The sky shimmered unnaturally.
It wasn't heat distortion—though Ember had flown through enough wildfire zones to know the look—it was older, structured. Magic tied to flame, yes, but older than the system. Older than bloodlines.
A gate.
> [Warning: Spatial Anchor Detected – Council Seal Signature]
"The Council of Flame recognizes your path.
Attendance is no longer optional."
Passive Suspended: Freeflight Navigation
Debuff Applied: Dimensional Gravity Fold – Wings bound
You are being summoned.
---
The world folded inward.
For a moment, Ember saw his own soul mirrored in the burning spiral of ancient laws. A thousand dragon eyes—memories from his species—watched him, silent and flickering. The gate swallowed him in a slow spiral of runes that writhed like branded fire.
When he landed, it wasn't on stone. It was scale.
---
The Seat of Wyrms.
A continent-sized dragon, petrified in mid-roar, its wings spanning a valley, its ribcage forming the shell of a floating city. Dragons lived in its bones. Others had carved council chambers into its skull. They called this place Verhak'Thurn—the First Tyrant's Rest.
Ember landed on a balcony that jutted from what must've once been a jawbone, now carved into an obsidian dais ringed with rune-spires. Firelight flickered through dozens of hanging braziers—none fueled by wood or oil. All were soulbound flames, born from dragonkind's greatest battles.
They burned blue. Violet. Crimson. Silver. A black flame in the corner devoured light around it.
And all around him… dragons watched.
Some vast and plated, others lean and laced with elements: magma, storm, smoke, crystal. A few didn't look like dragons at all anymore—twisted evolutions of former Wyrms who had taken specialized paths and now shimmered like gods or shadows.
Ember straightened his spine and folded his wings.
He would not bow.
---
> [Council of Flame – Assembly Quorum Achieved]
Subject: "Ember, Volcanic Tyrant Lineage – Unshackled Forgeflame Bearer"
Charges for Review:
– Unauthorized Soulforge Activation
– Evolution Outside System-Registered Pathways
– Harmonic Disruption of Regional Flame Balance
Defense Rights: One speaker allowed
Resolution Mode: Open Debate
A massive scaled head rose from the far side of the chamber. Its horns had grown so long they were braided with molten metal. One eye had been replaced with an ember that constantly flickered new runes.
> "I am Varkos, Keeper of Balance. Flame-Seer of the Third Line. Speaker for the Highflame Accord."
"And I say this wyrmling has lit fires that may not be put out."
Gasps echoed from the spires. A few dragons rumbled agreement. Others narrowed their eyes.
Another rose—sleek, silver-scaled, with wings of translucent glass.
> "I am Selharex, of the Frost-Convex Line. And I disagree. This is not chaos—it is potential."
"He shaped the Forgeflame into form. He survived Zehrak. He is the first in ten thousand cycles to bend the Sovereign fire and not be consumed."
"Why do we not celebrate this?"
The chamber erupted.
Arguing dragons. Growling. Elemental flares lighting the room like lightning flashes.
Ember stood, listening—but something moved in the shadows behind him. A voice, coiled like smoke and silk, whispered directly into his ear.
> "They argue because they're afraid, little flame. You've done something no one gave permission for."
"You evolved without them."
He turned—but saw nothing.
Yet the system pulsed.
> [Hidden Status Detected: Ghostflame Presence]
Advisory: Do not respond. Observation only.
Ember ignored the whisper. His voice cut through the rising chaos:
> "You call this a council.
But you don't want truth.
You want control."
Silence.
Even Varkos looked impressed.
Ember stepped forward. Fire licked his wings—but now it danced according to will, not instinct. His claws left molten impressions in the dais floor.
> "I didn't steal the Forgeflame. I faced it. I earned it."
"I didn't kill to climb—I survived against one who has."
"Ashbane is burning your bloodlines. He's not hiding. He's feeding on us."
"While you sit here debating my right to evolve, he's already becoming something else."
A younger councilor—barely older than Ember, though adorned in golden plate and glowing with volcanic crust—scoffed.
> "And what would you do, Forgeborn? Fly straight into the heart of corruption? Fight him alone?"
Ember growled low.
> "I don't need to fight him alone."
"But I need you to stop treating evolution like it belongs to a council. Or a bloodline. Or a birthright."
"It belongs to the fire itself. And it chose me."
The fire around him flared, not out of anger—but resonance.
The soulbound technique—Infernal Lancer—unfolded in ghostfire behind his wings, a shimmering, twisting spear of memory-forged fire. The chamber fell silent again.
> [Soulforge Resonance: 94%]
[Warning: Emotional Sync With Flame May Trigger Partial Evolution]
Would you like to suppress your Forgeflame Core?
– YES
– NO
He chose: NO.
---
The braziers flared one by one.
Varkos rose slowly. He did not smile. But he did nod once.
> "Then let the council record this day."
"That a wyrmling rose with no clan to back him, no Sovereign line to justify him…"
"And earned fire's respect anyway."
> [Council Decision: Reprieve Granted]
Ember shall not be marked for suppression or culling.
His evolution path shall be recognized under: Adaptive Sovereign Code
Rewards Granted:
– Title: Flameborn Dissident
– Access to restricted Soulforge Blueprints
– Passive: Cinder Authority (lesser dragons will hesitate before attacking)
But the flames shifted again.
From behind the dais came a rift of cracked obsidian, flaring with red light. A roar—not of approval, but of pain—echoed through the chamber.
> [Emergency Update]
Ashbane has reached the next stage of mutation.
Title Update: Blight-Tyrant
Flame Signature: Contaminated
New Trait Detected: Soul-Leech Flame
Alert: Wyrm-Sovereign Thraxus has been slain.
Gasps. Roars. A fury ignited the chamber—draconic panic laced with war-readiness.
Varkos turned to Ember.
> "Then we no longer debate."
"We act."
"Will you lead the vanguard strike, Forgeflame?"
"Or shall we burn without you?"
Ember looked once more into the spirals of soulfire surrounding him. The fire did not scream. It waited.
> [System Prompt: Accept Mission – Vanguard of the Cinder War]
Objective: Lead first strike against Ashbane's corrupted dominion
Optional: Defeat Ashbane before next mutation triggers
Reward: ???
Risk: Extreme
Accept?
Ember's eyes glowed like a dying star given breath once more.
> "I was born in fire."
"Let me show you what it remembers."
He accepted.
---