Silence fell in the aftermath.
The Abyss Gate had closed, but the air still tasted like burnt blood and shattered time. The blackened walls pulsed softly, echoing the last screams of the Herald that escaped back into the void.
Kaizen sat against a crumbling pillar, his armor cracked, chest heaving, blood dried on his lips. Ayaka knelt beside him, applying glyph-salve to his wounds. Her fingers trembled.
"You almost died," she whispered.
Kaizen didn't respond. His eyes were locked on his hands—hands that moments ago had unleashed a dragon made of the First Flame. And still, it hadn't been enough.
Tsura barked orders to secure the sanctum. "No one touches the Gate. Not even a breath near it. Burn any remnants."
Umbra soldiers moved like ghosts. Half of them were dead or missing. The other half wore shock like a second skin.
Sora sat cross-legged in a pool of melted obsidian, rocking back and forth.
"We're not ready for what's coming," she muttered. "They weren't even generals. Just scouts…"
Kaizen finally spoke, voice hoarse. "And the real threat… hasn't even stepped through yet."
Ayaka looked at him. "You saw something in the rift, didn't you?"
He nodded slowly. "Not just a figure. Not just whispers. I saw a mirror. Showing me a version of myself sitting on a throne… with the world burning behind me. The Bists bowed. But humans were ash."
Her breath caught. "And what were you?"
Kaizen stared at her.
"Smiling."
---
That night, as the survivors set up temporary base within the half-collapsed HQ, Kaizen sat alone in the observation room overlooking the ruins.
His veins itched.
Literally.
He rolled up his sleeve.
The glowing vein marks on his forearm were shifting.
They weren't dormant like usual. They were pulsing, rearranging themselves like script being rewritten.
Suddenly, a surge of pain. Kaizen gasped—his hand clutched his wrist as the marks twisted into a new shape:
> Σ†λ—"Heir."
Ayaka rushed in moments later, feeling the flare of unstable flame.
"What's happening?!"
Kaizen gritted his teeth. "My blood… it's reacting to the Gate. The deeper it opened, the more it woke something inside me."
Tsura stepped in behind her. "We noticed something too. During the battle, one of the corruptions tried to possess you, Kaizen. But instead… it got absorbed. Your flame… consumed it."
Kaizen nodded. "Because it wasn't just my flame."
He looked at Ayaka.
"It was Veinborn essence. I think… whatever my father was—whatever he passed down—is more than just human or Bist."
Ayaka's face turned pale. "Then we need to go deeper. We need answers. Before Nerovar opens the Gate again… or worse."
Kaizen clenched his fists. "Then we hunt the one who has them."
"Who?"
Kaizen looked out the window. Far in the distance, smoke spiraled toward the sky.
"The Seer of the Hollow Veins."
Ayaka's eyes widened. "He's real?"
"Very. And he knows what's happening inside me. Because he tried to stop it once… and failed."
---
[Location: The Wastes – Three Days Later]
The journey to the Hollow Veins was brutal. Ash storms roared endlessly. Ancient shard beasts prowled the broken lands, warped and deformed. Even the wind whispered threats.
Squad Umbra—what was left of it—marched silently. Tsura led, Kaizen and Ayaka followed close. Rei and Sora kept the flanks covered.
They finally arrived at a massive valley split by a crack in the earth like a scar. Veins of glowing red ran through it like blood.
Ayaka gasped. "This is… not natural."
Kaizen nodded. "This is where my mother died. Fighting the Seer."
Before they could move further, a voice echoed from the canyon:
> "I told her… you should never have been born."
Out from the black mist came the Seer.
Tall. Hooded in robes made of shifting fragments. His face hidden behind a mask stitched with flame-runes and tear glyphs. His voice was everywhere and nowhere.
Kaizen stepped forward. "You know who I am."
The Seer chuckled. "I knew who you could be. Not what you would become."
Ayaka's grip tightened on her blade. "You knew his mother?"
The Seer nodded. "She was my pupil. Until she betrayed everything. She loved too deeply… and bore a son cursed by blood and flame."
Kaizen's fists ignited. "You're going to tell me everything."
The Seer tilted his head. "Will you survive it?"
And then—
Everything went black.
---
[Inside Kaizen's Mind – The Fracture Memory]
He stood in a burning village.
Children screamed. Ash rained from the sky. In the distance—himself, older, eyes hollow, standing atop corpses, laughing.
The Seer appeared beside him, whispering:
> "This is not prophecy.
This is memory.
Your future… has already happened.
You are just catching up."
Kaizen turned to him, eyes furious. "What are you saying?!"
The Seer's mask cracked slightly, revealing a shard embedded in his skull.
> "You are not meant to save the world, Kaizen.
You were created to end it.
By blood. By pact. By flame."
---
[Back in Reality]
Kaizen's eyes flew open, breathing ragged.
Ayaka held him. "Kaizen?! What happened?!"
He looked at her… and smiled sadly.
"I remember everything now."
Ayaka froze. "Everything?"
He nodded.
"My birth. My purpose. My fate."
The Seer stepped forward.
> "So now… what will you choose, child of fire?
Will you burn the path forward?
Or burn with it?"
Kaizen stood.
Eyes glowing.
Voice steady.
"Neither. I'll forge a new fire. My own."