The world around me faded like smoke curling away in the wind. I was neither here nor gone, suspended in a space between breath and silence.
Then, a figure appeared—not in flesh and blood, but like a whisper in the shadows of my mind.
She was older, regal and calm. My grandmother.
Her voice didn't just reach my ears—it seeped into my very soul.
"Anos," she said, "you're not just a boy caught in this endless war. You are the thread that holds our bloodline together."
The weight of her words pulled at something buried deep inside me—memories I couldn't fully grasp.
I saw flashes: a boy of ten, wide-eyed and trembling in a sterile lab. Scientists around him, speaking in cold, clipped tones about power and control. About the Genesis Flame—a force forged as a weapon.
"They made the Flame to break the world," her voice echoed inside me, "but I—your grandmother—reworked its fate. The Flame wasn't meant to destroy... but to heal."
I felt the warmth of her presence, like a light in the darkness threatening to snuff out.
"You carry the weight of centuries," she whispered, "reincarnated again and again to protect what matters. The world fears what you hold inside, but they do not understand you."
Her gaze pierced through the haze.
"I've watched you—watched you struggle, watched you suffer, watched you fight."
A tear slid down my cheek, though I had no strength to wipe it away.
"You are stronger than any fear. Stronger than any pain. And this time... this time you will be the one to break the cycle."
Her voice softened into a lullaby of hope.
"You are not alone, Anos. Never alone."
The edges of my vision blurred, but her words stayed, a fragile flame flickering in the depths of my fading mind.
And as I drifted closer to darkness, I held onto that flame—the promise that this story was far from over.