---
He turned, eyes sharp. "And we all know who's doing it."
The name burned in every throat present—but none dared speak it.
Only Ember could.
> "Ashbane. Once Kyranox. My brother in flame."
A murmur rippled across the chamber. Even the elder flamebinders flinched.
> "He is no longer dragon.
He is no longer memory.
He is void."
Ember's tail struck the ground with a molten thud.
> "I will not face him alone."
---
The Assembly Begins
> [System Update: Questline Branched]
Mission: Assemble the Vanguard
Slots Available: 5
Required Attributes: Flame Sovereignty, Mutation Control, Memory Integrity
Optional Bonus: Cross-Breed Synergy
Rewards: Squad Evolution Potential, Resistance Buff, Forgeflame Synchrony
Ember stepped forward and ignited the old sigil-stones laid into the hall's floor.
Five burning glyphs rose into the air—each a call.
Each a challenge.
And dragons answered.
---
1. Seraxa the Ashwind
Wind-Flame Hybrid, Echo Tier
She arrived with the storm, wings like folded blades and eyes that shimmered silver.
Seraxa was not born to the fireflights—she hailed from the Skyshadow Clans, where dragons bonded to air and silence. But her evolution had fractured the sky itself, leaving her with a second breath: Ashwind, a mutation that allowed her to convert wind into burning anti-pressure that sliced instead of scorched.
> Trait: Vortex Rend – Convert windspeed into flame-blades
Weakness: Cannot sustain prolonged burn
"I watched Ashbane burn the sky from underneath. I'll answer your call, Forgeborn."
---
2. Thornmaw of the Rootspire
Earth-Drake, Titan Tier
Thornmaw walked in like a mountain learning rage.
He was massive—larger than Ember—and bore scars not from battle, but self-control. He had once turned on his own kind during a berserker shift brought on by evolutionary overload. Now, stabilized by soul-runes carved into his own scales, he fought with intention.
> Trait: Molten Core Pulse – Earth and magma converge into seismic flamebursts
Weakness: Slow in air, weak to anti-magic fields
"The world cracks beneath the blight. Let it crack under me instead."
---
3. Nyx the Umberflame
Shadowflame Specialist, Infiltrator Class
She wasn't invited.
She simply appeared.
One moment the chamber was sealed. The next, Nyx stood beside Ember's left wing, cloaked in black heat.
Rumored to be born of a rogue union between a void wyrm and a soulflame priestess, Nyx's flames burned without light—a cold fire that devoured sensory input and cloaked thoughts.
> Trait: Mindveil Flame – Render yourself and allies undetectable to sight, scent, and system probes
Weakness: Fire output limited in open combat
"I've seen what he's building. From the inside. If we delay another week, nothing will remember our names."
---
4. Kaelrix the Pale
Mutation-Hybrid, System Glitchborn
Kaelrix emerged from the Vaults of Echo—hatching not from an egg, but from a broken system capsule buried in the ruins of Flamespire. His entire body was crystalline, shifting with odd pulses of code and flame.
The system called him anomalous. Others called him untouchable.
Ember called him necessary.
> Trait: System Pulse Override – Can distort or temporarily disable Blight-system interference
Weakness: Constant memory drift; requires tethering to a Forge Node
"I am not real. But I am flame enough."
---
5. Velra the Embermaid
Healer-Class, Pyreheart Lineage
No war could be won without someone to keep the soul intact.
Velra came last—smaller than the others, her flame gentle but deep. She bore the rare trait of Soul-Flame Reversal, able to restore corrupted memory and patch damaged soul-fragments, at great cost to herself.
Many viewed her as too soft.
Ember disagreed.
> Trait: Cinder Mend – Restore flame integrity in allies; temporarily shield memories from decay
Weakness: Takes on emotional burden of those she heals
"Ashbane takes fire from the soul. I'll put it back."
---
Formation Complete
> [Vanguard Assembled: Status – Active]
Bonus Activated: Flame Concord
Effect: Team members gain synchronized regeneration, resistance to Blight, and shared soulfire awareness
Note: Further training required before long-range combat deployments
---
Ember stepped into the center, now surrounded by five dragons of wildly different legacies—but united by flame, purpose, and one vow:
Ashbane would not erase them.
He looked at each of them in turn.
> "This isn't just war," he said. "It's memory against oblivion."
"You weren't chosen for your power. You were chosen because you remember why we burn."
