The world was burning.

  Ash choked the sky. Mountains split apart with each tremor, screaming like beasts as they crumbled. The ground beneath a bckened fortress cracked like gss, molten fme pouring from the wounds of the earth. Rivers of fire carved through the charred remnants of a kingdom lost to time. The battlefield stretched on forever, littered with twisted corpses and shattered banners, their insignias long forgotten.

  In the center stood a lone figure—towering, regal, and broken. A tattered cloak of fme and shadow whipped around him in the scalding wind, its edges dissolving into ash. A shattered horned helm y discarded beside his feet, half-buried in bloodstained dust.

  He was dying.

  Even as white fire scorched everything it touched, it flickered. Diminishing. Betrayed by the body that could no longer contain it. His armor, once forged in the heart of the first inferno, y in molten pieces around him. His sword was gone. His strength—fading.

  But his eyes still burned.

  "So this... is the end?" the figure rasped, a deep voice cracking with finality. His gaze lifted to the heavens, now bckened with ruin. Massive wings stretched across the sky, blotting out the st light. Darkness dripped like oil from above, pulsing, alive.

  A shadow descended.

  It was not simply an enemy—it was the end made manifest. A creature of stillness and silence, of annihition without passion. Its form shifted, cloaked in a living void. Bck tendrils reached out like fingers, coiling around the light and squeezing.

  The sky howled. The world shivered. A tidal wave of darkness surged toward the lone figure, the weight of death itself roaring across the broken pin.

  The fme-enshrouded warrior raised a hand. Not in defiance. Not in fear. But in acceptance.

  "Let my fme be scattered... that it may rise again."

  The darkness hit him like a divine fist.

  The world shattered.

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Sang-Hyun screamed.

  He lurched upright in bed, drenched in sweat, breath ragged. His heart thundered against his ribs like a war drum. His fingers twitched involuntarily, heat crawling along the edges of his skin. It felt like embers were dancing beneath his veins, like a fever that could never break.

  He looked down at his palms.

  For a moment—just a second—his fingers glowed faintly, pale orange like dying coals.

  Then it was gone.

  The room was quiet again.

  No fire. No war. Just the rhythmic buzz of his old ceiling fan and the dim orange of a streetlight peeking through the blinds. His breath gradually slowed, but the weight in his chest remained. Heavy. Pressing. Like something inside him refused to be forgotten.

  "...Again," Sang-Hyun muttered, dragging a trembling hand down his face.

  It was the third time this week. The same dream. The same battlefield. The same dying man surrounded by fme. He didn’t know who the man was. He didn’t know why it felt so... familiar.

  But every time he woke up, he felt it more clearly:

  Something inside him was burning.

  He threw off the covers and stood, legs unsteady. His small apartment was dark and silent, save for the hum of the refrigerator in the kitchenette. He shuffled to the sink and spshed cold water on his face, gripping the sides of the basin to steady himself.

  In the mirror, his reflection looked hollow. Pale skin. Bck hair slicked with sweat. And eyes that, for a fleeting second, seemed to glow with an unnatural light—

  —then flickered and faded.

  "You're losing it," he whispered. "Just a dream. Just... stress."

  But deep in his chest, beneath skin and muscle and bone, something ancient stirred.

  Waiting.

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The sun rose with little fanfare, slipping through the polluted skies above Seoul like a shy intruder. Sang-Hyun stood on the crowded morning bus, headphones in, hood up, trying to ignore the press of bodies around him. The city was alive and buzzing, but it always felt like it was moving without him.

  Most people talked about Hunters. Even though humanity had only known about them for the past decade, they had quickly become the heart of urban mythology—saviors, monsters, celebrities. In truth, people often struggled to remember what the world was like before mana returned. As far as anyone knew, this was the first time Hunters had ever existed.

  But Sang-Hyun? He was just a civilian. Tested twice. Decred unranked. No aura. No status. Just another man trying to survive the rising tide of a world shifting under his feet.

  After getting off the bus, he stopped by the corner store to grab a canned coffee. The woman behind the counter smiled at him, but her gaze lingered on his ID badge. Civilian. No spark.

  He walked past a group of teenagers clustered around a screen outside a hunter gear shop, watching a livestream of a recent raid. The Hunter on screen incinerated a beast with a snap of his fingers. Fme magic. The crowd cheered.

  Sang-Hyun moved on.

  The warehouse district smelled like rust and motor oil. His job was quiet—watching camera feeds, unlocking gates, calling in backups if things went wrong. They never did. At least, not yet.

  He ran his rounds like usual, scanning the concrete and fencing with half-focused eyes. Occasionally he’d wave at the delivery drivers or nod to a passing coworker. But even here, in the mundane corner of the city, Sang-Hyun felt it. Like the air had changed. Like the world was holding its breath.

  That morning, while checking the rear perimeter, he paused near an alley tucked between two abandoned buildings.

  A chill ran down his spine.

  The air shimmered. Faint, like a heat mirage—but colder. A pressure settled over his chest—not heavy, but dense, like a storm cloud about to break.

  He took a cautious step forward, peering into the dim, trash-littered passage. A broken crate y to one side. An old sign creaked against rusted hinges. He rubbed his arms, trying to shake the strange unease crawling up the back of his neck.

  Then, as quickly as it came, it passed.

  The chill vanished. The air stilled.

  Sang-Hyun stared into the alley for a long time, fingers twitching at his sides.

  “Just nerves,” he muttered.

  Then he turned away.

  And missed the faint pulse of violet light flickering between the bricks.

  Something old had stirred.

