Silence.
That was all that remained after the explosion — a silence so vast that even the data-winds of New Dawn's orbit ceased to hum. The battlefield hung in frozen time, suspended within a storm of shattered light.
Kaien floated amidst the aftermath, his body faintly aglow with molten qi threads.
His neural core flickered in and out, whispering fragments of code he didn't understand.
> [SYSTEM LINK: LOST]
[SOUL STREAM: ACTIVE]
[ENTERING—SOVEREIGN FLAME NETWORK]
And then the world changed.
He found himself standing on the surface of an endless ocean of fire. Each wave carried memories—wars, faces, screams, and dreams long dead. Above him stretched a crimson sky without stars, but filled with constellations of burning scripts.
> "So, the flame chose you."
The voice was neither mechanical nor human. It was ancient, layered with the weight of countless eras.
Kaien turned.
A figure emerged from the fire — tall, broad-shouldered, and cloaked in tattered crimson. His eyes glowed like twin suns, and his presence bent reality itself.
> "Wang… Chung."
The man smiled faintly, as though the name were a forgotten melody.
> "That was once who I was. The world called me many things — Heaven Breaker, Flame Sovereign, Lightbringer. But to you… I'm just the one who left the spark behind."
Kaien's fists trembled. "Then why now? Why me?"
Wang Chung stepped closer, the flames dimming with every step. "Because the world no longer remembers truth. The heavens have evolved into circuits, the Dao rewritten into algorithms. The Temple still breathes, hidden beneath the code of this new age."
Kaien's heart pounded.
He remembered the Temple insignia burned into Kai'en's arm — the same one that appeared in his dreams.
> "So Kai'en… was their creation?"
> "A shadow made from your doubt," Wang said softly.
"They wanted the Flame divided, controllable. But you—Kaien—you did what even I could not."
> "What's that?"
Wang's expression softened. "You accepted both sides."
The flames rippled outward. Around them, echoes of Wang Chung's past shimmered: battles that split galaxies, friends and enemies long gone, Yu Meilan's final smile before the end. Every memory flowed into Kaien's chest, merging with his own.
He gasped as a surge of energy tore through his spirit.
> [SOVEREIGN FLAME SYNCHRONIZATION: 92%]
[INTEGRATION TYPE: DUAL-LAYER RESONANCE]
[WARNING: HOST CONSCIOUSNESS SPLITTING]
> "If you merge with me," Wang warned, "you won't just inherit my strength. You'll inherit my burden… and my curse."
Kaien lifted his gaze, eyes now burning gold and silver.
> "Then let it burn. The world you left behind — I'll finish what you started."
Wang's lips curved into a proud, weary smile.
> "Then take it. The last fragment of the Heaven Breaker's will."
The flame roared.
Kaien's body dissolved into light as Wang Chung's spirit disintegrated into streams of pure qi. They spiraled together, fusing across soul and code, time and bloodline — until only one existence remained.
> [SOVEREIGN MERGE COMPLETE — 100%]
[NEW TITLE ACQUIRED: HEAVEN BREAKER — NEO SOVEREIGN]
The crimson sky shattered. The flame ocean collapsed into starlight.
And when Kaien opened his eyes again, he was no longer within the network.
He stood above New Dawn City, his feet resting on the air itself. The storm had vanished. The people looked up from the streets, seeing a radiant figure descending slowly from the clouds — a boy with golden-white hair and eyes like twin galaxies.
> "The Flame has awakened…"
whispered an elder in awe.
"The Heaven Breaker has returned."
Kaien's gaze swept across the horizon — toward the void where the Temple's signal pulsed faintly in the distance.
> "No," he murmured. "Something greater has been reborn."