Seven suns hung in the sky, burning with beautiful white flame. Their incandescent radiance poured across the tranquil sea, turning its surface into a living mirror of brilliance. A gentle wind brushed past the ivory island, making the pale grass ripple softly.
Amidst it all, a woman stood. Her face was masked in cold indifference, yet her eyes burned with a frightening intensity.
"Burn," Nephis uttered.
Suddenly, the island shuddered. The sea began to boil. Above, the seven suns flared, their radiance growing brighter and brighter until the world was nothing but blinding white.
The surface of the tranquil lake ignited. A storm of white fire swept across the ivory island, swallowing the grass, the stones, and the ancient white pagoda in a single, roaring breath.
The pagoda shuddered violently, its flawless form beginning to fracture as white flame crawled along its elegant pillars, consuming the sacred stone. The sky itself seemed to burn white.
The flames devoured her figure by her will.
The white flames licked against her skin, dancing harmlessly across her arms and face. They spread across the world around her, reducing the pagoda to glowing cinders, yet they refused to mar a single inch of her flesh. They did not burn her.
Nephis gritted her teeth, her fists clenching as the fire caressed her unblemished skin, mocking her desire with its absolute refusal to harm its master.
Outside, in the cold darkness of the dungeon, she was powerless, crucified by blades and bound by the King's Will. But here, in the sanctuary of her soul, she was bound to nothing. Her Will was absolute.
She willed herself to end, to burn. The flames consumed everything until the whole sea was burning, yet Nephis remained unscathed.
She turned her gaze upward, staring at the seven suns that represented the core of her existence. Her eyes filled with a terrifying mixture of rage and grief.
Brilliant wings exploded from her back.
With a single beat of those wings, Nephis shot upward, tearing through the white sky like a burning comet.
She opened her mouth and spoke the True Name of Fire. The sky itself ignited. Her soul raged like a burning inferno.
Yet Nephis did not burn.
She felt the agony of her Flaw lashing out, sending the sensation of being charred alive through every nerve ending, but her skin remained flawless. The white flames parted before her, refusing to harm the one who commanded them.
Nephis gritted her teeth against the pain. It was not enough.
She spoke the second Name, the True Name of Destruction.
The world turned blinding white. The intensity of the heat multiplied into a force that should have vaporized anything it touched. The pain of her Flaw spiked to unbearable levels, threatening to shatter her mind. Yet it did not numb her emotions. Her grief was so profound that even the Flaw could not diminish it. It only made her more determined to end her miserable existence.
She looked at her hands. They were still unmarred. The fire still refused to consume her.
Nephis pierced through the inferno, flying straight toward the suns as the world burned around her.
Her essence thinned. She could feel her reserves draining. Not enough, she thought. Her Will alone was not enough to destroy herself.
Her wings beat once more, more desperate and more furious. She used the fourth fruit of her Aspect Legacy, the one she should have only gained in the future, yet carried back from a different time.
She invoked the True Name of Passion, and with it her Will surged. It sharpened and became absolute. Paired with the knowledge she once wielded as a Supreme, the effect was devastating.
At last, she felt heat. Real heat. Her skin blistered. The radiant surface of her soul began to char and unravel.
Her face twisted. It was not due to the pain of burning. She was used to that. The True Name of Passion amplified her emotions along with her Will, and her grief, already as deep as an ocean, grew manifold. Tears filled her eyes only to evaporate as memories replayed in her mind. There were other emotions lurking beneath the surface, but Nephis was too overwhelmed to notice them, though they gradually grew heavier and heavier.
The grief twisted into a rage so absolute it felt like madness. She hated the Sovereigns for their greed. She hated Cassie for her silence. But most of all, she hated herself for surviving.
"Burn," she screamed, her voice breaking.
The flames obeyed her command completely.
Fueled by the Knowledge of Destruction and the power of Passion, the white flames finally overcame her natural resistance. The protection of her lineage was pushed back.
Her skin blackened. The beautiful white wings on her back incinerated, turning into trails of falling ash. Her flesh cracked, revealing glowing bone beneath. The agony was blinding, absolute, and total.
It was exactly what she wanted.
Nephis willed herself to continue, to extinguish herself forever. She pushed every drop of essence she possessed into the flames.
But even as she burned, the True Name of Passion betrayed her. Perhaps it was not the Name itself. Perhaps it was simply her. Her conflicting emotions, drowned by grief before, now surged upward.
