The wind that morning didn't feel normal.
It blew warm, but without heat — as if the very air was breathing with me.
Ever since we left the plains of Nareth, the world had changed.
The colors seemed more vivid, time slower. And sometimes, the ground trembled, as if something enormous was awakening beneath the earth.
"It's happening across the entire continent," said Liriel as she consulted the grimoire. "The flames are moving. As if they were being called."
"Called by whom?" I asked.
She lifted her eyes to me, hesitating. "By you… or by him."
Zephyron.
The name echoed inside my mind like a distant sound.
Celine walked a few steps ahead, her face serious. "The balance is at its limit. If the bearer doesn't decide, the fire will decide on its own."
"And when the fire decides alone," Elara murmured, "everything turns to ash."
Vespera adjusted her backpack and sighed. "Well, at least if everything turns to ash, it matches the mood."
"That doesn't help," I retorted.
"I'm not trying to."
Despite the humor, the tension was real.
We knew the end of the arc was approaching — and even unspoken, everyone felt that Zephyron wasn't asleep anymore.
The trail led us to the Valley of Erantis, a plain covered in translucent crystals that reflected the sky.
The air there vibrated with energy.
And at the center, there was a pillar of light — the same type of flare we saw when we freed the first fragment.
Celine stared at it. "It's the core. The point where everything began."
"Then this is where it ends," said Elara.
Liriel nodded. "Or restarts."
The flame inside me began to pulse stronger, almost as if recognizing the place.
I felt Zephyron's voice, faint but present:
"Takumi… you brought them to the edge. Now, I need to see if the fire has learned."
"You are waking up," I murmured.
"Talking to yourself again?" Vespera asked, crossing her arms.
"Depends. If I hear an answer, I am."
She gave a half–smile. "Then you definitely are."
As we approached the pillar, the air grew dense.
The ground trembled in subtle waves, and the sky seemed to melt in shades of gold and blue.
Suddenly, a figure emerged from within the lights — Zephyron, in complete form.
But he wasn't the same one we had faced.
There was no anger, no arrogance. Only serenity and exhaustion.
His golden eyes seemed to look through time itself.
"So you have finally completed it," he said. "All the flames… united within you."
"And now?" I asked.
"Now, the fire must decide whether it continues or rests."
"Do you want to rest?"
"I want to understand."
Liriel stepped forward. "Zephyron, the world is still adjusting. If you disappear now, the whole balance could collapse."
"And if I stay, the fire will become eternal," he replied. "And the eternal never learns to change."
Celine took a deep breath. "So it's a choice between finitude and immortality."
"Between the weight of remembering and the peace of forgetting," Zephyron added.
I looked at the group. Each of them watched me in silence — waiting.
It was clear what he wanted: my decision.
Suddenly, the valley began to glow.
The crystals around us vibrated, projecting images — memories.
We saw everything we had lived: Kareth, Meridia, Arvendall…
The cities, the laughter, the losses.
And among them, the older versions of me — the confused Takumi, the one who wanted to run, the one who only reacted to the world.
All of them there, looking at me like reflections.
"You carry everything," Zephyron said. "And everything you carry needs form. A purpose."
"And what if I don't want to be the purpose?" I asked.
"Then the fire will seek another."
The flame inside me stirred. I felt it trying to leave, but not violently — just impatient.
Like a child waiting to be called by name.
"Maybe it wants to live without a master," I murmured.
"Or maybe it wants to know what it is to be free," Zephyron replied. "And freedom requires sacrifice."
The ground split open, revealing the golden core of the valley — a heart of pure energy, beating in sync with mine.
The wind swirled in a spiral.
Time seemed to stop.
Celine shouted something, but I didn't hear it.
All that existed was Zephyron's voice and the sound of the fire growing.
"So, Takumi… what is your choice?"
I took a deep breath.
The memories mixed inside me — every fragment, every pain, every joy.
And I realized something simple: the flame never wanted to be power. It wanted to be company.
A mirror of what it means to exist and to learn.
"I won't extinguish the fire," I said firmly.
Zephyron lifted his gaze.
"And I won't let it consume the world either. If it wants to live, then it will live with us."
He seemed to smile. "Then you will make it human."
"No. I'll just remember that it already was."
The fire expanded, covering the sky.
For an instant, everything became light.
Zephyron dissolved into golden particles that drifted toward me.
And when the last fragment touched my chest, I felt peace — a calm so deep it seemed older than time.
The pillar of light vanished.
The valley returned to being just a field of crystals shining under the wind.
When I woke up, the sun was already setting.
The group was gathered around me.
"Elara?" I murmured. "Are we still… alive?"
"At least for now," she replied with a smile. "You passed out in the middle of a divine explosion. I was this close to burying you with honors."
"And I was already betting on how long he'd take to start complaining again," Vespera added.
Liriel laughed softly. "Normally, he doesn't take that long."
Celine knelt beside me. "Zephyron?"
"He's gone," I answered. "Or… became part of the flame."
She nodded, looking at the sky. "The fire is quiet. But not extinguished."
I looked at the horizon — and noticed something new.
For the first time, the sun seemed to move naturally.
Time was flowing again, free.
We set up camp near the crystals.
Night fell, and the sky reflected a thousand shades of blue and gold.
The flame inside me pulsed softly, without pain, without urgency—just alive.
I sat near the campfire, and Liriel approached.
"You saved the world," she said.
"Or just convinced it to breathe again."
"And what are you going to do now?"
"I don't know."
Vespera interrupted: "I vote for a vacation. Preferably somewhere without ghosts, gods, talking flames, or cosmic judgment."
"Hard to find a place like that," Elara commented.
"Then we invent one."
Celine laughed. "Maybe it's time to live what's left—while the fire just watches."
I agreed, looking at the glow in the embers.
The wind blew, and for a moment, I heard Zephyron's voice—serene, distant:
"Fire is neither beginning nor end. It is the space between them."
I smiled.
"Then let it stay lit—slowly."
The group slept under the golden sky, and I stayed there, awake, watching the reflection of the stars on the crystals.
For the first time, the world felt... balanced.
Not cold, not hot. Not forgotten, not trapped.
Just... alive.
I closed my eyes.
The flame breathed with me.
And that night, I realized: the end of fire was never to extinguish it—it was to teach it to exist without fear.