The Wraithshade jungle withered behind them. Its screeching flora and haunted winds faded to memory, like a dream Leo wasn't sure he'd survived. The fourth fragment — the Blooming Fang — pulsed at his side. Its new power, Verdant Pulse, had already saved Fang from infection, and Coal from collapsing from spore burn. But it was more than a gift — it was a confession.
Each fragment wasn't just a key.
It was a story of pain.
And as Leo climbed onto Coal's back and took flight westward, toward the volcanic barrens marked Ashendreach, he felt the pressure of four lives now fused to his own.
Four Nights Later
The air was ash.
Hot winds blew constant across the volcanic wasteland. Below them, the world was a painting of reds and blacks — fields of solid lava, broken peaks, and blackened craters where entire armies once burned.
Leo had heard whispers of this place.
Ashendreach, once the last stand of the Firebound Legion during the Demon Wars, now a forbidden stretch of land where no magic worked properly, and where the earth itself bled flame.
Their destination: the Cindervoid Spire, a fractured tower at the caldera's center. Said to house the fifth fragment.
And its guardians: the Cindervoid Twins.
They landed miles away, shielding themselves in the shadows of basalt cliffs.
Fang sniffed the air. "Something here… smells like me."
Leo glanced at him. "Tamer instinct?"
Fang shook his head. "No. Older than that. Older than everything."
Coal growled, low. "Magic tastes wrong here."
Leo narrowed his eyes at the distant Spire. It wasn't just cracked. It was floating, held aloft by black flames — completely defying physics. Around it spun shattered buildings and fragments of iron bridges, like some violent god had snapped reality in half.
Leo opened the map. The page burned under his touch.
He let go. It disintegrated.
"Well," he muttered. "Guess we're not welcome."
[Zone Warning: Cindervoid Anomaly – Magic Instability, High Temperatures, Chrono Distortions Active][All Passive Regeneration Disabled][Warning: Guardian Entity = Class Omega. Twin Signature Detected.]
They approached on foot.
The land cracked beneath them. Sometimes the sky blinked. Not turned cloudy — blinked, like an eye.
Then the voices started.
Echoes, fragments of the past.
"Mother, they burned us."
"Do you see the ash angels?"
"It's still burning, brother."
Fang hissed. "Voices aren't ghosts."
Leo nodded. "They're echoes. Psychic residue."
Coal stepped carefully. "Or bait."
When they reached the Spire's base, they saw the truth:
It wasn't floating.
It was suspended — held up by chains of black flame, each tethered to a floating corpse. Dozens of them. Human, beast, demon, hybrid. All burned. All screaming silently. All anchoring the tower with their death.
And then came the laughter.
Children's laughter.
Echoing from every direction.
Then, they appeared.
First, the girl.
Then, the boy.
Identical, aside from their expressions.
She smiled like she'd never known pain.He frowned like he'd never known joy.
Both dressed in scorched finery, eyes glowing with emberfire.
[Enemy Identified: Cindervoid Twins – Lyra and Luno][Status: Half-Soul Aberrations. Origin: Failed Crown-Bonding][Objective: Test of Flame – Only those who embrace destruction may proceed]
Lyra twirled.
Luno pointed.
Together, they spoke:"Do you want to burn, Leo the Tamer?"
Leo didn't flinch. "Only if I get to burn you first."
The air ignited.
The Trial of the Twins
It began not with fire — but with absence.
The heat vanished. So did the wind. Even Coal's breath froze.
Then flame returned in a pulse, and they were split.
Leo stood alone in a world of red mist. No Fang. No Coal. Just echoes.
Fang, elsewhere, stood in a mirrored world — fighting shadow copies of himself, each faster and crueler.
Coal flew through a frozen storm of burning feathers, his wings coated in molten chains.
The Twins tested them individually.
Mentally.
Physically.
Spiritually.
Leo faced himself.
A version of him that never tamed Fang.
That gave up.
That died in the alley.
"You're nothing without monsters," his double sneered.
Leo stabbed it through the chest.
"You're right. But I have them."
Fang tore through illusions, only to face a final copy — one that begged not to be killed. It looked at him with Leo's eyes.
"You're more than a weapon," it whimpered.
Fang blinked.
Then tore its throat out.
Coal broke the final seal in silence, flying through a thousand burning rings to reach the real sky — only to find it wasn't sky at all.
It was an eye.
Watching.
Recording.
Judging.
He roared at it until it blinked out.
When they reunited, the world shook.
The Spire split open.
And the Twins appeared again — this time merged into one body.
A child-sized figure, half fire, half smoke. Beautiful. Terrifying. Innocent.
It screamed.
BOSS FIGHT: The Cindervoid Sibling
Name: Lyruno, Flame UnforgottenClass: Omega AberrationPowers: Memory Burn, Soul Split, Flame Spire, Eternal Rebirth
The fight lasted hours.
Flames that turned blood to vapor.Blades made of regrets.Wounds that remembered themselves open after healing.
But Leo adapted.
He used the Blooming Fang's healing to time their pushes.
He Soul-Linked Fang and rode his mind, seeing patterns in Lyruno's moves — predicting their flickers between fire and smoke.
Coal sacrificed a wing to collapse the battlefield and pin the Twin to the last anchor corpse.
Leo climbed the spire in the midst of eruption, and stabbed the Obsidian Heart into the Twin's core.
And then — silence.
No scream.
Just… silence.
The merged child looked at him.
And smiled.
"Thanks for letting us rest."
Then burst into ash.
And from the crater floated a new fragment — twisted metal shaped like a tear.
[Crown Fragment Acquired: 5/7 – "The Ashen Tear"][New Ability: Phoenix Gate – Survive fatal damage once per day (Cooldown: 24 hrs)]
Leo collapsed beside his beasts.
The world burned gently around them — but it was peaceful.
No more whispers.
No more screams.
Just ash, drifting.
He stared up at the stars.
Only two fragments left.
And the final ones?
Were already hunting him.
Elsewhere…
The six hooded figures stood before the empty throne.
The obsidian-skinned man stepped forward.
"He survived the Cindervoid."
Another voice — ancient, slithering — hissed:
"Then unleash Heretic Fang."
The throne glowed red.
And in the abyss, something howled.