.
The throne didn't shimmer.
It didn't glow.
It waited.
Wreathed in silence and woven of bone that pulsed with an ancient rhythm… like a heart that refused to die.
Luan stepped forward. Sayra grabbed his wrist.
> "What if this is a trap?"
He didn't answer.
The mirror beside the throne reflected not his face… but hundreds of versions of him—laughing, bleeding, broken, burning, screaming, ascending. All flickering like dying flames.
Then a whisper curled through the chamber.
A voice, deep as time and soft as death.
> "You have walked far, bearer of silence. But truth is not given. It is earned. Piece by cursed piece."
Luan turned sharply.
A shadow stood behind the throne, faceless, yet familiar. Cloaked in shifting embers.
Sayra reached for her blade—
But the shadow raised a hand, not in warning… in recognition.
> "I am not your enemy."
"Nor your guide."
"I am what you must become—or what you must defeat."
> "So what do I call you?" Luan asked.
The shadow tilted its head.
> "Whatever name your soul fears most."
And then… it vanished.
No prophecy.
No history lesson.
Just a door of flame that cracked open the chamber wall.
Sayra: "He didn't tell you anything?"
Luan: "He told me everything. Just in a way I don't understand yet."
---
Later that night—they camped in the forest past the Sanctum.
Yuu was roasting meat while humming a dirty song.
Nia was perched in a tree, definitely not watching Luan from above.
And Sayra?
She sat by the fire, closer to him than usual.
> "You've changed," she said, staring into the flames.
"When I met you, you were just a cursed wanderer. Now you… pull fire from the stone. Command darkness. And you still can't even channel Qi."
He laughed. "Lucky me?"
She didn't smile.
> "I don't want to lose you, Luan."
Silence.
Then Yuu tripped over a root and fell into the firepit, screaming about his precious buns.
That broke the tension.
But Nia, still in the tree, frowned.
> She likes him. And I'm still just 'the teammate'. For now…
---
Meanwhile…
In a city miles away, under blood-colored banners, a woman knelt before a glowing jade mirror.
She had seen the black fire.
She had seen him.
> "So… the heir survived," she whispered.
"But the Forgotten World does not forget. We will find you, boy. Before you remember."
---
End of Chapter 15
Ready for Chapter 16?
.
Shall we begin?