"I'm not a hero, not a savior. I'm just someone who once lost everything... and refuses to lose again."
The sky split with a flash of purple lightning, tearing through the night and illuminating the ruins of the ancient magic altar with a terrifying glow.
The storm winds swirled around the ground and debris, making my body stagger. Every breath felt like swallowing hot embers. The magic circle beneath me pulsed, as if calling the remnants of my consciousness to surrender.
In front of me, the Dark Priest—a creature that was once human—now stood in a new form. His body had merged with the core of ancient magic, radiating a dark aura that consumed the light around it.
Two shadow blades formed in his hands, moving like living creatures, hungry and restless.
"You're tired, Minato," he said, his voice booming inside my mind.
"Just surrender your power to me... and your suffering will end peacefully."
I gripped my sword with both hands, feeling the cracks in my bones.
"The end of my suffering," I replied softly, holding back the searing pain burning from within, "is the beginning of the world's suffering."
I couldn't—wouldn't—let this world end just because I wanted to give up.
Amidst the explosions and roars of magic, my mind drifted—to the past, to the pain I had buried in silence.
[Minato's Monologue]
Once, I was just a child from a small family destroyed by a greedy system.
I watched my father fall ill from forced labor, saw my mother weep from endless hunger.
And they said... accept it.
Accept that your life will always be beneath the feet of those born in golden towers.
Accept that you have no right to dream for more.
I did not accept it.
I saw this rotting world and refused to bow.
I stand here—alone—because I chose not to be part of that chain of oppression.
I chose to be something else.
Not a hero, not a god.
Just... a small flame that refuses to die out, even when the world tries to snuff it out a thousand times.
I raised my hand to the sky.
Archa Tempest—the magic I once hated, I now embraced—enveloped my body.
Blood red, pitch black, and pure silver swirled around me, forming layers of new energy.
Every inch of my skin felt torn. My bones trembled. But I stood firm.
"Archa Tempest: True Cataclysm Mode... Second Flame," I murmured.
A single spark from my hand ignited the storm.
The sky burned red, the earth cracked, and pillars of energy surged from the ground, shattering the ritual circle.
The Dark Priest screamed, trying to fortify his magic, but I had already moved.
With every last bit of strength, I charged straight at him, piercing through the vortex of dark energy.
"THIS IS THE END!"
"KAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
My sword pierced through his core, channeling all the raging Archa Tempest magic within me.
Instantly, the world exploded in white light.
When I opened my eyes, there was nothing.
Only endless white emptiness stretching infinitely.
My body was half-destroyed, feeling weightless as if it could disappear at any moment.
I sat in the middle of that void, asking myself in silence:
Is this... the end?
Suddenly, in the distance, that voice came.
A voice that made my heart beat again.
"Minato! MINATOO!!"
It was Elvira's voice.
She was calling me—from a world I should no longer be able to reach.
I closed my eyes.
[Minato's Monologue]
This is a world that is unjust, full of wounds and rot.
I have seen its true face. I have felt its pain.
But I also know... as long as there is one light, one determination that refuses to give up, this world can still change.
I am not a hero. I am not a legend.
I am that flame.
A flash of light split the void.
My body felt heavy... but I felt the ground again.
A warm embrace. Arms trembling as they held me up from falling.
I opened my eyes slowly.
Elvira was crying—tears falling uncontrollably, wetting my face.
"You came back," she whispered, her voice breaking between relief and fear.
I gave a faint smile, gazing at the evening sky that had finally returned, free from the shadows of dark magic.
"Yes... I came back," I replied, before all the pain flooded back, making my body collapse into her arms.
Minato had successfully stopped the awakening of ancient magic.
But far across the continent, greater forces began to move.
His fight was not yet over.
And in a world that kept trying to silence the light...
The flame must burn once more.