The void around Xiao trembled as the second seal ignited, pulsing with a crimson hue—like the heart of a creature being slaughtered again and again but never dying. This seal was not a trial, like the first… it was a judgment.
From the heart of the flame, *Ragnar* emerged.
He was no longer the mad warrior Xiao first encountered, but now robed in fire—half ash, half flame—and in his eyes blazed a foreboding gleam.
Ragnar spoke with a smirk in his tone:
> "The second seal doesn't open… it burns. Will you burn with it? Or drag behind you the ashes of the dead?"
Xiao responded coldly:
> "Let it all burn… as long as light is born from the void."
Ragnar stretched out his hand, and suddenly— *the ground beneath Xiao erupted*.
It tore open into a stage of blood, replaying every moment from his past… but through new faces. Everyone who had died in his life returned— *to demand the price of his survival*.
Children he failed to save in the ruins of Jotunheim appeared.
Astaire's shadow cried out:
> "Did you leave me there? Or was your love a lie?"
And Heim appeared… saying nothing. He simply stood in silence, eyes filled with wordless blame.
---
*Hell of Regret*
Xiao dropped to his knees. This was no sword fight—it was a battle with his conscience.
But in that storm, he remembered something his father once said:
> "Regret is a blade you don't draw twice.
> You either kill it—or die carrying it."
Xiao rose, his face scorched, chest heaving, and said softly:
> "I won't apologize anymore… those who live in the past never shape the future."
He struck the earth with his sword— *and the second seal erupted in blinding light*, burning away the shadows.
---
*The Masked Stranger Appears*
As the ash scattered, a figure emerged—shrouded head to toe in black, his face hidden behind a mask of bone.
His voice was deep, as if echoing from the depths of time:
> "You've broken two seals… but the price is beginning to tally."
He stepped closer to Xiao and said:
> "Each time you break a chain… the World Tree bleeds."
Xiao asked:
> "Who are you?"
He replied:
> "I am the Keeper of Balance. My purpose is not to bring you down… but to remind you: power alone doesn't rule the realms."
Then he handed Xiao something—a folded paper bearing one name.
A name he didn't expect:
> "Astaire"
Xiao's eyes widened.
> "She is not just someone to protect…
> She is the one who will break the final seal."
And just as mysteriously as he arrived, the stranger vanished.
---
*Preparing for the Third Seal*
Xiao stood between the ashes of two broken seals, his gaze fixed on the darkened sky. The five remaining seals began to flicker, each representing a face of his destiny.
He whispered:
> "I will reach the end… whether I am fate itself, or this world's curse."
Then… the *third seal began to pulse* —in a muted gray, like a shadow yet to be born.