Night had fallen heavy over the Academy of Fire.
The celebration from the day's matches had dwindled into silence; even the embers in the coliseum braziers had burned low, hissing faintly in the wind.
Inside his dormitory, Alex sat cross-legged on his bed, the room lit only by a single crystal lamp that glowed like molten glass. His hands rested on his knees, palms open, fingers trembling slightly.
He'd been trying to meditate trying to understand the rhythm pulsing in his chest.
Two heartbeats always two.
The System floated before his eyes in translucent blue light.
[ Synchronization: 23% ]
[ Status: Dormant — Connection Stable ]
[ Recommendation: Meditation increases bond resonance. ]
He inhaled slowly, drawing in mana from the air the flame-sigils on the walls flickered as if responding to him. The world seemed to blur, sound melting into vibration, breath into warmth.
Then a whisper.
Soft, but clear deeper than thought.
You called… again.
Alex's eyes snapped open, but the room hadn't changed the voice hadn't come from outside it came from within.
"Shadowflame?" he breathed.
The reply echoed through his veins, not in words but in impressions heat, darkness, hunger, and a strange, old calm you reach… you listen good.
Alex swallowed. "I didn't mean to summon you i just… needed to understand."
Understand? The dragon's tone carried something like amusement you wield fire and shadow both hunger for meaning, yet both exist only to consume.
He frowned, closing his eyes again. "I don't want to consum I want to control it to make it mine."
For a heartbeat, silence then control? Fire does not obey it dances it tests to master it, you must let it burn you first.
His pulse quickened. "Then what happens when I can't stop it?"
Then you will no longer be human.
Alex flinched. "That's not what I want."
Then find balance light must not fear the dark you are both.
He could feel the dragon's gaze vast and ancient, like a sun behind black glass his skin prickled with heat, though his breath misted cold.
"Who are you?" Alex whispered. "What are you?"
For a moment, he thought the voice wouldn't answer then the whisper deepened, carrying the faint echo of scales scraping stone.
I am the ember between worlds born from flame that defied its god. Bound to you because you, too, defied yours.
Alex's heartbeat faltered he didn't know what that meant but it felt true in a way that terrified him.
"I'm just a student," he muttered.
For now, the dragon said softly but every fire starts small.
The connection began to fade, warmth draining from his body until only his own heartbeat remained.
Then
[ Synchronization increased: +2% ]
[ Current Sync: 25% ]
The System's voice returned, emotionless but grounding.
[ Notice: Mental-Mana Link Strengthened. Potential unlocked Dream Resonance. ]
Alex opened his eyes, sweat running down his temple his hands were shaking he hadn't moved, yet it felt like he'd been standing inside a volcano.
"Dream Resonance…" he murmured. "So now it can reach me even when I sleep?"
As if in answer, the dragon's final whisper brushed the edge of his thoughts gentle, fading like smoke.
Rest, flame-bearer tomorrow, the world will test what you've learned.
The lamp flickered once, dimmed, and went out.
Alex lay back, staring at the ceiling, pulse echoing softly in his ears his and another's.
Alex dreamed of fire.
Not the gentle, flickering kind that warmed the hearths of Elderleaf, but a living inferno a sea of molten gold and black smoke stretching beyond the horizon. The air itself trembled, heavy with heat and grief.
He stood barefoot on scorched earth his breath came out in glowing embers above him, the sky cracked open not with lightning, but with wings.
The dragon descended.
It wasn't whole shadows wrapped around its form like armor of living smoke, concealing scales that glowed like molten obsidian.
Its eyes burned crimson, vast enough to drown a soul when it spoke, the words weren't words at all, but the memory of creation burning itself into being.
Do you see now… the truth of fire?
Alex shielded his eyes. "What is this place?"
Our beginning… and our end, the dragon murmured its massive claws sank into the earth this was the world before peace when gods tore the sky apart to cage the flame.
Images flickered mountains splitting, rivers turning to lava, winged creatures falling from the heavens a battlefield of gods and dragons a thousand suns dying.
Alex staggered. "You… were part of that?"
I was the last, the voice whispered the one that refused to bow the Shadowflame was born when light and dark tried to destroy each other and instead, became one.
The words pulsed through him like heat he felt his veins burn, his soul tremble. For an instant, he saw through the dragon's eyes saw himself as a fragile ember in a world of storms.
"Why show me this?" he gasped.
Because soon, the dragon said, voice low and final, they will come for you as they came for me.
The world of fire shattered like glass.
Alex woke with a cry, heart pounding, smoke curling faintly from his fingertips.
Alex jolted awake.
The room spun not from exhaustion this time, but from something deepern his body burned from the inside out, his veins glowing faintly beneath his skin like molten cracks. The faint pulse from the dragon egg across the room beat faster, responding to his distress.
"Alex!" Mira's voice cut through the haze she was at his side in an instant, her hand gripping his shoulder. "You're burning up what's happening?"
He tried to answer, but the words twisted into a gasp the System's symbols flickered violently before his eyes.
[ Warning: Bond Synchronization Surge Detected. ]
[ Current Sync Rate: 28% → 46% → 53% ]
[ Alert: Soul Link Instability — Neural Burn Risk! ]
"Mira…" His voice cracked. "Back up… I can't control it."
