❖❖❖
Three days had passed since the battle at the Obsidian Spire.
The ashes of the Cinder Devourer still scattered the horizon, but its presence lingered. The sky had not healed — it cracked more each night.
Kaen, bruised and silent, stood beside Mira at a cliff's edge. The winds were hot. Wrong.
"Do you feel it?" she asked.
He nodded. "The world's about to burn."
❖❖❖
Back at the Flame Citadel, Daizo and the elders met with Mira and Kaen.
They had learned the truth — Mira wasn't just cursed.
She was the reborn soul of Ashara, now awakened.
Some bowed.
Some feared.
Some… plotted.
"There are whispers in the wind," Seer Nami said. "That something is coming. A storm of fire not even the First Flame could stop."
Elsewhere, the Phoenix Order had disbanded their rebellion.
But not their loyalty.
They began calling Mira "The True Flame".
She told them not to worship her.
They followed anyway.
Then it came.
At dusk, the sky opened.
A second Devourer descended.
This one was winged, larger, cloaked in black feathers that burned in reverse — sucking light instead of emitting it.
The people screamed. Villages burned without touch. Fire lost control.
Kaen and Mira rode out — with the Nine Flamelords at their side.
❖❖❖
The battle began at the edge of the Scorched Wastes.
The beast unleashed flames that howled like wolves.
Kaen struck with Emberfang, slashing through one wing.
Sorek summoned a meteor of pure flame.
Gorran charged, magma fists shaking the earth.
But the Devourer wasn't alone.
It split into three smaller horrors — each with a fragment of its curse.
And the sky bled red.
One horror targeted Mira directly.
She channeled her reborn Soulfire, her aura turning violet-gold.
But as she struck the creature, a shockwave of memory hit her:
Screams from past lives.
Her burning a city by mistake.
A friend she'd killed. A lover she'd lost.
She fell to her knees.
"Too many flames… too many sins…"
Kaen ran to her.
"Mira! Fight it!"
Her pendant glowed — and from it came a whisper:
"You are not your past. You are the fire that chooses."
Mira stood.
She burned not with power — but with will.
The battle turned.
Myrrh sacrificed her form to mirror the beast's own shadow, confusing it.
Riven exploded into laughing embers.
Elarin and Thorn fused their flames, creating a spiral lance that pierced the second horror's heart.
Kaen and Mira, side by side, unleashed their ultimate strike — Twin Phoenix Flame.
The winged Devourer screeched—
And died.
But the cost was great.
Three Flamelords were lost.
The sky dimmed.
And then, for the first time in 700 years—
It rained.
Not water.
But ashes.
❖❖❖
That night, the survivors gathered at the Ashen Temple.
They burned the bodies in honor.
Mira watched the flames rise.
"I didn't ask for this," she whispered.
Kaen placed a hand on her shoulder. "But you carry it anyway."
She turned to him.
"I need to go further."
"Where?"
"To the place Ashara first died."
Kaen blinked. "The Starforge?"
She nodded. "If I'm to stop whatever is coming, I must remember everything."
Far away, beneath a crimson sea…
A sealed temple pulsed with flame.
And a figure in obsidian chains stirred.
Not a god. Not a demon.
The one who killed Ashara the first time.
"The flame returns," it whispered. "Then so shall I."
✴️ END OF CHAPTER 8