'I'm going to die.'
That thought appeared in his mind immediately.
Not as fear, but as a realization. As if his body were sending a clear signal that it could not continue.
'My body is going to explode.'
The heat of the Heavenly Bone was far too monstrous. Far beyond what anyone should be able to endure.
But Kyrian did not give up.
He kept screaming.
He kept resisting.
Then...
Memories began to surface in his mind.
They were not memories he had summoned. They emerged on their own, as if the pain were unlocking something he kept buried or something he rarely revisited.
His childhood.
The frozen exiled village. The snowy plains surrounding it. The sky that remained perpetually overcast.
His mother.
Her smile.
And then...
The letter.
The words. The final words she left behind. The words he carried in his heart as his greatest goal in life.
"Become so strong that nothing can bring you down."
"Stronger than any obstacle."
"Stronger than any enemy."
