Chapter 22: The Fall of the Ember Realm

The Ember Realm was the first to fall.

A sacred world of eternal twilight, where the skies shimmered like burning silk, it had long been a sanctuary for survivors fleeing Long Tian's conquests. Now it burned.

Wang Chung arrived too late to save it—but just in time to witness the destruction.

As he stepped onto the cracked crimson soil, ash falling like snow, he heard a soft cry.

A child.

Hidden beneath rubble, clutching a shattered pendant of the Celestial Flame, a boy trembled. Wang Chung knelt, lifting him gently. The boy opened tear-streaked eyes and whispered, "The light... never came."

Those words haunted Wang Chung even as he called for evacuation.

Overhead, the sky screamed as one of Long Tian's Reflected Lords descended. A mirror-faced being with Wang Chung's face—his past self twisted into mockery.

They fought amidst the ruins, blade meeting blade, memory against memory.

"I was you," the reflection sneered. "The version that gave in. And I was happy."

Wang Chung's flame surged with righteous fury, purging the specter in a blaze of violet-gold fire.

But even victory felt like mourning.