They say the past is etched in stone, but what if that stone could bleed? What if the flame you carry burns not just through time — but through the very idea of who you think you are?
Kael never asked for the Forgotten Flame.
But now, it's asking for him.
And it begins… with the truth he never wanted to face.
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The world around Kael shimmered with unreality — fractured light refracting across charred ruins of a world that seemed like memory, dream, and warning all at once.
He stood motionless in the epicenter of the collapse, boots scraping ash off a ground that never was.
"This place…""It feels like me. But broken."
A cold wind passed through ruins that didn't crumble — they wept. The trees bore no leaves, only scorched etchings in bark shaped like screaming faces. The sun above pulsed like a dying star, flickering between bleeding orange and void-black.
Then came the voice.
It wasn't a sound, not exactly — more like the weight of being known.
"You carry the Flame.""But have you earned it?"
Kael turned in place, searching for the source — but the entire realm was watching. No, not watching.
Judging.
Suddenly, the earth cracked beneath his feet. No chance to run, no time to think.
He fell — spiraling downward into a sphere of molten glass suspended in a realm of mirrors. Infinite reflections of himself rotated like shattered constellations around him.
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First Trial: Reflection
Kael hit the translucent floor hard, and the mirrors shifted closer.
Each one bore a version of himself: younger, naive, burning with hope; older, scarred and hard-eyed; and in between them, versions twisted by choices never made.
Then, they spoke in unison — a voice composed of his own echoes.
"We are you.""What would you become… if the world refused to forgive you?"
One mirror shattered, and from it stepped a figure.
Kael's blood ran cold.
He recognized the armor — his armor — but twisted, marred by blood and guilt. A glowing red-gold eye stared from beneath the helm, the other ruined, as though burned away by truth. In his left hand, a chain dragged behind him — and on the end of that chain…
A realm-core. Bound. Bleeding energy.
"In this path, you burned everything for peace.""Even her."
A flash of memory — Lysara, turning to ash in Kael's arms, whispering something he could never unhear.
"I believed in you…"
Kael stumbled backward, heart seizing.
"I would never—!"
"Then prove it."
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He didn't know if it was real. He didn't know if any of this was. But the pain was real enough — the guilt, the fear, the sudden tightening in his chest.
Could that be him?
Would he?
How many more betrayals would it take before he became the monster he saw now?
The Sin Path Kael surged forward — and the duel began.
Battle Initiated: Kael vs. Kael (Sin Path Variant)Mechanics: Trial Realm Battles
Manifest enemies drawn from the challenger's subconscious.
Victory requires clarity of intent, not just strength.
Losing a Trial here doesn't kill — but it takes something.
Kael parried the first blow, but barely. His counterpart was fast, brutal, unrelenting — the perfect version of himself, if forged only for destruction.
"You're hesitating," Sin Kael sneered between strikes."You still think mercy matters."
Blades clashed again, flame rippling across the mirrored space. Sparks burst like dying stars.
Kael ducked low, rolled, swung wide — but Sin Kael adapted. Each move was a reflection of Kael's own instincts, his own training… but honed with cruelty.
A strike landed. Kael's arm opened in a spray of blood. He gasped, knees faltering.
The mirror fractured behind him — showing not his opponent, but Lysara again. Not ash this time, but smiling.
Hopeful.
He gritted his teeth. Vision blurred.
"I don't fight just to protect…"
His flame-core pulsed — resonating with something deeper.
"I fight to deserve to."
Flame gathered along his blade. He didn't even consciously activate the skill — it formed from the intent.
[Flamebind: Echo Sever]A burning blade that severs false futures.
He moved before his doubt could return — a slash that didn't just cut, but burned away the lie of what he could have become.
The Sin Path Kael screamed — not in pain, but in defiance — before vanishing into light and ash.
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Trial Complete: Reflection
Victory AchievedKael advanced.
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Second Trial: Silence
No time to breathe. No transition.
Only silence.
Kael opened his eyes to nothingness. A realm of pure absence. No sight. No sound. No weight.
Only one thing remained: the flame inside his chest.
"This flame you carry," a whisper inside him murmured,"It once belonged to a god. Do you know what that means?"
Kael saw it — not with eyes, but with memory.
Aeon Null — the first Flamebearer, the one who scorched the sky not out of rage, but because he couldn't feel anything anymore.
The silence showed Kael a sky breaking apart. Aeon weeping fire. Realms shattered just to feel something again.
Was that what Kael was destined for?
"Is that what I become?"
The silence didn't answer with words.
It answered with acceptance.
And Kael understood.
"Then I'll carry your flame, Aeon… but I'll do it my way."
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Back in the Deepwood Chamber
Reality returned like a gasp. Kael's body levitated above the ritual platform, arms outstretched, flames spiraling in white-hot rings around him like orbiting moons.
Serin stepped back, shielding her eyes.
Lysara froze, her lips parted.
Even the realm shivered.
"He passed it," Serin whispered.
But the voice from the lake — deeper, older, more knowing — corrected her.
"He didn't just pass.""He rewrote it."
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Reward Unlocked:
Partial Inheritance of the Forgotten Flame🔥 New Skill: Ember Sigil – Oathbrand
Burn one truth into reality. It becomes unbreakable — once.
Kael gasped and dropped to one knee, panting, still caught between trials and truth.
Serin knelt beside him.
"What did you see?"
He didn't answer. Couldn't.
Because the eyes that looked back… weren't just Kael's anymore.
[End Of Chapter 37]
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Far away, beyond shattered barriers and breaking truths…
A girl in black opened her eyes, flame reflected in her irises.
"Kael… you finally lit the first spark.""Don't die before I see it burn."
Next Chapter Preview:
🜃 Chapter 38: War of Tethers – When the Realms CollideThe Trial has changed him — but also cracked something deeper. A ripple spreads through reality. Tethers between realms weaken. And while Kael reels from the truths within…
The outer war begins