The next morning, Kaien couldn't shake the pulse in his chest.
The League's sky was clear — crystalline glass showing the curve of Earth below — but within his neural link, storms raged. Every time he breathed, symbols flashed across his retina:
古 • 炎 • 復 • 魂 — Ancient Flame Soul Return.
"System…" he muttered, gripping the edge of his desk. "Who are you?"
No answer. Only static.
Until — bzzt — a flicker. Then, a voice, soft but ancient.
> [Identity Confirmed: Successor of the Heaven Breaker Line.]
[Initiating access: Archive of the Eternal Flame.]
Kaien's room dissolved into light.
He was no longer in the academy.
---
He found himself standing on a platform suspended over an endless ocean of fire. Each flame burned with colorless brilliance — beyond red or blue, beyond mortal qi. Data flowed through the air like glowing script, forming constellations.
> "Is this… a digital realm?" he whispered. "No — it feels alive…"
> [This is the Sovereign's Core Domain.]
[Time Ratio: 1 second external = 10 years internal.]
Kaien froze. "Ten years per second?!"
The flames swirled — then condensed into a figure.
A man with white hair and scarred hands, his eyes calm yet vast as the cosmos. His aura wasn't oppressive; it was infinite, like the silence before creation.
Kaien dropped to one knee instinctively.
> "You… you're—"
> "Wang Chung," the man said. "Or what remains of him."
The voice echoed like thunder within his soul. But it wasn't alive — it was a memory, a consciousness fragment embedded in the Heaven Breaker Protocol.
---
Wang Chung studied him with faint curiosity. "You are not of my age. Yet my flame resonates with your soul."
Kaien swallowed. "I… I don't understand any of this. I just woke up, and—"
> "And now the world wants you dead," Wang Chung interrupted. "Because my flame never belonged to the heavens — it defied them. And you've inherited it."
The young cultivator's pulse quickened. "Inherited… your flame?"
The Sovereign extended his hand. In it burned a flickering ember, small yet brighter than a sun.
> "This is the Ignition Spark, the first flame of the Heaven Breaker Path. What you call 'Spirit Circuits' and 'Data Arrays' — they're merely shadows of this."
Kaien's neural link began to vibrate violently. His data-core was overheating; his qi channels screamed as spiritual energy surged from his soul.
> [Warning: Neural limit exceeded. Spiritual backlash detected.]
He fell to his knees, clutching his head.
Wang Chung didn't move. "Pain is your threshold. Step beyond it — or remain a prisoner to the system."
The boy screamed — flame and data converged around him, fusing into golden code that wrapped his veins like living circuits. His flesh felt like molten metal, his consciousness fracturing between spirit and software.
Then, silence.
A bright core flared behind him — a flame-shaped sigil floating over his spine.
> [Heaven Breaker Core – Ignition Complete.]
Kaien opened his eyes. They glowed with molten-gold light.
---
The realm darkened. Wang Chung's fragment began to fade.
> "This… is only the beginning," the Sovereign's voice echoed.
"Find the other fragments — hidden in the Nine Digital Realms. Each holds a piece of my truth."
"When all flames unite… the heavens will tremble again."
> "Wait!" Kaien shouted. "How do I find them? Who's hunting me?"
But Wang Chung's form dissolved into streams of data-fire, scattering into the void.
Only a whisper lingered:
> "Trust no heaven… build your own."
---
Kaien collapsed back into the real world, drenched in sweat. His dorm walls flickered with residual flame-light, the circuitry half-melted.
His comm-bracelet buzzed wildly —
[Alert: Unauthorized spiritual surge detected. Report to the Council immediately.]
Outside, skyships roared as academy guardians assembled.
And far beneath the city, the pulse of the Protocol Sovereign Ignition grew louder.
Kaien stood slowly, eyes blazing with new purpose.
He clenched his fist, flame flickering between his knuckles.
> "Heaven Breaker… your legacy won't end here."