The stubborn ember of defiance that had carried her through a hundred battlefields flared to life. The furious refusal to surrender that defined her very existence would not yield. Her body tried to heal even as it burned. Flesh regenerated only to be consumed again in an endless, agonizing cycle.
She still wanted to destroy herself, yet she healed as she burned. Suspended between annihilation and survival, her emotions warred as she burned and healed in equal measure.
And then…
Nephis noticed it first in the light.
The flames that had roared with blinding fury began to dim. The incandescent brilliance of the burning sky flickered. The heat slackened. For a moment she did not understand. Then she felt it in her cores.
They were empty.
She had burned everything. Every drop of essence. There was nothing left to feed the inferno.
'No. Not like this. Not now.'
Her wings shuddered, then failed completely. The charred remnants that had fought to keep her aloft crumbled into ash. She fell, tumbling through the dimming storm of white fire toward the boiling lake below. The light continued to fade.
'So this was it.'
A hollow laugh scraped from her throat, raw and bitter against the sudden silence.
Of course. Fate would deny her even this. It had stripped her of choices, of future, of him. Now it refused her the dignity of death on her own terms.
She was exhausted.
But then, in the sky of her Soul Sea, where only the broken suns had burned moments ago, tiny dots of light appeared. One star. Then another. Then dozens. Then hundreds and thousands. Until the heavens were filled with constellations, as if they had always been there.
Essence poured into her cores.
Unknown to her, Sovereigns clashed on Godgrave. Nightmare creatures flooded the battlefield. Soldiers died . In their terror and despair, countless voices cried out to the one star they had always seen shining above the darkness.
Changing Star.
Lady Nephis.
Save us.
Hope flooded toward her like a tide. Belief. Desperation. The faith of thousands and thousands of souls clung to the last image of salvation they trusted. They did not ask whether she was able. Nor did they question whether she was even alive. They simply believed. And that belief poured into her like a storm.
The shattered suns blazed brighter. The stars multiplied. Her once-empty cores swelled, brimming with essence not her own, resisting the sorcery of the King of Swords.
Nephis looked at the stars filling her Soul Sea and laughed bitterly. The irony was crushing. She had tried to cast everything away, to leave this world behind, yet the world refused to let her go. It poured its faith and desperation into her, dragging her back from the brink of oblivion.
Her nascent Domain, fed by the prayers of the dying, solidified.
As the essence flooded her empty cores, the remnant white flame that had been sputtering out roared back to life with terrifying violence. This time, it was met by an equal force. Her body lurched as regeneration surged to meet the destruction. And so, the torture began anew. She burned. She healed. She burned again. Her charred flesh knitted together, only to be devoured by the white inferno a heartbeat later. The cycle repeated endlessly.
Her nerves screamed. Her bones glowed through ruined flesh. Her soul twisted under torture that allowed no rest, no numbness, and no escape.
Time lost all meaning in that white void. There was no past to regret and no future to dread. Only burning, followed by healing, again and again. It felt like an eternity. She wanted to die. She screamed silently for the end.
Yet another part of her refused.
Two wills, both hers, clashed endlessly. Passion fueled them both. One desperately wished for death. The other demanded vengeance and refused to yield, because yielding was impossible for her.
She was the Changing Star. She would not break, even when she wanted to. Her very nature would not allow it.
So the cycle continued until even her rage and grief numbed, drowned beneath sheer, overwhelming pain, leaving only unwavering persistence behind.
Deep within a hidden part of her soul, amidst the Memory of Light, a new fruit bloomed. The Spell whispered into her ear, its voice full of scorn.
[Your Aspect Legacy mastery level has increased.]
The Spell whispered again, but Nephis barely heard it. The torrent of revelation drowned everything else. The Knowledge of Restoration, Rebirth, and Continuance seeped into every corner of her being, sharpening everything that already existed. Her mastery over Fire, Destruction, and Passion strengthened under its influence. The meanings behind those True Names deepened and intertwined into something greater.
Nephis gasped as the white fire suddenly changed nature.
The heavens of her Soul Sea shuddered. The seven suns burned brighter, shedding flawless light across the endless lake. Her body was remade in an instant. The charred flesh vanished. Her skin returned flawless and pale. Her silver hair flowed like a river of starlight.
