[Alignment: Ruin / Emotional State: Despair / Status: Unbound]
Mireille trembled slightly. "He's not just ruin. He is the consequence of belief weaponized."
Karasu whispered, "This will be unlike any Sovereign before. There is no test here. Only mourning."
Chamber of the Iron Cross
They entered a cavernous hall built of sorrow. Inverted crucifixes, shattered flags, broken ideologies wept from the walls. There, seated on a throne of rusted artillery, was the Sovereign:
Nihilvater, the Echo of Total Collapse.
A man formed of ash and bone, wearing no crown—but bound in barbed memory. His eyes were two pits of charred stars.
"I am what remains when all conviction fails," he spoke, voice like a bomb's aftermath. "What do you bring me?"
Rei walked forward. "Flame. And choice."
Nihilvater rose, slow, as if weary of even standing. "Then watch what your flame becomes when hope dies."
Encounter Phase: Collapse Loop
The chamber fractured.
Each member was pulled into a loop—a reality where they failed. Where Rei died. Where the world ended. Where their choices led to annihilation.
Eirenne stood on a battlefield where every soldier bore her face.
Noira relived the Inquisition burning innocent children.
Mireille stood alone in a palace of silence, the last of her kind.
Rei was the last.
In his loop, he saw Earth consumed—not by war, but apathy.
No Sovereigns. No Spirits. Just quiet extinction.
System Prompt:
[Collapse Loop Engagement: Mental Fortitude Threshold Exceeded]
[Override Directive Required: Flame Anchor Response — User: Kazenari Rei]
And then—Rei laughed.
Not mocking. Not mad. But defiant.
"Is that all you've got?" he shouted into the void.
The loops faltered.
Eirenne struck down her mirror-self.
Noira burned the pyres.
Mireille shattered the empty throne.
Together, they returned to Rei's side.
Boss Phase: Nihilvater, Sovereign of Ruin
He descended.
Ash turned to blades. Sorrow turned to fire. His attacks erased—not wounds, but remembrance. Every strike tried to unwrite.
But Rei now held three Sovereign Fragments:
The Mirror
The Verdict
The Memory
System Prompt:
[Sovereign Trinity: Synchronization Enabled]
[Override: Existential Rejection Barrier Deployed]
Rei held the flame aloft.
And spoke:
"You are not ruin. You are the proof we endured it."
With a single unified strike—spirit, resolve, and will—they severed the loop.
Nihilvater screamed.
And wept.
Resolution: Berlin's Sunrise
The chamber dissolved into wind. Not destruction—release.
The Sovereign stood, cracked and hollow.
"I remember… the boy I was. Before belief was taken from me."
Rei nodded. "Then walk forward. Not as ruin. But as witness."
System Prompt:
[Nihilvater Added to Spirit Resonance Registry — Class: Ruin Sovereign / Tag: Witness of Ends]
The group ascended back into Berlin's streets.
The ash had stopped falling.
Karasu whispered, "The Flame Arc ends here."
But Rei looked to the east.
"No. This is where it begins."