> [Trial Instance: Echoes of the Buried Flame]
Final Layer Activated: Soul Path Manifestation
Flame Output: 123% (Stable)
Warning: Chosen Path Will Influence Trial Affinities Beyond the Crimson Void Sky
---
Below – The Last Chamber
Tian Xue descended into a vast open space, carved from blackfire crystal. It was silent. Cold. Her companions stayed at the threshold, unable to follow.
Seven doors appeared, floating in a ring of soft flame.
Each one pulsed with a vision.
A throne room.
A battlefield.
A teacher's hall.
A tomb.
A forge.
A temple.
A home.
A voice echoed—not spoken, but felt in her flame:
> "Choose what you are."
Each door bore a symbol. She looked at them all. None felt right.
Until she turned—
—and saw an eighth door, cracked, hidden behind shadow, marked with a flame entwined with another.
She touched it.
The entire room trembled.
> "You choose not a title… but a bond."
> "I don't walk ahead or behind him," she whispered. "I walk with him."
The door opened.
She stepped through.
---
System Update – Dungeon Completed
> [Trial Cleared – Echoes of the Buried Flame: All Layers Passed]
Rank Gained: Flamepath Initiate – Dual Affinity (Soul Flame + Companion Echo)
Unique Perk: "Twinstep Flame – If bonded flamebearer is within 100m, increase soul sync rate by 20% and grant minor flame-sharing regeneration]
> New Trait: "Her Flame, Her Choice."
Effect: Immune to domination-type flame control below Sovereign Rank.
Tian Xue emerged from the flamewell under starlight.
Jiang was already waiting at the edge, hand outstretched.
> "How far did you fall?" he asked.
> "Far enough to know I'm never falling without climbing next time."
She took his hand.
Their flames merged for a moment.
The Phoenix Hatchling whirled into the sky, singing.
---
Elsewhere – The Cloaked Room
Moxian stumbled into a dark chamber, clutching his marked shoulder, cursing beneath his breath.
A man waited.
He wore the Sovereign Division's robe—but inside out. Masked in ash. A golden emblem etched on his palm.
> "He knows."
> "Good," said the man.
> "You said he wasn't supposed to live this long."
> "He wasn't," the man agreed, standing. "But now that he has… we test the real variable."
> "What variable?"
The man lifted a glass vial.
Inside, a single soul flame fragment flickered—not red, but deep silver.
> "Long Chen's last breath."
> "Still active."
> "Still waiting."
---
At the Pavilion – Reunion of Fire
Jiang and Tian Xue sat near the coals of Ashroot Pavilion, the stars burning above.
> "You felt it too, didn't you?" she asked.
> "Long Chen?"
He nodded slowly.
> "He left more than a memory."
> "What now?"
Jiang reached for the scroll Bo Ren recovered from the Academy's coded channels.
He opened it.
Inside: a list of names.
Sovereign Flame Candidates – Monitored Class
Jiang Han
Tian Xue
Bo Ren
Yanxi
Lin Zhi'er
…
Long Chen [Deceased] – Status: Redacted
At the bottom, a seal burned into the paper:
"If the echo burns too bright—extinguish it."
Jiang's eyes narrowed.
> "Then we stop being echoes."
> "We become the fire."