The ashes drifted around me, like the remains of souls searching for their final rest.
The alleys grew narrower, the air heavier with every breath. The girl had vanished, but her words kept echoing in my mind:
> "The heir… the first world beyond this hell."
I walked slowly toward the end of the alley, where the walls seemed to breathe smoke and the ghosts of the city watched me through shattered windows.
I didn't know what awaited me, but something deep inside whispered — the path has opened, and the next step would no longer belong to this world.
Suddenly, my heart trembled.
The ashes around me began to swirl violently, forming a black vortex — a gate of dust and shadow.
A low voice spoke, not the girl's, but the same dark tone that had lived inside me since the black fire first awoke:
> "Didn't you say you'd burn to the end? Then step forward… and I'll show you the first hell born from your own soul."
A shadowed hand reached out from the center of the vortex.
I hesitated for a moment, looked at my palm still scarred by flame, then clenched it — as if gripping my own fate.
I stepped inside.
The city vanished.
The air turned cold, the world inverted itself.
When I opened my eyes, I stood on a land unlike any I'd seen —
A sky of stagnant fire, a ground of sighing ash, and rivers of black light flowing in silence.
And there… just a few steps ahead, stood the gray-cloaked girl, her face clearer than before.
She spoke softly, as if reciting a prophecy long written:
> "Welcome to the First World… The Fire of Beginning."