Flames of the Heart

The fire had died down, but Renji's thoughts hadn't.

He sat on a cracked stone under the moonlight, gazing out over the Exile's twilight-stained lands. The others were quiet—Mira half-asleep by a tree, Seraphina meditating in silence, Zach picking his teeth with a demon fang.

Renji finally spoke, "I want to see her again."

Zach raised a brow. "Her her?"

Renji nodded. "Lady Syrene. The goddess from the brothel. I met her the night I fell into this world… before all the madness began."

Mira hissed like an angry teapot. "Perv."

Seraphina sighed, her eyes fluttering open. "Of course it'd be the brothel goddess you remember."

Zach chuckled. "Well, hey—nostalgia's got strong thighs, huh?"

Despite the tension, Zach nodded. "Alright. Let's visit your sacred... temple of flesh and bad decisions."

With a flick of his fingers, a portal shimmered to life. They stepped through.

And the scent of perfume and sin welcomed them home.

The brothel hadn't changed… but everything felt wrong.

Renji's boots tapped against the velvet-lined floor, muffled by curtains of maroon and gold. Laughter echoed softly in the distance, but it lacked soul—like a haunted melody trying to mimic joy. He passed familiar halls, the scent of jasmine oil teasing his memory. Here, under these dim lights, he'd tasted warmth for the first time in this cruel world.

Lady Syrene.

She wasn't just beautiful. She was divine—golden skin that shimmered like sunrise, eyes like twin moons wrapped in mystery, and a voice that once pulled Renji back from the brink of despair. She had touched his face and whispered his name like it mattered.

He remembered her kiss, soft and aching.

He reached the same room. The door hung ajar.

He pushed it open.

And his soul cracked.

Syrene was there—bent over a silk-draped couch, her body limp, movements mechanical, as if her will had been shattered. The sacred aura she once radiated was gone. Her eyes—those moons—were hollow now, staring through walls that never offered escape.

Behind her stood him.

The pig.

The smug, bloated noble from the Light Order who had once mocked Renji while he was bound in chains. Now he stood there, grunting, pawing at the goddess like a twisted child with a broken doll. His laughter was cruel and triumphant.

"Never thought I'd have a turn with a goddess," he sneered. "Even their kind kneels to the Light."

Renji's breath hitched.

His heart thundered in his ears.

He didn't move. He didn't speak. He just stared… and Syrene didn't even see him. Or maybe she did—and that was worse.

Something inside him shriveled, then flared into something black and blinding.

He turned and left.

Outside, Zach leaned against a pillar, face shadowed. He didn't smile this time.

"This is the western edge of the Exile," Zach said grimly. "The Light Order's been pushing their influence here. Corrupting, enslaving. Cleansing the holy with filth. If we don't act now then this area would soon fall under their filthy light."

Mira clutched her dagger tightly. Seraphina stood still, her expression unreadable—but her fingers curled like claws.

Renji said nothing.

His silence was louder than any scream.

The moment the door closed behind him, Renji felt it.

And that's when it happened—

The Exile System pulsed.

It didn't just react.

A jolt—sharp and cold—shot through his spine.

It wasn't pain. It was clarity. A rupture of something buried deep inside him, something ancient, coiled in silence for too long. His breath became smoke in the suddenly chilled air. The sky, once dim with sorrowful stars, now shimmered crimson over the Exile's edge.

A voice echoed from within. Cold. Mechanical. Divine.

[Exile System: User Emotion Surge Detected]

[Cleansing Protocol – Initiated]

[Sub-Routine: Wrath of the Forgotten – Online]

The ground trembled.

Seraphina's eyes widened as a soft golden glow spilled from Renji's chest, his veins pulsing with energy like molten lightning. Her voice trembled, "You triggered a relic protocol. The Exile… it's waking with you."

Zach raised a brow, impressed. "Ohoho… Now we're cooking with cosmic fire."

Renji didn't hear them.

His body felt weightless, yet grounded to the marrow of the realm. He saw flashes—visions not from memory, but ancestral data: divine cities razed in holy wars, gods on pikes, temples drowning in screams. And at the heart of it all—a child. Him. His soul torn in two, cast into shadow and flesh.

The system pulsed again.

[Emotion Analysis: Rage. Disgust. Betrayal. Grief.]

[Purification Directive: Light Order Presence – Designated 'Invasive Pathogens']

[Authorization Level: Grand Heir Confirmed]

[Release: Forbidden Art – "Soulfire Convergence"]

Renji's hand lifted on instinct. His palm shimmered with otherworldly fire—not flame, but raw, singing energy laced in golden red threads. It didn't burn—it sang. Screamed. Hungered.

"What… is this?" he muttered.

Seraphina stepped forward slowly, reverently. "That's Soulfire. It was used once—long ago, by your mother, the last time the Light dared to stain this realm. It destroys not just the body, but erases the soul's alignment."

Zach's grin returned, feral and sharp. "So… we're scrubbing the filth now?"

Mira growled softly, fangs bared. "I say we burn them all."

Renji's voice was hollow. "He hurt her. He broke her."

Zach clapped him on the shoulder, tone soft but charged. "Then let's fix it. One Light swine at a time."

A map appeared in Renji's mind—sigils, coordinates, locations tainted by Light Order influence spreading like tumors across the western Exile. The system was no longer dormant. It was coiled like a predator, teeth bared.

And it was his.

Renji clenched his fist, the Soulfire pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat. "Then we start now. We take this realm back."

Seraphina bowed her head, whispering like a prayer, "The Heir has awakened. The cleansing begins."

The Exile responded—winds howled through broken trees, and black stars blinked alive above, watching.

And somewhere, far away, Lady Syrene wept without knowing why.

The world was about to change.