> [Location: Blue Star Academy – Buried Arena Core]
Host Entity: Nullflame Echo – Status: Bound (Stabilized)
Sparkbearer Sync: Jiang Han (64% Integration)
Flame Partner Link: Tian Xue – Anchor Level Stable
Incoming Alert: Sovereign Division Asset En Route – Code Name: Ash Viper
---
Beneath the Arena – Shadow Questions
The Nullflame Echo sat cross-legged in the center of the ruined chamber. Though it bore Ye Tianlei's form, it moved like mist over embers—alive, but untethered.
Jiang stood at a distance, Emberfang still pulsing at his back. Tian Xue watched the echo with narrowed eyes, her blade ready.
> "You said Long Chen feared you," Jiang said. "Why?"
The Echo didn't speak at first.
Then, quietly—
> "Because I remembered what the Sovereign Spark was… before they refined it."
Tian Xue frowned. "What do you mean?"
> "They turned it into a weapon. A badge. But it was once a soul. A will that chose freely. Before the system caged it."
> "Long Chen followed the flame's rules. I asked… what would happen if we broke them."
---
Memory Fragment – The Hidden Fight
The Nullflame raised its hand.
A fire ring opened, revealing a memory fragment Jiang and Tian Xue had never seen—not in history books, not in echo scrolls.
It showed Ye Tianlei on a cliff above Sovereign City, staring down as trialists ascended the Flame Path.
> "They think this climb makes them worthy," he said to someone unseen.
"But it's a leash. The flame binds them to a system designed to break them before they can break the world."
The memory flickered—then cut off.
> "He wasn't trying to destroy the spark," Jiang said slowly. "He wanted to free it."
The Echo nodded.
> "And now you hold the key he died for."
---
Aboveground – Trouble Arrives
At the north gate of Blue Star Academy, a ripple split the sky.
A woman stepped out—tall, cloaked in ash-grey robes, with two obsidian serpents curling around her arms. Her name wasn't on any registry. Her face never captured by trials.
> Ash Viper.
An elite Sovereign Candidate. Silent. Lethal. Hand-selected by the Division for one purpose:
> Eradicate anomaly-class flame threats.
A voice in her comm crystal crackled.
> "Target confirmed inside Buried Arena. Sovereign Spark Class. Secondary Link active."
She responded only once.
> "Permission to execute?"
> "Granted."
She vanished in smoke.
---
Below – The Echo's Request
The Nullflame stood.
> "I can't leave this place. But I can lend you something."
> "What?"
> "The truth. And the path to where this started."
A thread of black-flame light floated from its hand, sinking into Jiang's palm.
> [New Data Acquired: Flame Origin Scroll – Pre-Sovereign Era Archive Coordinates Unlocked]
Location: Charred Sky Monolith – Outer Ruins of Fallen Heaven Gate]
Jiang staggered. Tian Xue caught him.
> "Another gate?"
> "No," he said. "The first one."
---
Combat Approaches
Then a crack.
A real one.
The stone above fractured.
Ash poured in.
And from it—Ash Viper descended, her cloak unfurling like a serpent.
> "Jiang Han. Tian Xue. Step away from the Echo."
Jiang stood in front of the Nullflame.
> "I won't let you kill a memory."
> "Then you'll die with it."
---
System Trigger – Sovereign Clash
> [Combat Initiated – Opponent: Ash Viper (Sovereign Class – Suppression Protocol Active)]
Estimated Survival Odds: 34% (Without Nullflame Intervention)]
Option: Release Partial Nullflame Bind – Risk: Echo Autonomy Increase]
Tian Xue looked at Jiang.
> "Can we handle her?"
> "Not alone."
He turned to the Echo.
> "Help us… and I'll carry your truth."
The Echo smiled.
> "Then let's see what happens when you burn a lie."