Voidren Domain – Central Continent.
A gentle breeze drifted through the tranquil garden, stirring the petals of ethereal spirit blossoms that shimmered beneath a golden sun. Beneath a flowering tree whose roots pulsed with dormant power, two figures sat quietly—laughing, talking, unaware that fate had already begun to stir.
The woman's eyes sparkled like starlight, her expression soft but resolute.
"Brother," she said gently, "I've reached the threshold of the next realm… but I can't break through. The clan elders said a Nirvana Hell Lotus might soon appear in the Purple Mist Realm—a lower world. A higher-grade one. If I can obtain it… maybe I'll finally ascend."
The man beside her turned serious. His face—handsome and calm—grew sharp with concern. He didn't speak at first, simply watching her as though trying to memorize every detail of her expression.
"If you go," he said at last, "I'll go with you. If you descend alone… I'll never have peace of mind."
They were no ordinary cultivators.
He was Eirian—silent, gifted, with flames burning beneath the surface of his soul.
She was Selia—bright as moonlight, his only family in a world full of schemes and power.
As the two quietly made plans to descend, far above them, two unseen figures hovered in the sky, cloaked in layers of spatial distortion. Though hidden, their presence trembled the surrounding domain. But just as quickly, they vanished—like whispers swallowed by silence. Not even Eirian or Selia sensed them.
---
The two siblings descended upon the Purple Mist Realm, a lower world suffused with strange mist and ancient secrets. Selia smiled as her feet touched unfamiliar soil, her long hair flowing in the wind. "We're really here…"
Eirian glanced around, instincts already alert. But when he saw her smile, the tension in his chest eased.
They wandered across the continents for months, searching for clues. Through broken ruins, sleeping beastlands, and forbidden grounds, they ventured together—side by side.
Until finally, they found it.
Floating atop a cracked altar surrounded by withered black vines was the Nirvana Hell Lotus—its petals burning with seven hues of hellfire, radiating both life and death. A treasure coveted by the heavens, yet hidden in a forgotten corner of the world.
Just as Selia reached toward it—
The skies darkened. The world screamed.
And something impossible tore through reality. A giant hand, blacker than void, punched through the heavens.
It radiated a demonic might so ancient, so overwhelming, that even the laws of the realm crumbled at its touch. Space cracked. Earth fractured. The altar shattered.
Before Eirian could react, time itself seemed to freeze.
His body wouldn't obey. Time didn't just slow—it became oppressive, like an ocean pressing down on his soul.
Beside him, Selia also stood frozen. Her eyes widened—not with fear, but with realization.
"This… this isn't something we can resist." Even with all her cultivation, even with the Nirvana Lotus within reach—they were nothing before this power. Ants beneath a god.
And in that crushing stillness, as the monstrous hand reached closer, Selia made her choice.
She turned to him, her eyes filled not with fear—but with warmth. "Live, Eirian," she whispered. "Even if the world forgets you. Even if the heavens burn you."
She reached out, her fingers brushing his cheek. "Just remember—your sister is the flame inside your heart."
And then—she burned.
Selia's entire body erupted into divine fire, forming a radiant cocoon around Eirian. Her protective talisman, fused with her soul, flared to life. She poured every ounce of her cultivation into the spell—shattering her own foundation to preserve his.
The last thing Eirian saw… was her smile.
And then—everything went dark.
---
He woke in a grave of stars.
Floating fragments of ancient ruins drifted across a colorless sky, bathed in the faintest ember-glow of dying moons. Beneath him was no ground—only dust, cold and heavy.
His fingers trembled as he touched his chest. It was there. Still burning.
But it didn't feel like reincarnation from the myths…
A small ember no larger than a heartbeat flickered behind his ribs.
Not fire.
Not Qi.
Not soul.
Something older: His Soulbrand.
And yet, he remembered nothing—no mother, no father, no past. Not even his own name.
Then the whisper came.
"Eirian." The sound echoed like a lost prayer. A soft, feminine voice—fragile, desperate. As if someone, somewhere, still remembered him.
And that fragile memory… gave him form. "Eirian. Your name is Eirian Aurelia."
He opened his eyes fully. The name didn't feel given. It felt ripped from a world that had collapsed.
Flashes of memory stirred, slowly. As if sealed.
