For a moment, Veer could hear nothing.
Just his heartbeat—loud, erratic, echoing like drums in an ancient war. The cloaked figure in front of him didn't move. Yet the entire chamber felt like it was tilting in his presence.
His aura wasn't just dark—it was unnatural. Cold like space, sharp like broken glass. The opposite of everything the Sun Clan represented.
> "Who are you?" Veer growled, stepping back instinctively.
The stranger chuckled softly. "Names are for those with fixed destinies. You, Veer… your fate is still being forged."
He lowered his hood.
Veer's eyes widened.
The face… it was his own. Older. Scarred. Eyes filled with a ruthless fire, yet not the Sun Clan's kind—it was tainted, like flame devouring its own source.
> "You're me…"
> "I'm what you become… if you choose wrong."
The phantom spirit—the one calling itself the Forgotten Flame—watched silently from behind.
> "This is one of your futures, Veer," it said. "A version of you who embraced the curse without mastering it. A man who burned too brightly… and left only ruin."
> "A tyrant," said the clone, smiling. "And the true heir of the Broken Sun."
Veer's body trembled. The cursed mark on his chest burned so hot he could see the veins beneath his skin turning gold, then black, then gold again.
He dropped to one knee, groaning in pain. His fire was surging beyond control.
The older version of him stepped closer, kneeling down.
> "Let me help you," he whispered. "There's a shortcut. You don't need nine days. Embrace me now… let go of your morals, your clan, your fear. And I'll give you the power to erase the Shadow Valley… to make the Sun bow to you."
> "You're not real," Veer growled.
> "Aren't I? Then why do I know your thoughts even before you think them?"
Suddenly—
> A sword pierced the chamber wall.
A real one.
And behind it, two masked assassins of the Shadow Valley burst into the chamber, blades in hand, faces painted with death sigils.
"You're too late," one of them sneered. "The curse has awakened. We'll take his body back to the Valley. Alive or dead—it doesn't matter."
They charged.
Veer staggered to his feet, fire flaring around him—but it was unstable.
The clone didn't help.
He just stood there, smirking. Watching.
"You want to survive?" the older version whispered. "Then burn everything."
> "NO!"
Veer forced his body still. He drew in a breath—not through lungs, but through his core, his dantian.
> Wind feeds fire… but only if the mind controls the breath…
He dropped into a stance no one in the clan had ever taught him—one he had seen in a vision within the flame. A forbidden form.
He moved.
And the fire that erupted from him was no longer red.
It was white—pure, burning like the center of the sun.
The assassins froze.
Too late.
Veer's flame engulfed the entire chamber in a controlled burst, but the flame did not burn the ancient walls. It incinerated the intruders with surgical precision.
Ash fell like black snow.
Veer stood in the center, glowing—his eyes bright gold, his mark now fully awakened.
> "This... is my flame," he said. "Not cursed. Not broken. Mine."
The clone version of him began to flicker, face darkening. "You'll regret not choosing me…"
And then he vanished.
Only the phantom deity remained, smiling for the first time.
> "The first step is complete. But you've only delayed the curse, not defeated it."
> "Eight days remain."
Veer turned toward the twin paths again.
But now… a third path had appeared.
Unlit. Unknown. His own.
---
Back in the Sun Clan…
Elder Bhairav stood beside the Eternal Flame pillar, which now crackled wildly.
"The assassins failed," said Ranya, arriving with news.
Bhairav nodded. "Then the real battle begins now."
He turned toward the horizon.
"Because if the prophecy is right, we haven't just awakened Veer…"
> "We've awakened the Heir of the Black Sun."