The world was distant. Voices echoed like ripples across a still lake. Reinhart yelling. Subaru's wind whipping the air. But Julius heard none of it.
He was sinking.
Not into the Abyss, but into memory — an abyss all his own.
Chapter 6.1
He was twelve when he tasted his first Megurger.
Not in a tavern. Not at a celebration.
He stole it.
Snatched it off the tray of a careless noble's servant, dashed into an alley with grease on his fingers and guilt chewing at his heels.
He devoured it like a starving dog, sitting in the shadow of a collapsed wall, flames dancing in his palms just to keep warm. The bread burned. The meat was raw. But to him, it tasted like freedom.
The streets of Etris were cruel, and the name "Vendet" was mud — a bloodline once proud, now scattered and silent, drowned in debt and shame.
But fire... fire listened. Fire obeyed.
Chapter 6.2
Years passed. Julius grew bigger — rounder, yes — but stronger. While others trained with tutors or noble mentors, Julius trained alone.
He burned himself more times than he could count. His arms bore the marks — blistered and scarred.
But flame was loyal.
He learned to bend it to his will. It responded to his hunger, his rage, his loneliness.
In time, the street kids feared him. The local gangs tried to recruit him. He refused every offer.
He didn't want power.
He wanted respect.
Chapter 6.3
One day, starving and low on coin, Julius took up a job at a forge run by an old diver — a man with one eye and a voice like cracked stone.
"Strength," the old man had told him, "ain't just about pain. It's about what you do after the pain."
Julius remembered that line even now, as warmth flickered faintly in his fading consciousness.
The forge taught him discipline. Control. And gave him a dream: to dive deep, to rise higher than those who laughed at him.
To matter.
Chapter 6.4
In the quiet before his first dive, Julius stood alone under a stormy sky. He made a vow aloud to no one.
"I'm gonna be remembered. Not for being the fattest kid in Etris. Not for being a joke. But for what I burn down. I'm gonna be someone who saves people. Someone who leads. Even if I have to eat through the whole Abyss to do it."
The fire around him flared in agreement.
Chapter 6.5
Julius's eyes fluttered open. His body ached. Every breath burned.
Reinhart was crouched beside him, silent, his hand gripping Julius's shoulder.
Subaru stood behind him, arms crossed, quietly relieved.
"Thought we lost you," Reinhart said.
Julius managed a cracked smile. "You can't get rid of me that easy. I've got a world to set on fire."
And as his flamecharm reignited beside him, burning steady and bright — it was clear.
Julius Vendet wasn't done yet.
Chapter 6.6 - The Rising Flame
The cavern lay in tense silence.
Subaru's wind was still. Reinhart stood like a statue, hammer resting on one shoulder, watching the barely-breathing body of Julius Vendet.
Then—
A gasp. Wet. Labored.
Julius's chest lifted slowly.
A single ember sparked to life on his fingertips.
And then—
Fwoosh.
A wave of heat rolled out from his body as flames surged along his arms like fire reclaiming its host. The wound on his side was still raw, but the agony of it was nothing compared to the storm igniting inside him.
His eyes flew open, glowing like twin furnaces. Gone was the groggy flamecharm of the past.
This was something else. Something older. Hungrier.
"I saw it," he whispered, rising. "In the dark."
"I saw a fire that never dies. That never forgives. One that rises, even when everything else falls."
The flames pulsed, reacting to his words. His entire body became wreathed in twisting fire that no longer flickered — it surged, like it was breathing.
Suddenly, the ground beneath him cracked.
A pillar of searing fire erupted upward, carving a spiral of glowing glyphs into the cave's ceiling.
Above him, ancient words shimmered in ember-script, seared into reality.
Rising Flame.
The mantra wasn't just cast — it was born through him.
Subaru's mouth parted in awe. "He awakened a legendary mantra…"
Reinhart nodded slowly, the corner of his lip lifting. "That's not just flame anymore. That's will made fire."
Julius stepped forward, unshaken, heat shimmering off his shoulders. His presence burned away the cave's chill. The rocks hissed beneath his boots.
"This isn't about strength anymore," he said. "It's about becoming something they can't burn down."
He clenched his fists, and flame danced obediently around his knuckles.
"I'm Julius Vendet. Son of no one. Named by the streets. Fed by flame. And from now on…"
The Rising Flame surged up his back like wings made of fire.
"I don't fall."