  And it had seen him.

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  It was nearing dusk when Sang-Hyun passed the alley again.

  The sun bled red across the skyline, casting long, jagged shadows through the warehouse district. He paused, turning his head slowly. Something gnawed at the edge of his awareness—a tension in the air like an unseen wire drawn taut.

  He stepped closer to the alley.

  The air wasn’t just cold this time. It was wrong. Heavy with an unnatural silence that pressed down on his skull, muffling even the distant hum of city traffic.

  And then—he saw it.

  A crack had formed in the far wall. Not in the brick, but in space itself. A jagged, pulsing slit of violet light, no wider than a man’s armspan, but deep—impossibly deep. It shimmered like an oil slick, refracting wrong colors, shapes that didn't belong in this world.

  The wall rippled. Something stepped through.

  It was tall. Gaunt. Humanoid only in silhouette. Its skin was like obsidian stretched over too many bones. Violet eyes blinked vertically, three sets, all watching him with predatory calm. Its mouth unfolded slowly, impossibly wide, revealing rows of needled teeth spiraling inward.

  Sang-Hyun staggered back.

  The creature took one step forward, cws scraping the concrete. The air screamed in protest.

  Something inside Sang-Hyun surged—pain nced through his chest, a heatwave exploding from his spine. His knees buckled. His vision blurred.

  The creature raised one cwed hand.

  A pulse of instinct. Of panic. Of something ancient breaking free.

  White fire exploded from Sang-Hyun’s chest.

  It wasn’t magic. It wasn’t control. It was raw, unformed instinct—his body screaming to survive. The fme shed outward in an uncontrolled burst, searing the air, catching the creature off guard. It hissed and recoiled, part of its face catching fire.

  But the backsh hit Sang-Hyun just as hard.

  The fire tore through his nerves like lightning. His skin blistered from the inside. Blood filled his mouth. He colpsed, smoke curling from his back, breath torn away.

  The creature shrieked and lunged to finish him.

  And then—a second bze.

  A blur of motion. Heat. Steel.

  A sword carved through the creature’s outstretched arm in a bzing arc of fire. The monster screeched, a sound like gss and metal grinding together.

  Sang-Hyun hit the ground hard, barely conscious.

  A woman stood between him and the beast.

  She wore armor bckened by soot, trimmed in faded silver. A long white cloak billowed behind her, its edge catching fire and extinguishing in rhythmic bursts. Her sword glowed with a pale fme, not gold, not orange—but something older. Hungrier.

  Her face was calm. Eyes burning.

  The creature lunged.

  She met it with fire.

  The alley lit up as the two cshed—cws and bde, shadow and fme. Her movements were precise, efficient. No wasted steps. Every swing of her bde left trails of white heat in the air, every impact forcing the creature back.

  It shrieked and turned to flee into the rift.

  She let it go.

  For now.

  Silence fell.

  She turned slowly, approaching Sang-Hyun.

  He tried to rise, but pain anchored him. His vision doubled. The taste of copper filled his mouth.

  The woman knelt. Not to help him, but to look.

  Not at his wounds.

  At his eyes.

  She reached toward him—then stopped. Her fingers trembled before curling into a fist.

  “White Fme,” she whispered. There was no doubt in her voice—only awe. And certainty. “So it’s true.”

  Her gaze softened.

  “You're not ready,” she murmured. “But you will be.”

  She stood.

  Without another word, she vanished into the shadows.

  Behind her, the rift sealed with a soft hiss.

  Sang-Hyun y on the cold ground, breath shallow, body wracked with pain, the echo of white fme still dancing behind his eyes.

  And deep within him, something awakened.

  The first ember stirred.

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The world returned in pieces.

  White ceilings. Soft beeping. The sterile smell of antiseptic.

  Sang-Hyun blinked slowly, the overhead lights blurring into halos. His body felt… wrong. Too light. Too calm. The pain that had torn through him like fire was gone. Not dulled. Not numbed.

  Gone.

  He tried to sit up. His muscles obeyed without protest. He gnced down at his chest, expecting bandages, burns—something.

  Nothing.

  His skin was unmarked.

  A nurse entered just as he was trying to make sense of it. She jumped when she saw him awake.

  "You're up! God, you scared the hell out of everyone," she said, hurrying to check his vitals. "You were unconscious for a full day. The paramedics found you passed out in an alley, no visible injuries. Just smoke… and heat. Like you'd been lying in a furnace."

  He didn’t respond. His mind was still trying to process what had happened.

  The crack in the air.

  The creature.

  The fire.

  The woman.

  The fme.

  He gripped the sheets. He remembered the fire burning from within him. It wasn’t a hallucination.

  It had happened.

  The nurse gave him a few more instructions and left the room. As the door shut behind her, silence fell.

  And then—the room dimmed.

  A single line of text blinked into his vision, translucent and pulsing.

  Infernal Genesis System initializing...

  His breath caught.

  Another line followed.

  White Fme Core detected. Synchronization in progress... 7%Commencing Sovereign Protocol...

  More lines appeared, scrolling downward.

  System Activation: Complete.Designation: Successor of the Fme recognized.Title Acquired: Ashen Seed

  And then, one final message appeared—centered, bold, and glowing.

  You are not yet who you were.But you are no longer who you were.

  Awaken, Sovereign.

  Then, silence.

  Sang-Hyun sat there, unmoving.

  His heart should have been racing. But instead, all he felt was heat. Calm, steady, coiling beneath his skin.

  He wasn’t just healed.

  He had begun to awaken.

  The ember was no longer stirring.

  It was burning.

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