The rain over Future Pride tastes like ash. Neon bleeds across cracked steel, reflecting a city that can no longer tell hero from ghost.
Kai walks alone through the industrial wastelands — toward the old Helios reactor, where shadows twist with living flame. His pulse pounds like thunder. His mind echoes with every time he was ignored, every time Ronak told him to wait, breathe, think.
He's done waiting.
And there, in the molten dark, Noctis Ignis appears — a god painted in nightfire. His voice is calm, almost compassionate.
"You don't want to be saved. You want to be seen."
Kai drops to his knees. "Make me strong enough to matter."
Noctis places a hand on his chest — black fire surges through him, fusing flesh and metal. The Cinder Core ignites within.
His scream shakes the ruins.
When it's over, his veins glow crimson. His heartbeat sounds like a furnace.
He rises — Cinder Kai, the Flame's Shadow.
Back at the safehouse, Blitz storms in first, fury blazing.
"Tell me this isn't true!"
Kai's eyes flash gold, his smirk trembling with pain. "You all followed a ghost. I followed a god."
Echo steps forward, his voice trembling. "This isn't you, Kai."
Kai hesitates — for just a heartbeat — but the dark pulse within him crushes the doubt. "Maybe it never was."
He disappears in a trail of smoke and embers.
Meanwhile, in the hidden chambers of Helios Core, Dr. Syra Kline and Marshal Orin stand over holographic projections of the twin Ignises. Above them glows the blueprint of Project DAWNFALL — orbital satellites primed to erase any trace of their energy signatures.
"We built gods," Syra murmurs. "Now we'll end them."
Orin folds his arms. "And the city?"
"Collateral evolution."
Outside, Helios dropships darken the skies. Noctis rallies corrupted heroes and rogue drones — the Eclipse Syndicate.
Ronak's small resistance scrambles to hold ground.
The storm is coming.
But this time, it's not light versus dark —
it's creation versus control.
And somewhere in the heart of the fire, Kai burns — a boy who wanted to be more, becoming the weapon that could end them all.