I couldn't move for hours after the fight.
My body felt hollow.
Like someone had scooped the inside of my chest out and replaced it with ash.
Lunelle stayed with me, silent.
She didn't ask questions.
Didn't give speeches.
Just sat beside me while the battlefield cooled.
Finally, when the medics came and the teachers swarmed the wall, she whispered:
"Something woke up in you."
I nodded.
But I didn't speak.
Because I didn't know what it was.
All I knew was — it remembered something I didn't.
They called it a miracle.
That I survived a Demon General.
The academy didn't punish me.
They didn't reward me, either.
Instead, I was "monitored."
Watched.
Studied.
Again.
I returned to classes, but no one treated me the same.
Some avoided me.
Some stared.
Kairen tried to talk to me once.
I stared back, and he walked away.
That scared me.
Not because I was angry.
Because I wasn't.
Because I understood.
At night, I dreamed of fire.
Not just heat or pain.
But moments.
A boy — older than me — standing in a burning temple.
Chains around his arms.
Eyes glowing black.
Screaming a name I couldn't hear.
A hand — reaching through the flame — pushing something into his chest.
A voice:
"Carry it forward. One more time."
I woke up gasping, drenched in sweat.
The flame inside me felt hot.
Restless.
Hungry.
The next morning, I went to the old ruins behind the academy.
No one trained there.
Too broken.
Too quiet.
Perfect.
I sat cross-legged in the center of the cracked arena.
And closed my eyes.
"Okay," I whispered. "Talk to me."
Nothing.
I slowed my breathing.
Felt the flame.
Let it rise.
Just enough.
And then—
A voice.
Clear. Cold. Familiar.
"You are not the first."
My heart skipped.
"You're real," I whispered.
"I am what remains."
"Of what?"
Silence.
"Of who."
The flame wasn't just power.
It was someone.
Or something.
A soul?
A memory?
I didn't know.
But I kept going.
"Who were you?"
"The last to burn."
"You mean… before me?"
"Before all of them."
The flame flared.
And I saw a face in my mind.
Young.
Eyes like mine.
But older. Wiser. Angry.
Not evil.
Broken.
The voice faded for a moment.
Then returned, softer:
"They will come again."
"Who?"
"The ones who sealed me."
"Why?"
"Because you're waking me up."
I stood, breathing hard.
The ruins around me were still.
But inside — I felt like I'd stirred a sleeping god.
Or a curse.
Or both.
I walked back to campus, barely noticing the stares anymore.
The voice was still there.
Watching.
Breathing.
Waiting.
Later that night, Lunelle found me again.
She walked beside me quietly as I stared out at the lake behind the academy walls.
"Your flame is alive," she said, no question in her tone.
"You knew?"
She nodded. "They always are."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it had to speak first."
I looked up at the moon.
"I think it used to be someone."
"It still is," she said. "Just… broken."
"And me?"
She turned to me, eyes serious.
"You're the vessel."
"But I'm still me."
"For now."
Those words stuck with me.
Long after she left.
Long after the moon disappeared behind clouds.
I sat alone at the lake.
And whispered to the voice:
"I'm not afraid of you."
It didn't answer.
Just flickered.
Then faded.
But I could feel it smiling.
Not cruelly.
Not kindly.
Like it was watching.
Waiting.
For the moment I'd finally let it in completely.
Meanwhile… in a temple far beyond the capital…
A cloaked man lit seven candles, each shaped like a different flame.
He placed a charred nameplate in the center of the ritual circle.
On it: RAI NOZOMI
He whispered a prayer of ending.
And from the shadows behind him, something ancient opened its eyes.