The radiance of the Star Scar Altar had not yet fully faded when a blood-red comet's tail streaked across the sky, shattering the last trace of tranquility above the vault of heaven.
The Abyssal Oath Star descended.
It was not a true star, but a core of desire sealed for eons, condensing the final obsessions of the ancient god after its fall. It blazed high above, like a crimson eye gazing down on the mortal world, plunging the entire continent of Aslan into a low, chaotic hum in an instant.
Lucian helped Ilea to her feet, the oath flames on their bodies still flickering, their intertwined marks glowing on each other's skin—as if the boundary between their two hearts had dissolved.
"It's here," Lucian murmured, his gaze fixed on the rift in the sky.
"Did you release it?" Ilea leaned against his chest, her voice weak yet clear.
"No. It's the curse I once tried to seal," Lucian held her tightly, bending to kiss the sweat on her forehead. "Now, it has set its sights on us."
The ground began to tremble.
In the distant Moon-Sunderer Palace, sacred trees snapped, and black vines surged from the earth— the entire continent was being torn, devoured, and reborn by some invisible force.
The stone slab at the center of the altar slowly rose, and a figure emerged bathed in the light of the Abyssal Oath Star.
It was not human.
It was the "Lord of the Abyssal Oath"—a failed fusion of ancient god and mortal, sealed for ten thousand years by the seven Fallen Star Knights.
Clad in black armor, with a serpentine tail and tattered six wings, its eyes reflected Ilea's naked back and Lucian's blazing sundered rune.
"You have awakened me," its voice, woven from a thousand whispers, echoed. "Your lust has broken my final seal."
Ilea felt the oath seal within her tremble faintly. The Lord of the Abyssal Oath did not seek to destroy her, but to devour her.
She was a descendant of the phoenix, and this lord was the primordial cursed soul that once tried to corrupt the phoenix bloodline.
"Don't fear," Lucian shielded her behind him, holy silver flames igniting on his blade.
"Do you think light can block the abyss?" The voice sneered. Its six wings unfurled, and bloodflame tentacles erupted from the void, lashing toward them.
Ilea was swept into the air, then engulfed in flames—not hostile, but seeking assimilation.
The fire of longing, responding to its source of desire.
At that moment, a strange yet familiar figure charged into the fray.
It was the Spirit of Casas!
The Moon-Fallen King, once slain by Ilea's own hand and later awakened in the abyss of memories, now manifested as a wisp of soul beneath the glow of the Abyssal Oath Star.
"She… is mine," Casas's gaze on Ilea was no longer cold, but twisted with possession.
Lucian roared, charging into the battle, his blade slicing the void to force back one of the Abyssal Lord's wings.
"You have no right to touch her!"
"And you—are merely the spark before her fall," the Lord retorted.
Combat erupted, three forces clashing. Holy silver flames, fallen star souls, and primordial abyss intertwined in the void—like a sacrifice woven from lust, revenge, and fate.
Ilea hovered between the oath flames, her soul tempted by the Abyss, eroded by Casas, and saved by Lucian.
As illusions and reality blurred, she heard a voice:
"Ilea, you must choose: whose mark truly belongs to you?"
She opened her eyes, tears mingling with flames.
"I choose—to burn fate to ashes."
The words fell, and she spread her searing phoenix wings, her naked form plunging into the Abyssal Lord's body, igniting the deepest flames of desire within the Star Scar.
The phoenix blood covenant erupted, the oath seal remade.
The Abyssal Oath Star roared in the distance, as if sensing an uncontrollable power unleashed from her body.
This time, she was no longer a manipulated flame.
She was the source of the heaven-consuming blaze.