Chapter 105: The Last Flame

Crimson cracks tore through the sky. The Void Realm twisted and groaned under the Blood Demon's fury, a realm built to imprison, now coming undone at the seams.

Kai stood at the precipice, his hands trembling—not from fear, but from inevitability. He watched as the final bindings unraveled, each pulse of the Blood Demon's wrath threatening to rip open the gates to the mortal world.

"If he breaks free," Kai said, his voice low, tight with dread, "the mortal realm won't survive."

Yin stood beside him, pale and breathless, blood crusted at her side from earlier wounds. "Then we can't let him."

Kai's jaw clenched. He turned to her. "I'll do it."

Yin blinked. "Do what?"

"This seal is only meant to be temporary. I was bestowed with a final technique. The Mutual Destruction Annihilation Technique. It'll be enough to destroy him."

She stared at him in horror. "But you'll die with him. There has to be another way, Kai."

Kai gave her a small, broken smile. "There isn't."

He took a step forward—

—but a voice cut through the storm.

"No, Kai."

Kai froze.

From the smoke and debris, Han Long emerged.

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, his robes scorched and torn. The once-brilliant shimmer of the Dragon Cloak now barely flickered, but within his eyes burned a resolve so intense it eclipsed any flame. It was not the fury of the beast. It was the calm of a man who had finally found clarity.

"You said it yourself," Han murmured, limping toward them. "If he escapes, that would be the end of everything. But this… this started with me. I brought this fate upon us."

Yin stepped forward. "You're barely standing—"

Han raised a trembling hand. A rune beneath their feet blazed to life.

Energy flows of golden light snapped up around Kai and Yin before either could react. The binding formation glowed with an elegance that bespoke years of obsessive refinement.

"I'm sorry," Han said softly. "But you don't get to argue with me this time."

The pendant on his chest glowed in reply.

"This was made by Ren Wuji… a conduit, a curse, and now… a bridge." He smiled bitterly. "I can use this, along with the Dragon Cloak. Overload it. That'll be enough."

Kai's fists hammered against the bindings. "Han, don't be stupid!"

"I always was," Han chuckled sadly. "But I think I've finally figured out how to be stupid for the right reasons."

He turned away, but Yin's voice cracked through the tension.

"You idiot. There was another way. There *had* to be."

"Maybe," Han said, without looking back. "But this… feels right."

A soft shimmer of light appeared beside him.

Meng Yao.

She didn't speak at first—just took his hand. Her touch was warm despite the chill of the Void Realm.

"You don't have to," she whispered. "Please."

Han let out a quiet laugh. "If there was another path… maybe we'd have walked it together. Maybe we'd have had more time. But this… this is my last chance to make things right."

She looked up, eyes brimming. "I love you."

Han touched her face, gently brushing her tears. "And I'll always love you. But you… you need to find someone better. Someone who can really love you, the way you deserve. Not someone broken like me."

Meng Yao sobbed, but said nothing more.

Han leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

Then turned.

With a flick of his fingers, a luminous barrier rose behind him—shimmering, pulsing. A wall none could pass.

He walked alone toward the swirling chaos, toward the heart of the Blood Demon's power.

The demon screeched as the final seals began to fracture. Lightning burst from the heavens, rivers of raw destruction tearing across the sky.

But Han was already in flight.

The Dragon Cloak ignited—not with fury, but with finality. Its flames wrapped around him, not as armor, but as purpose incarnate. The dragon tattoos on his arms glowed fiercely, reacting to his Qi. This was no longer a cloak—it was an inferno.

His body shook violently as the overload began.

"Dragon Cloak Overload, Final Convergence!"

With one hand, he pressed the pendant into his chest. With the other, he surged toward the Blood Demon.

Time slowed.

A single heartbeat echoed across the realm.

And then—

Han struck.

The pendant flared. A connection snapped into place, a conduit flung open between Han's soul and the demon's core.

His Qi poured out in a torrent—not rage, not hatred, but clarity. The essence of a man who had walked through darkness and found his own light.

The Blood Demon's howl shattered mountains. He twisted, clawed, tried to flee—but it was too late.

Han's sacrifice had become inevitability.

BOOM.

The explosion wasn't merely sound. It was a tear in fate.

Golden fire consumed the demon, tearing through his body, burning his soul down to its deepest threads. Stars vanished. Mountains melted. The sky tore in half.

The Void Realm cracked apart like glass.

Kai and Yin shielded their eyes, helpless.

And when the light finally faded—

Han Long was gone.

Not even ash remained.

Only silence.

Kai and Yin stood amidst the fractured stoness. The last echoes of battle faded into the vast silence, broken only by the soft hum of dispersing energy.

Kai stumbled forward, knees buckling as the strain of everything caught up with him. Yin moved to support him, but he didn't fall. Instead, he sank gently to the ground, staring out at the empty space where Han had stood, where light had once blazed like a second sun.

Yin stood beside him. Quiet. Words weren't needed.

She slowly sat down next to him.

And without a word, she rested her head gently on his shoulder.

The two of them remained that way—silent and still.

Each wrapped in thoughts of the man they had known, the rival they had fought, the friend they had lost.

Yin's hand curled into Kai's sleeve, the only outward sign of the storm that raged within.

Meng Yao stood a distance away, her knees on the shattered ground. Her head bowed low, fingers clutching the last corner of Han's robe that the winds hadn't carried away. Her shoulders trembled, and her tears fell freely now—grief unbound, raw and helpless.

She wept for the man she had never dared to name in her heart—until it was too late.

The man she finally realized she loved, only as he vanished into flame and light.

Even in the end, Han Long had never said goodbye.

But his choice had spoken for him.

And they would remember.

Not as the demon they feared.

But as the man who burned himself away… to give the world one last chance.

Together, they turned away.

The portal back to the mortal realm shimmered one final time.

And closed behind them.