> [Location: Sector 3 – Buried Arena Chamber]
Status: Flame Spark Integration 62.3% (Stabilized)
Gate Sync Status: Incomplete (Awaiting Sovereign Lock Override)
Caution: Foreign Flame Residue Detected – Type: Hostile Echo | Origin: Unknown
---
The Chamber Awakens
The rusted gate beneath the old arena gave way with a thunderous creak, revealing a stairway spiraling down into silence.
Tian Xue ignited a soft soulflame. The Phoenix Hatchling hovered behind her, wings tucked tight, alert. Jiang led, Emberfang drawn, the Sovereign Spark within him glowing faintly against the walls.
As they reached the final step, the space widened into a hollow dome of obsidian and scorched metal. In the center stood a sealed brazier—wrapped in seven rings of chained fire, each pulsing with containment glyphs in ancient Sovereign script.
> [Sealed Flame Artifact Detected – Designation: Sovereign Echo Containment]
Warning: Echo Signature – Class A Hostile]
Secondary Presence Detected – Protective Flame Mark Present – Source: Long Chen
Jiang's breath caught.
> "He sealed something down here."
Tian Xue stepped beside him, her voice low.
> "But it's still… alive."
---
The Flame Memory – An Enemy's Echo
Jiang placed his palm against the outer glyph ring. The Sovereign Spark responded, threads of silver light extending into the seal.
The chamber shuddered.
One of the rings snapped open.
Then a voice—corrupted, broken, yet familiar—spoke from within.
> "Chen… you think locking me away ends the fire I lit?"
Tian Xue's grip tightened on her blade.
> "That's not Long Chen."
> "No," Jiang said. "That's who he fought in the arena."
> "The Sovereign Candidate who fell… and turned his flame against the system."
The voice laughed, echoing across the dome.
> "He locked me here with my own fire. Now you come, sparkbearer… to let me out."
The second ring cracked.
---
Flashback Echo – The Day of the Duel
The chamber pulsed.
Suddenly, a flame memory flared into life—a projection of the ancient battle once fought here.
Two figures clashed in blinding fire. Long Chen, regal, burning with white-blue Sovereign light. His opponent, taller, shrouded in black-flame tendrils, eyes glowing void red.
> "You were chosen by fire," Long Chen said. "But you lit it to devour, not protect."
> "They only feared me because they couldn't leash me."
> "Then I'll seal what they can't kill."
Jiang watched the vision replay Long Chen's final move—his Sovereign Spark split, one half burned into his blade, the other cast into the depths…
To contain the enemy.
> [Echo Name Detected: Sovereign Nullflame – Candidate Record Erased]
---
Decision Point
The final glyphs flared.
Tian Xue turned to Jiang.
> "If you open that seal fully, he's free."
> "If we don't…" Jiang looked at the spark in his hand. "We never finish what Long Chen started."
> "Or… we finish it our way."
He nodded.
> "Let's burn our path forward."
They both extended their flames.
The seal snapped.
The brazier opened.
---
From the Flames – A Soul Not Dead
A figure rose.
Tall.
Ember-skinned.
Eyes like twin galaxies of black fire.
But it didn't attack.
It watched Jiang.
> "You carry his spark… but you are not him."
> "No," Jiang said. "But I'll finish what he couldn't."
The shadow-smile twisted.
> "Then let me show you what he feared. And what the Sovereigns buried… beneath both of us."
The chamber collapsed inward.
Elsewhere – A Name Unspoken
In a sealed archive beneath Sovereign City, a scribe watched a rune flash red for the first time in 13 years.
She whispered:
> "It can't be."
She opened a hidden scroll, unsealing a forbidden name:
Candidate ID 000 – Ye Tianlei.
Status: Deceased.
Then she wrote a new line beneath it:
> Status: Echo Reawakened.