The Halls of Mongolia

The wind howled over the Mongolian steppes like a spirit mourning its forgotten children. It carried with it the scent of frost, dust, and ancient blood—whispers of battles long erased from the annals of history. Far across the plains, a silhouette loomed—stone towers buried in earth and time, the ruins of Ovor Khan Monastery.

This was no ordinary ruin. It was where the first piece of the Godfire's truth was said to be hidden.

One Week Later – Edge of the Ruins

The journey north had been treacherous.

Crossing into Mongolia through obscure diplomatic routes and air-skiffs arranged by Ayaka's old Russian contacts had barely avoided border patrols. Now, as they set up camp under the rising moon, the team surveyed the monastery from afar.

A domed structure, partly collapsed, stood at the center of crumbling prayer wheels and broken statues. Golden plaques in faded Tibetan script lined the stone walls.

Miren tapped her staff on the frozen ground.

"I can feel the wards. They're barely active… like dying embers."

"Still active after a thousand years?" Liu raised a brow.

"This place was once sacred to flame-bearers," Tharaka said. "But its last High Monk vanished after sealing a scroll said to hold the 'Path of Ignition'."

Arjun sat beside a torch, staring into the flickering flame.

"They tried to protect the world from what I now carry."

Ayaka approached, crouched beside him, and spoke quietly.

"Then maybe it's time we stop running and start hunting."

Into the Monastery

By dawn, they moved in.

Snow crunched beneath their boots. Stone lions stood frozen in time, guarding the broken archway. As they crossed into the monastery, a silence far deeper than nature took hold.

Kavi cocked her weapon. "Feels like a tomb."

It was.

Skeletons lined the walls, draped in monk robes, heads bowed as though caught mid-prayer. Yet not one showed signs of violence. It was as if they had died waiting.

"Mass ritual," Miren murmured, her hands brushing a charred scroll. "They sealed themselves in."

They reached the central dome.

The murals inside showed a fiery being descending from the heavens—half god, half mortal—bringing light and destruction. One inscription read:

"To carry the Godfire is to defy time. Burn, and rise again."

At the center stood an altar.

Upon it—a scroll wrapped in red silk, sealed by a wax symbol matching Arjun's pendant.

He reached out—

—only for the room to shake violently.

"GET BACK!" Ayaka yelled.

The Flame Sentinel

The walls exploded outward.

From the shadows emerged a being of cracked obsidian, its body laced with lava-like veins. Its head was an old monk's skull, wrapped in fire and sorrow. It spoke in a dead language that bled into their minds:

"Only the one who remembers may pass. All others… burn."

Arjun stepped forward.

"I remember nothing," he said, steady. "But I carry everything."

The creature attacked.

Its strikes split stone. Ayaka dashed left, her blade sparking against its arm. Kavi opened fire with enchanted rounds, but the creature absorbed them like drops of rain. Liu weaved through the debris, slicing at its legs.

"Nothing's working!" she cried.

Miren, eyes glowing, summoned ice runes that barely slowed it.

Only Arjun stood firm. The pendant on his chest burned.

He gritted his teeth, heart pounding. He felt the flame inside him pulse in rhythm with the creature.

It was a test.

He ran forward, barehanded, dodging a fiery fist that shattered the altar.

The scroll flew into the air.

Arjun leapt, caught it—and the pendant shattered in a blaze of gold light.

For a brief moment, the entire dome was engulfed in flame.

A Memory Returned

He was not standing in the ruin anymore.

He stood within a lotus of fire.

Before him knelt an ancient monk—blind, weeping, smiling.

"You are the Ash-Walker," the monk whispered. "Son of the Phoenix Queen. Scion of the First Empire. I give you what your mother could not."

The monk placed a palm on Arjun's chest.

"Awaken."

Back in the Present

The flames died.

Arjun stood at the heart of the ruin, unharmed. The obsidian guardian knelt before him.

"Flame-Bearer," it rumbled. "You remember."

He looked around. The others stared at him, wide-eyed.

"What did you see?" Liu asked.

Arjun opened the scroll. Inside were ancient diagrams, locations marked across Asia—temples, bunkers, underground cities.

"A map," he whispered. "To what's left of the First Empire… and the Godfire's other fragments."

Ayaka smiled grimly. "Then we've just begun."

But far away, atop a mountain overlooking the ruin, someone else watched.

Varek.

He lowered a spyglass, face unreadable.

"So… the boy has taken his first step," he murmured. "Let's see how long he can walk it."