Eirian sat up. All around him, statues of faceless gods crumbled. Ash and glass swirled in the air. Symbols of long-forgotten realms shimmered and vanished.
This was no mortal world. This was the Dust Realm—the place where failed souls are sent to fade.
And yet… his Soulbrand was active. That wasn't possible.
"You should not exist. And yet… you burn."
A figure emerged from the void—a tall man in robes stitched with starlight. His face was hidden behind a glass-black mask, cracked and smeared with shadow. But his voice was calm. Indifferent.
"Eirian," he said, tasting the name like poison. "Who remembered you?"
Eirian stood. His bare feet sank into the dust.
"I don't know," he said honestly.
"Then you are dangerous." The figure raised a hand. A spear of fractured karma glowed in his palm.
But something stirred within Eirian.
A flicker.
A scream.
A memory.
A woman's body engulfed in fire.
A name etched in flame—Selia.
"Live. Even if I burn for you." The ember in his chest exploded.
Eirian roared as flames burst from his back, forming the ghost pattern of a broken phoenix—a creature not of rebirth, but invincibility. His Emberflesh Realm body lifted off the ground as memory and fire fused into something raw and divine.
The starlit attacker hesitated. "Impossible. Your Soulbrand is—"
Eirian's voice echoed with something older than truth. "It's not mine. It was given. And now it burns."
The flame struck like the wrath of a dying god. When the dust settled, only ash remained.
Eirian dropped to his knees. The flame receded.
He was alone again. But no longer powerless. Yet something still gnawed at him—like a hole in his soul. He thought "Who was that man? Did he know me? Is he really dead?"
Ash drifted like snow through the fractured sky. Eirian stood among ruins, the last embers of his awakening flickering dimly across the bones of the Dust Realm.
His chest still ached from the fire—not a power of his own, but a gift left behind.
A last flame. A memory carved into soulfire.
If someone wanted him erased, there had to be something worth remembering.
He clenched his fist in the dust.
"Eirian."
Not yet a name of power. But a name he would carve into the Realms.
In a ruined shrine, cracked murals depicted ancient Ascendants who had risen beyond the Dust. Their faces had been chiseled out.
Buried beneath shattered offerings, he found a slab of obsidian. Etched with unfamiliar runes—his Soulbrand pulsed.
As his fingers touched the stone, the letters rearranged themselves.
[ THE FIRST LAW OF ASCENSION: BURN NOTHING YOU ARE UNWILLING TO LOSE. ]
A flash—
Searing black.
Voices screaming.
Then silence.
Eirian gasped, falling to his knees.
Around him, the world had changed. The dust was gone.
"What's going on?! Aaahh…!" He screamed.
He had fallen into a vast and endless Forgotten Gallery. When he opened his open eyes again he saw. Flickering flames floated in the air, each with a face inside—men, women, children, beasts. Some wept. Some raged. Some were empty.
A voice echoed. "To violate nature's law is one thing. But the Ashborne Laws? They do not judge. They do not punish. They simply… unmake."
A woman stepped from the dark. Her hair was woven from dying starlight. Her eyes—hollow mirrors of regret.
"You are not ready. You were never meant to remember these truths."
"I don't care what I was meant to do," Eirian growled, and stood up.
"You broke the First Seal. That makes you a Lawbreaker."
She raised two fingers. One held a flickering violet flame. The other, a jet-black cinder.
"One grants power—but you forget your past."
"The other grants memory—but you lose your current talents."
His hands trembled. His breath caught.
Selia's voice whispered. "Live… even if the world forgets you."
He reached for—the cinder. The second option.
It sank into his palm. Pain screamed through his bones as his Soulbrand twisted—its ember growing darker, deeper, older.
And in that agony—
A voice returned.
A lullaby.
A name—Selia.
Her face. Her smile. Her sacrifice.
Eirian collapsed.
The woman didn't look angry.
She looked… almost proud.
"You walk the path of pain, not power."
"But pain is truth. And truth is eternal."
"Sister…" His voice was no cry. It was like a thunder that tore through the silence of the void.
"I will carve my name into the bones of the universe. I will break every law of life and death.
And when the Wheel of Eternity grinds to dust—you will open your eyes!"
He roared. And the world faded.