Night had fallen over the Flame Archive.
Not the night of stars.
But the night between realities.
A stillness that stretched too long. A breeze that hummed in chords instead of wind. Fire that flickered backward.
Xu Shen stood alone at the edge of the altar.
His flame burned steady.
Yet even it bent slightly—toward something…
Unfamiliar.
Unwritten.
A presence without memory.
He reached out.
Not with his hand.
With his name.
And the world answered:
Not with resistance.
Not with law.
Not even with silence.
But with absence.
A pull not from above, but from between.
Between thought.
Between cycles.
Between what once was called heaven…
…and what had been forgotten on purpose.
A voice—not spoken—rose in his bones:
"If you want to know the fire's beginning…
Walk where names cannot echo."
Suddenly, the altar cracked.
Not from force.
From memory loss.
The very stones began to forget their shape.
Yue Qian burst into the clearing. "Xu! Something's wrong with the Archive—"
Then she froze.
Her eyes went blank.
She forgot where she was.
Forgot why she came.
Forgot his name.
Xu turned, eyes glowing gold-blue.
His voice struck reality like a bell:
"I'm still here."
The Archive stopped collapsing.
Yue Qian gasped—fell to her knees, clutching her head. "I… you vanished. From my mind. From my soul."
Xu knelt beside her.
"I didn't vanish," he said quietly. "Something pulled me somewhere your memory can't reach."
"That's where I have to go."
Later, Xu Shen stood at the Gate of Returning Flame—a dimensional breach only those with soul-recognition could pass.
He wrote one word on the arch.
Not a destination.
A question:
"What came before Devouring?"
The gate opened.
And he walked through.
Far, far beyond the mortal plane…
In a space without light, without time, without even godhood—
Something opened a single eye.
And whispered:
"He's coming."
"The one we never named."