🩸 Scene 1 — Into the Flame
The blue fire still rippled from Alicia's awakening, but now all eyes turned to William.
He stepped toward the crater edge.
Each footfall echoed—heavy, deliberate.
The air shifted.
The crater stilled.
Shinonome narrowed her eyes. "He's different already."
William knelt, placing his hand on the obsidian floor. Heat licked up his palm, but he didn't flinch.
He breathed in.
The flame did not dance.
It opened.
And swallowed him whole.
---
🌌 Scene 2 — Soul Forge
There was no sky.
Only darkness.
And falling.
William spun through the void, weightless. Sparks burst around him—memories not his own. Screams. A battlefield. A burning forge. A girl, coughing blood, reaching upward with a half-formed sword.
Then silence.
He landed.
Not on stone.
On light.
A black sea stretched out, still and endless, with glowing cracks like constellations beneath his feet.
> "You finally came."
He turned.
A girl stood there.
Silver hair, wild. A faint glow beneath her bare feet. Her back to him.
"Who are you?" he asked.
The girl didn't turn.
> "I've been many things. A forger. A failure. A weapon. But never… someone's first choice."
> "Until you."
William stepped closer.
"Why me?"
She smiled faintly, still turned away.
> "Because you didn't call me to become stronger. You called me because you were… lonely."
The air cracked. Her silhouette flickered like a dying flame.
> "And I was lonely too."
---
🗡️ Scene 3 — The Bond
He held out his hand.
"If you're tired of being forgotten… then walk with me."
She looked over her shoulder—eyes glowing pale violet.
And took his hand.
The sea exploded.
Light and shadow spiraled around them.
Pain lanced through William's chest, but he didn't let go.
Their palms glowed—lines of silver running from her skin into his. His heart thundered.
She whispered her name:
> "Lyra."
And vanished.
Before him, in the flame, something rose—
A black-silver sword, long and ragged at the edges like wind-cut obsidian, pulsing with a heartbeat.
His soul weapon.
---
⚠️ Scene 4 — Outside
Shinonome stood, tense.
His pressure kept rising.
Too much. Too fast.
Gin leaned forward. "Uhhh, should we pull him out? He's starting to steam!"
Alicia gripped her rapier tight.
"Come back to me," she whispered. "Please."
---
💀 Scene 5 — The Awakening
The flame shrank.
William's body glowed silver for a heartbeat.
Then—
Silence.
He exhaled.
Opened his eyes.
And rose.
The new sword was in his hand.
His gaze met Alicia's.
"I met her," he said softly.
She didn't ask who.
She just nodded.
---
đź“ś Chapter End Quote:
"Some swords are forged in fire. Others… in loneliness."