He raised his head, letting fire ripple up his spine.
> "We are the first fire.
And we will not go out."
---
---
The Forgewinds howled as Ember ascended the pinnacle of Skyshard Peak.
Every flap of his wings resonated with layered heat—forge-bred, soul-bound, and now… touched by memory itself. Below him, the Vanguard forces trained in relentless circuits: younglings mastering ember loops, war-drakes sharpening their fireforms, and soulbinders drawing constellation sigils in drifting ash.
But here, above them all, Ember was alone.
He had to be.
Ashbane's resonance had nearly pierced him during the last scrylock. A breach of that intensity wasn't just a tactical threat—it was spiritual erosion.
> "His flame is wrong," Ember whispered to the wind.
"But it still remembers mine. That's how it found me."
He touched his chest. The sigil there had begun to fracture—not from lack of power, but conflict of inheritance.
> [Warning: Ancestral Flame Divergence]
Source: Twinblood Linkage Detected
Matching DNA Thread: 98.7%
Counterforce: Ashbane
Evolutionary Entanglement: ACTIVE
Ember growled, wings flaring wide.
> "If we share the same fire… I'll reclaim it."
A rumble answered from below. Not thunder.
Someone was coming.
---
A figure approached from the summit pass, horned and cloaked in embersteel—a thin veil of metal layered with protective glyphs.
It was Valir, the Soulforger.
Once a Sovereign smith of the Ashen Enclave, now the last living carrier of the Soulforge Rite—the ritual that could bind evolution to purpose, not power.
He bowed, the heat of his breath visible even in the storming air.
> "You summoned the pact circle, Ember. Do you truly intend to forge your soul into the line of fire?"
Ember nodded.
> "Ashbane's power feeds on what dragons forget. I intend to remember more than he can consume."
Valir's expression darkened.
> "Then you'll need more than raw soul. You'll need a pact partner. A second flame."
---
Ember turned toward the descending stair. A young dragon waited there, smaller in size, but her eyes gleamed with brilliant twin-rings of cobalt and ember.
Skira.
Once a hatchling he saved. Now a full-blooded Vanguard wing-commander. Her soulflame burned with fierce defiance.
> "You called me," she said. "I answer."
Ember hesitated. "You know what this could do to you."
She stepped forward.
> "If we're to stop a being that unwrites dragons, then I'm willing to be written beside you."
Valir drew his blade.
A ceremonial obsidian shard, wreathed in memory-runes.
> "Then let the Soulforge open."
---
They stood on opposite glyphs, the forgewheel between them. Valir's blade cut the air, and flame responded—not just fire, but history itself. Threads of past roared from the winds—whispers of fallen Sovereigns, the chants of lost tribes, the laughter of unhatched hatchlings long gone.
Ember's flames met Skira's in the center.
> [Soulforge Ritual Initiated]
Fusion Mode: Dual Flame Weave
Consent Detected: Both Parties
Triggering: PACT EVOLUTION
WARNING: Irreversible Soul Link Engaged
The world twisted.
Not into darkness. Into flame so bright it bent time.
---
He saw Ashbane.
Not as he was now, but as he had been.
Kyranox, laughing beneath stormclouds. Playing in volcanic pools. Training beside Ember as children.
And then… silence.
A silence born not of death, but decision.
> "He walked into the Blight willingly," Ember realized aloud.
"Not to conquer. But to forget what he'd failed to become."
Skira's flame burned beside his.
> "Then we'll remind him."
Their bodies glowed, melding flames briefly into a double spiral sigil—
> [EVOLUTION UNLOCKED: Twinflare Aspect]
Type: Memorybound Sovereign
Class: Pact Ascendant
New Ability: Ancestral Lock
Effect: Flame attacks gain memory resonance; can disrupt Blight constructs by invoking origin-paths
Ember gasped.
For the first time since Ashbane's corruption…
He felt hope that wasn't borrowed.
---
Down below, the Blight marched.
The land withered where Ashbane passed. His legion now included spectral husks—drakes turned to thoughtless shapes, creatures of fading echo.
But high above, on Skyshard Peak, two dragons ignited a flame that remembered everything.
Their wings touched. Their souls aligned.
And the air rang with the sound of a war renewed.
> "Let's go," Ember said. "Before the world forgets why it still exists."
Skira nodded.
> "Then let's remind it—with fire."
---