The System didn't ask if he was ready.
It simply whispered:
[Memory Echo Triggered: Wrath – Fragment #01: "The Torch Who Screamed."]
And the world disappeared.
Brix stood on a plain of ash.
Not metaphorical ash—real, choking, endless. The sky above was blackened with smoke, and wind didn't blow here. Everything was burned already.
At the center stood a man, barefoot and trembling. He was wrapped in tattered robes, his fists glowing like suns trying to die. Fire bled from his skin like sweat.
Around him: ruins. Not of buildings.
Of people.
Charred silhouettes. Glassified soil.
A battlefield where no war remained.
The man's eyes were hollow. Not evil. Not even angry. Just empty.
He opened his mouth to speak, but what came out was a sob disguised as laughter.
"I tried to save them... I did."
He looked at his hands like they'd betrayed him.
"The bandits came. The town begged me to help. So I burned them."
"And when the smoke cleared, no one thanked me. They screamed."
He dropped to his knees.
"They screamed louder than I ever did."
"So I screamed back."
Brix couldn't move. Couldn't speak.
The man looked up—not at him, through him. Into the future. Into the soul of whoever would come next.
"Wrath is easy," the man whispered. "Rage is mercy when you're drowning in it."
"But if you don't learn to cage it, you'll burn the ones who reach for you."
He raised a hand.
A symbol glowed on his chest—the same system mark Brix now carried.
"You'll think it's justice. But you'll only be alone."
Then the vision collapsed in on itself—flames folding inward like a dying star.
Brix landed hard in the archive, gasping, heart hammering like it had nowhere left to go.
The air was still. Scrolls rustled softly on the shelves.
But something in him had shifted.
[Memory Echo Complete.][Passive Trait Gained: Flame Restraint – Unintentional Activation Disabled.][Mental Resistance: Guilt Threshold Raised. Emotional volatility reduced by 12%.]
Brix stared at his hands.
They weren't glowing.
For the first time since he was a child... they weren't trying to.
He gripped Kairon's coat.
And whispered like a prayer only he could hear:
"I won't burn what I want to protect."