The night split itself into two worlds — one of dreams, one of fire.
And in both, Yohan's soul was burning.
[Yohan's Dream]
He ran through a wasteland that pulsed like a living heart. The air was thick with heat, the sky cracked with red lightning. Shadows twisted and clawed at him, whispering in voices that almost sounded like people he knew.
"Monster."
"Curse."
"Why didn't you save us?"
He tried to block them out, but every word was a brand against his chest.
The ground beneath his feet began to melt into glass, reflecting dozens of faces — Kael, Lily, Ciel… and another one he didn't recognize.
A boy with eyes like molten gold, standing amidst flames.
"Wake up, Yohan," the boy said. "They're calling for you."
"I don't want this!" Yohan shouted. "I didn't ask for any of it!"
The golden-eyed boy smiled sadly.
"Neither did I."
The sky ruptured with light — and from within it, the faint outline of a burning sigil appeared, massive and ancient, turning slowly like a sun.
Its center opened like an eye.
[The Library]
Lily screamed as the shelves exploded with blue flame. Books burst open, spilling glowing runes into the air. The fire didn't consume — it danced, alive, pulsing to a rhythm no one could hear.
Kael slammed his staff to the ground, sealing spell-circles around the room.
"Ciel! Keep the wards steady!"
Ciel clenched his fists, summoning a barrier of frost — but the flames hissed against it like wild beasts, cracking through the ice in seconds.
Lily shouted, "It's reacting to him!"
Kael's eyes flickered toward the distant mountains outside the window. "Then he's dreaming again."
The Seer raised her hands, her veil swirling in the heat. "You said you could control him, Kael!"
He didn't answer. Instead, he tore open his palm, pressing his blood to the nearest rune. A shockwave rippled through the floor, momentarily dimming the flames.
For a second — just one — they could hear it: a faint heartbeat echoing through the walls of the Academy.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The same rhythm as Yohan's pulse.
[Yohan's Dream]
He fell to his knees, gripping his head. The sigil in the sky began to turn faster, the voices screaming louder — until everything around him blurred into one sound: a heartbeat.
His own.
Then — he saw Kael. Not as he was now, but younger. Standing in the ruins. Holding something… someone.
A small boy — himself — covered in ash.
"You said you'd protect me," Yohan whispered.
Kael looked up, tears cutting through soot on his face.
"And I failed."
The world cracked open. Fire spilled upward like reversed rain.
[The Library]
Ciel's barrier shattered. The flames surged toward the ceiling, twisting into the shape of a massive burning sigil — the same one Yohan saw in his dream.
Lily grabbed Ciel's hand. "He's breaking through! He's merging with it!"
Kael shouted over the roar, his voice raw: "Get out! Now!"
But before they could move, the sigil pulsed — and the fire inverted, sucking inward like a collapsing star.
All the light vanished.
When the dust settled, only Kael was standing. The library was in ruins, walls scorched with intricate flame patterns — ancient symbols none of them could read.
In the center of the floor, glowing faintly amid the ash, was a single line burned into the stone:
"The flame remembers who broke it."
[Yohan's Room]
Yohan gasped awake, the window shattered, his breath white in the cold air.
On his chest, the same sigil flickered faintly — just for a moment — before fading.
He whispered into the silence, trembling, "Kael… what did you do to me?"
And outside, far away, the bells of the Sacred Academy began tolling again — each ring sounding less like a warning, and more like the start of war.