"Like hell I'm leaving you!" she snapped, grabbing a damp cloth and pressing it to his forehead, though it hissed from the heat. "Talk to me—what's happening?"
"The dragon," he rasped. "It… showed me something a memory a war… gods and dragons"
He winced as black fire licked across his arms, tracing faint scales that glowed red at the edges the bandages he'd worn from the last fight ignited, curling into ash.
Mira's eyes widened in horror. "It's spreading Alex, you're"
The egg pulsed again, brighter this time shadows poured from its cracks like ink in water The temperature dropped sharply, and the fire around Alex died out in an instant.
In the silence that followed, the System's voice returned calm, mechanical, almost detached.
[ Stabilization Complete. Shadowflame Entity Intervention Logged. ]
[ Synchronization Set: 50%. Bond Semi-Active. ]
Alex slumped forward, panting the marks along his arms faded back into skin, leaving faint black veins beneath the surface Mira knelt beside him, trembling "You nearly".
"I know," he whispered, voice hoarse. "But… it saved me."
She looked toward the dragon egg its surface no longer glowed red it pulsed faintly, calmly, as if it had gone back to sleep.
Mira shivered. "That thing isn't just an egg, is it?"
Alex met her gaze, eyes still faintly burning with gold and black. "No," he said quietly. "It's watching."
Rumors spread faster than mana through ley lines.
By dawn, every corner of Arcanis Academy was whispering about the boy who burned black fire some called it a miracle, others a curse but behind closed doors, the conversations turned darker.
Inside the Headmaster's private chamber, three figures stood around a crystal orb, its surface swirling with the image of Alex collapsing in the infirmary. The faint glow of Shadowflame still lingered in the vision.
"He's changing faster than the records predicted," said one a tall man cloaked in deep violet robes. His voice was smooth, but edged with unease. "No one has ever survived fifty percent synchronization without losing their mind."
Headmaster Seraphiel's eyes narrowed. "And yet he did."
The third figure, master keal , crossed his arms. "Not by choice. That thing inside him interfered again."
Seraphiel turned toward him, tone sharp. "You mean the dragon spirit?"
Master keal hesitated before nodding. "If it truly is a dragon. What I felt… wasn't pure draconic energy. It was twisted like something between life and void."
The orb flickered once more, now showing the faint pulse of the black egg beside Alex's bed. The energy readings spiked every few seconds.
Seraphiel sighed, his voice low. "Then we may be sitting on something older than even the System itself."
The cloaked man leaned closer. "Should we report this to the Council?"
Seraphiel eyes hardened. "No not yet the last thing we need is the Church of Equinox meddling again. We'll monitor him quietly if he loses control"
" We erase the threat," the man finished coldly.
Seraphiel's jaw tightened. "He's still a child, not a weapon."
Kael turned away, gazing out the arched window overlooking the training fields. Students laughed below, unaware of the storm brewing above them.
"History doesn't care about children," he said softly. "Only what they become."
As the meeting dissolved, none of them noticed the small crystal bird perched outside the window a messenger familiar, its eyes glowing faintly red. It shimmered once, then vanished into shadow.
Far below, in the academy's underlevels, that same shadow reformed into a robed figure watching through a scrying pool.
"Subject 07 active," a voice whispered. "The prophecy stirs again."
Night settled heavy over Arcanis Academy.
The moon hung like a silver coin in a black sea, its glow filtering through the infirmary window where Alex sat awake.
He couldn't sleep not after what he'd felt during the duel.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw flashes scales glinting in endless darkness, wings spreading across a sky of flame, and that voice… the one that had whispered inside him.
• You called me, and I answered.
Alex shivered he stared at his hands faint markings still glowed beneath the skin, like black veins of living ember when he moved his fingers, the light pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat.
"Shadowflame…" he muttered. "You're not just power, are you?"
The air stirred the dragon beside his bed vibrated softly, responding to his voice a faint hum filled the room, almost like breathing.
Then
• Power is never just power, the voice answered, deeper now, resonant It is hunger ,Purpose, destiny.
Alex froze the dragon's voice had always sounded ancient, but this… this felt layered like something else was speaking through it.
"Who are you really?" he whispered.
For a long moment, silence then the voice murmured
• Two names ,One forgotten ,One reborn You… carry both.
Before Alex could ask, a searing pain ripped through his chest. His vision blurred the room twisted, warping into a vast cavern of molten gold and shadow.
He saw the dragon again massive, majestic but behind it, a figure cloaked in smoke, its eyes glowing red like dying stars.
•The chains are weakening, the shadow hissed. When the world burns again, he will awaken fully you are only the vessel.
Alex stumbled backward, gasping. "No no, that's not true!"
•Deny it all you want, the voice whispered inside him, but the mark is already yours. Every battle you win, every power you claim it brings you closer to him.
Then, silence the room returned The dragon lay still again, cold and inert.
Alex clutched his chest, sweat dripping down his temple. "Closer to him…" he echoed, trembling.
Outside, unseen by him, the same crimson crystal bird perched on the window sill once more. Its eyes flared, recording everything.
In the distant city below, a hooded woman received the transmission through a dark mirror. She smiled faintly.
> "So… the vessel has begun to awaken," she murmured. "Perfect. The Order of Null will move soon."
And just like that, the mirror went dark.