> [Warning: Sovereign Beast Breach – 91% Unsealed]
Dimensional Instability Detected: Flame Phase Layering Active
Flame Zone Splintering: Initiating Combat Across Parallel Realms
The earth cracked open.
The sky dimmed—not with night, but with layered flames.
Each flame pulsed a color:
Crimson for wrath.
Blue for sorrow.
Gold for hope.
Silver for sacrifice.
Black… for the truth forgotten.
Bo Ren shouted as a quake threw them apart.
> "We're being pulled into separate flame fields!"
Yue vanished in a burst of blue light.
Zhao Kai tumbled through gold.
Tian Xue gripped the Phoenix Egg as silver consumed her.
Jiang Han turned—and black flame swallowed him whole.
---
Realm of Black Flame – Memory Fold
> [Entering Flame Zone: Origin Echo]
Flame Type: Black Flame of Memory – Soul Compatibility Detected: 99.8% (Jiang Bloodline)
Synchronizing Echo Memory: Long Chen (Final Weeks)
Jiang landed in a silent plain of ash.
Wind howled softly.
At the center stood a campfire.
And across from it—
Long Chen.
Or rather, an echo of him. Younger, wearier, yet still blazing with quiet fury.
He looked up.
> "So. It's you."
> "I left this place behind… hoping someone from the Jiang line would find it."
Jiang's throat tightened. "I—"
Long Chen waved him down. "I'm not really here. Just a memory. A message. A warning."
---
The Warning of the Ascenders
Long Chen's echo stood, tossing a spark into the fire.
> "The Ascenders don't want to destroy the world. Not exactly."
> "They want to sever it. Cut it from the cycle. Elevate it beyond pain, beyond choice."
> "They see flame—emotion, chaos, individuality—as weakness."
He turned, and for a moment, his eyes looked like Jiang's.
> "You carry the last flame I left behind. That Phoenix isn't just a pet—it's a key."
> "A core part of the Flamewheel. Something they failed to erase."
Jiang whispered, "They're trying again."
> "Then don't just fight."
> "Burn so bright they can't look away."
---
Awakening in Battle
Jiang awoke mid-air—Tempest wrapped around him, defending against a crushing shockwave from the Sovereign Beast's awakening form.
The others were scattered in distant flame zones, still locked in their own trials.
Ahead, the Sovereign Beast rose:
A serpentine titan of molten obsidian, wings of glass flame, and a single crown-like horn flickering with ascension light.
> [Sovereign Beast – "Ashmourn Seraph" – Class: Cataclysm Hydra – Status: 96% Unsealed]
Its roar fractured the sky.
Jiang's voice trembled, but his flame was steady.
> "You want a world without flame…"
> "Then face a flame that will never die."
---
Final Surge – Heavenbreaker Echo: Judged Form
Jiang activated Heavenbreaker Echo, this time layering it with his Judgment Flame and the newest fragment from Long Chen's echo.
> [Flame Fusion Variant Detected: Heavenbreaker Echo – Judged Form]
Effect: Soul-Weighted Strike. Damage scales on enemy's emotional void.
Cooldown: 9 days
The arena quaked.
Tempest roared.
Jiang surged forward, blade and wyrmling wrapped in spirals of fire, memory, and raw soul.
He struck the beast's heart—
And for a moment, the flames went silent.
Then—
An explosion of black and white flame lit the heavens.
The beast shrieked. The seal activated.
And the Ashmourn Seraph was pushed back into the void.
---
Aftermath
The team regrouped, battered but alive.
Tian Xue's Phoenix Egg pulsed—now with tiny, glowing cracks. It was close.
Bo Ren clutched a relic from the Seraph's body: a crystalline heart laced with ancient glyphs.
Leng Qingyun approached Jiang quietly.
> "You saw him, didn't you?"
Jiang nodded.
> "And he saw us."