Power surged through her, washing away the agony of the burning loop and replacing it with cold euphoria.
Her soul cores shone brighter than ever before, burning like real stars, even though they still bore fractures.
The pain was gone, but the grief and persistence remained.
Nephis breathed out slowly.
The blades that pinned her to the wall melted, turning into rivers of molten steel before evaporating entirely in white fire, runes flickered and dimmed.
The sealing chamber could no longer contain what now existed inside it.
A thunderous explosion tore through the hall, vaporizing the structure.The towering black walls split apart as blinding white flame surged outward, devouring the darkness and flooding the Bastion with radiant light.
When the fire cleared… she stood there.
Her silver hair fell freely down her back. Her skin was pale, flawless, untouched The dungeon around her lay in ruins, reduced to scorched rubble , yet she remained pristine at the center of destruction.
Her eyes opened.
Two silent suns stared back at the world.
Nephis took a step forward.
The heavy air of Bastion recoiled. The oppressive Will of the King bent , cracking under the pressure of new supreme.
She walked through shattered halls, her steps leaving faint traces of white fire upon the cold stone. The Bastion shook with each step.
Soon, she reached a vast corridor drowned in debris. Amidst broken marble, a familiar weapon lay on the ground.
A broken sword.
Nephis stopped.For a long moment, she simply looked at it. Pain flashed through her eyes.
She knelt and reached out.The shattered blade trembled the instant her fingers brushed it. White flame enveloped the steel, burning bright but gentle, as if cradling something precious. Cracks disappeared.
The fractured weapon mended itself ,slowly restoring , until once again it stood whole and immaculate, gleaming in her hand.
At the same time, deep inside her soul, the fractures that marred her cores sealed. Her essence grew smooth and complete
Nephis closed her hand around the restored blade and drew it close to her chest. Her eyes dimmed for a moment, full of sorrow, longing, and something else .
"I still have something that must be done," she whispered.
****
A gargantuan ship of ancient, weathered wood drifted silently across the mirror-still lake, its colossal hull towering higher than most of Bastion's structures.
Mordret stood on the edge of the hull of the Night Garden, his coat fluttering in the cold wind. With a casual step, he jumped, landing softly on the ground. He frowned as he straightened his collar.
"Strange…" Mordret muttered softly, his brows knitting in faint irritation.
He walked toward the castle, his steps measured and careful, his mirror-like eyes scanning everything.
Suddenly, he halted.
A heavy pressure descended upon the world, making the air hard to breathe. Mordret slowly lifted his head, looking at the sky with a concerned expression on his face.
Above, beneath the shattered fragments of the broken moon, a figure floated. White wings spread wide, casting a long shadow across the empty plaza below. The figure was perfectly still, suspended in the air like a statue.
His face paled, an unfamiliar heaviness gripping his tone. For the first time in a very long while, his smile did not come.
"…Lady Nephis," he said at last, voice dry and strained. "I did not expect to meet you here."
The figure did not answer. The burning white eyes simply shifted downward, locking onto him.
Mordret took a half-step back, raising a hand in a placating gesture. "Would you mind—"
Before he could continue, the world turned white.
A pillar of white fire descended from the heavens, connecting the sky to the earth in an instant. It swallowed Mordret whole, vaporizing the stones, the air, and the Prince of Nothing in a fraction of a second.
When the light faded, there was no Mordret. There was no courtyard. There was only a massive, molten crater, smoking in the silence of the night.
Nephis hovered above the scorched crater, her face expressionless. Her wings beat once, and she turned away from the destruction as though it had never happened.
She extended her hand. Space tore open before her, a massive Dream Gate ripped through reality. On the other side, the titanic skeleton sprawled across the battlefield, armies clashing against nightmare creatures.
Her eyes swept across the battlefield. Then she saw it.
A grotesque sphere of flesh hung in the sky, pulsing. The labyrinth. Inside, she could sense two presences of Anvil.
Nephis raised her hand.
Another pillar of white fire descended from the heavens, crashing into the bone plane consuming everything, soldiers,nightmare creatures and the flesh labyrinth alike with devastating force. The flesh labyrinth shuddered, its surface cracking and burning as divine flames tore through its walls. The white flame burned her foes while healing the soldiers. In an instant, thousands of creatures were wiped out as if they had never existed.
She stepped through the gate, leaving Bastion behind.