There was no ground.
No sky.
No distance.
Xu Shen floated through a place not shaped by laws or energy, but by absence.
His steps left no echo.
His name caused no ripple.
Even his soul—rooted across ten thousand lives—was beginning to stutter.
The space around him whispered:
"You are not remembered here."
"You are not wanted here."
"You are not."
Xu Shen clenched his fists.
And for the first time in many lives—doubted.
What is this place?
Even Aether Xu didn't know of this.
Then, he saw it.
A flicker in the dark.
A flame.
Tiny.
Blue.
Shivering.
And beside it… a figure.
Not a god.
Not a beast.
Not a memory.
But a child.
Thin. Silent. No face.
Just a body curled beside the weak flame.
Xu Shen approached slowly.
"Who are you?"
The child didn't answer.
It didn't even move.
But as Xu neared—
He remembered.
Not with thought.
But with fear.
This flame…
…was his.
The First One.
The one he never lit.
The one he was told not to.
The spark he snuffed out before the Devourer Path ever began.
Because even back then, he had hesitated.
"If you light this," the architects had once warned him,
"the universe will become unstable."
"Souls will remember."
"Power will not belong to gods."
"It will belong to truth."
So he never lit it.
He obeyed.
And because of that—
This child was born.
The echo of the path that never was.
Xu Shen knelt.
The flame was cold.
Not out.
But waiting.
He looked down at the child.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"I let them tell me what flame was for."
"I let them make me forget that fire wasn't meant to consume."
"It was meant to protect."
He reached out.
And placed his palm over the small flame.
"Let me try again."
The blue light surged.
Not with heat—
But with voice.
And the child lifted its head.
Face still blank.
But eyes now glowing gold.
It spoke:
"Then take what I was meant to be."
"And burn it forward."
Xu Shen's soul fractured.
But not in pain.
In correction.
[Path Recognized: The Flame That Never Was]
[Reintegration Complete]
[You are no longer walking a legacy.]
[You are now becoming one.]
The void shook.
Even the absence tried to flee.
Because now—
There was no "Devourer."
No "Reclaimer."
No "Xu Shen."
Only the First Flame Becoming.