There's a place inside me that I don't remember walking into.
But now… I can't leave.
The Dream That Wasn't a Dream
It started the moment I closed my eyes.
No bed. No warmth. No sound.
Just darkness.
But not empty darkness.
It was breathing.
The floor below me pulsed like a heart. The walls… if there were any… shifted with something behind them. Watching. Stretching. Waiting.
And I stood in the center of it all.
Bare. Alone.
Except I wasn't alone.
He stood before me.
A man with my face… and none of my mercy.
Taller. Sharper. Like my shadow had been carved into godhood.
Chains wrapped around his chest, each link glowing red like blood iron.
His eyes? Closed.
But I could feel them burning under the lids.
He was humming a tune I didn't recognize — but my bones remembered it.
A lullaby for the end of the world.
"Who are you?" I asked.
He opened one eye.
And I forgot how to breathe.
That eye wasn't made of flame or light.
It was made of truth. Raw, brutal, and cold.
"You know who I am," he said. "You just didn't want to admit it."
"Say it."
I couldn't. My throat closed up.
But I heard the name anyway.
Ashmael.
Back in the Waking World – Just Outside the Guild
I bolted upright.
Breathing heavy.
Sweat dripping.
Elion and Lunelle stood nearby, watching.
"You were out for two days," Elion said. "We moved you to a safer room. No one else is allowed in."
I swallowed.
"I met him."
Lunelle's eyes narrowed. "Who?"
I didn't answer. But she seemed to already know.
"…Your name."
I nodded.
Ashmael wasn't a title.
He was a being.
A sealed god.
A shadow of flame, cursed and locked inside me.
And every time I used that black fire…
I chipped at his cage.
Elion sighed and knelt beside me.
"I've seen this once before. Long ago."
He reached into his coat and pulled out a medallion. A broken one. Cracked through the middle, scorched black.
"This belonged to a boy like you. E-Rank. Laughed at. Ignored."
I leaned in.
"What happened to him?"
Elion's eyes hardened.
"He laughed back… and burned a kingdom."
He placed the broken medallion in my hand.
"Control it. Or you won't get another chance."
Trial of the Name – That Same Night
I returned to the place inside my dreams.
This time, I walked in willingly.
Ashmael waited, still chained.
"You're learning," he said, voice like thunder under silk.
"If I give you power," I asked, "will you stay in the cage?"
He grinned.
"If I stay in the cage, it's not because you made me."
His eyes opened.
"I stay because I choose to."
The ground cracked.
The chains around his chest glowed hotter.
"Let's make a deal," he said. "Survive three strikes from me, and I'll give you more power. Not full freedom. Just a taste."
I didn't move.
But my fists clenched.
"And if I lose?"
He leaned forward.
"Then I take your body. Your name. Your flame."
He smiled.
"And this world becomes mine again."
I didn't agree.
I just took my stance.
The Trial Began.
First strike: Speed.
I didn't see it.
His fist hit my ribs, and my spine twisted. I hit the wall—or whatever counts as walls in this dream-space—with a crack that should've killed me.
Pain blinded me.
I stood back up anyway.
Second strike: Flame.
He snapped his fingers. A wave of black fire rushed toward me.
I tried to summon mine—but it fizzled.
Not mine to command yet.
I dodged, rolled, screamed as the edge of the wave kissed my leg. It didn't burn skin.
It burned memories.
I forgot my first spell.
My mother's voice.
My own laughter.
Third strike: Name.
He whispered mine.
Not Rai.
Not Ashmael.
But the true name buried under both.
And the world shook.
I fell to one knee. Blood dripping from my nose. Vision blurry.
But I was still alive.
Still breathing.
He stopped.
Smiled.
"Congratulations," he said, stepping back. "You lose."
I blinked.
"But I survived all three—"
"You did," he said. "But surviving isn't winning."
He leaned in, fire crackling under his breath.
"You're still afraid of me."
And he was right.
I was.
But then I said it.
Not to him.
To myself.
"I can be afraid. And still fight."
The chains tightened around him.
The ground solidified under my feet.
My flame flickered — not black.
But gold.
A flicker.
A spark.
But it was mine.
And his grin faltered.
Just a little.
Waking – Dawn
When I opened my eyes this time, something was different.
Lunelle sat beside me again.
She handed me a small book.
"Notes from the old Sealed God wars," she whispered. "I figured… you'd need them."
I stared down at the cover.
It read:
"The Last Time Gods Walked Among Us"
And inside the first page, a phrase written in blood-red ink:
"We did not kill the gods.
We only hid them in names."
I closed the book.
Looked out the window.
And whispered to the rising sun:
"Then I'll be the last one to hold a god's name."
"And I'll be the first one to make it mine."