The dream started in silence.
No voices. No sound.
Just wind.
Coker opened his eyes and found himself standing in a wide field of ash. The sky above was orange and broken, like it had been set on fire and forgotten.
He blinked.
Where was he?
Where was Elira?
Where was—
BOOM.
A distant explosion tore through the stillness.
Coker turned—and saw fire swallowing the horizon. Entire cities burning. Black towers collapsing. Winged demons flying through the smoke like vultures.
At the center of it all, a man stood.
Back turned.
Cloak whipping in the wind.
Hair white as snow. Mark glowing red on his hand.
"Kael."
The name left Coker's lips before he realized it.
The man turned.
And the face that met his eyes—
Was his own.
Coker stumbled back.
"No—no, that's not me."
Kael stepped forward slowly.
He was older. Worn. Scars lined his arms. His eyes glowed, but not like fire—like something barely holding itself together.
"You're not ready," Kael said, voice quiet but heavy.
Coker shook his head. "This is a dream. A memory."
Kael nodded.
"An echo. A warning."
Coker looked around. The field wasn't just ash.
It was bodies.
Fallen soldiers. Mages. Children. Burned flags. Shattered swords.
"Did you do this?"
Kael didn't answer.
Instead, he held out his hand.
A fireball formed. Not red. Not orange.
Black.
Like a sun made of shadow.
"I thought I could control it," Kael whispered. "I thought being a Vessel meant I was chosen to save the world."
He looked up—eyes piercing through time.
"But we weren't chosen to save it."
"We were built to end it."
Coker's chest tightened.
"That's not true."
Kael stepped closer. "It's not power we carry. It's a god's grief. Their pain. Their rage. Their memories."
He pointed toward the ruins.
"I destroyed everything I loved before I realized what I'd become."
Coker clenched his fists. "But I'm not you."
"No," Kael said. "You're worse."
Coker froze. "What?"
"You carry the complete seal. The others were fragments. You… were built as a key."
"A key to what?"
Kael looked toward the burning sky.
"…To the end."
Suddenly, the world cracked.
The sky split open like glass shattering above them.
Coker screamed, holding his head.
Kael's voice echoed one last time:
"Don't let the power choose for you."
"If you hear its voice—run."
[Reality – Somewhere in the wild]
Coker woke up choking on air.
Rain hit his face. Elira was shaking him. Naia stood behind her, worried.
"Coker!" Elira shouted. "Wake up!"
He coughed and sat up, heart racing.
"Elira—I saw him. I saw Kael. He… he destroyed everything."
Naia's voice was quiet. "I felt it too. You were gone for hours."
Coker looked at them both.
"We're not just weapons. We're part of something ancient. Something broken."
Elira nodded slowly. "That's why the demons want you. They believe the Vessels are the last gate to their true king."
Naia whispered, "The God of Nothing."
Coker stood shakily.
"I'm not going to let this end the same way."
Elira smiled faintly. "Then we have to find the next Vessels. Before the Demon King does."
Naia looked north.
Her mark glowed again.
"I think… I feel another one."
Far across the land, on a bloodstained battlefield beneath a collapsed temple, a girl with silver eyes dug herself out of the rubble.
A mark burned on her shoulder—violet.
And behind her…
A thousand demon corpses.
She blinked.
"Where… am I?"