> [Location: Charred Sky Monolith – Core Chamber]
Spark Integration: 73.9% | Flame Sync: True Flame Perception Active
Bond State: Ascendant Sync – Emotional Transfer Layer Stable
Warning: Flame Memory Layer Active – Sensory Boundaries May Distort | Do Not Resist Memory Flow
---
Descent into Flame
The stairway twisted downward, each step a flicker of some forgotten memory. Jiang and Tian Xue descended together, their soul pets silent, senses tight, heartbeats slowed in synchrony.
Around them, the walls shifted—not stone, but light formed from fire. Images swam within the flame: unknown cultivators, ancient wars, skies split by gods long erased.
Then they reached the bottom.
A circular chamber. No exits. No doors.
Only the Monolith—a floating slab of obsidian flame, etched with seven ancient glyphs that predated the Sovereign script.
> [Monolith Memory Trigger – Flame Origin Thread Initiated]
Do you accept?
Jiang took Tian Xue's hand.
> "Together."
> "Always."
He stepped forward.
And the world unraveled.
---
Vision – Before the System
They were no longer in the chamber.
They stood in a valley that didn't exist anymore—under a sky with no sun, surrounded by people who did not cultivate.
These were humans before flame. Before systems. Before spirit power.
A small group gathered around a body—lifeless, cold.
A child.
One of them—an old man with no name—knelt and cried.
And then…
The first spark appeared.
Not from the heavens.
But from his own grief.
It flickered into his palm—a tiny flame, fed not by power… but by emotion. By loss.
The others screamed.
But the flame… sang.
---
The Bargain of Fire
The vision jumped.
The old man stood atop a broken altar, the flame now larger. Controlled. Alive.
And speaking.
> "You may carry me," it said, "but you will never own me."
> "To wield me, you must burn with truth. Lie to yourself… and I will consume you."
Jiang's voice caught.
> "The flame wasn't gifted by gods."
Tian Xue's eyes were wide.
> "It was born from us."
> "It was us."
---
The Arrival of the System
The next moment burned like a brand.
Dark-robed figures descended from the sky—cloaked in lightning, bearing artifacts that pulsed with impossible power.
The old man welcomed them.
But they didn't bow.
They took the flame.
Bound it.
Tore it apart.
Turned it into seven fragments.
Each inscribed with restrictions, laws, hierarchies.
Jiang stepped forward in the memory, screaming—
But he was not heard.
The old man was executed.
The child's flame was placed inside a containment altar—the prototype of today's Flame Trial.
And above it, one word was carved:
SOVEREIGN.
---
Back to the Present
Jiang collapsed onto the Monolith floor, panting, heart thundering.
Tian Xue knelt beside him.
> "We saw it."
> "Everything we believed in…" he gasped. "It was all built on a lie."
> "They didn't share the flame. They stole it."
> "And turned it into a cage."
The Monolith pulsed once more—gentler now.
> [Truth Accepted. Inner Layer Unlocked.]
Sovereign Spark Evolution Path Altered – New Phase Available: Free Flame Mode]
Warning: Your flame is now incompatible with Sovereign Division's core system. Status: Hostile to Network]
Above – Overseers Respond
Far above, back at Sovereign City, a signal pulsed in red.
Overseer 01, the one without a name, stared at the message.
"Free Flame Divergence Detected. Subject: Jiang Han. Status: Irreversible."
His hand clenched around the edge of his throne.
> "The spark is waking up."
A voice beside him growled.
> "Then we extinguish the world before it remembers."