"Pain is the tuition for power. Bleed or burn. Choose."
— Instructor Dal
---
DAWN OVER THE ASHEN SPIRE
Dawn broke like fire across the Ashen Spire.
The sun's first rays struck the tower's obsidian face, casting molten glows across its jagged spires and carved flame-glyphs. Deep below, in the dormitory levels, Renzo was already on his feet.
His cot barely looked touched. Sheets folded. Pillow undisturbed.
He hadn't slept.
Not because he couldn't — but because the flame inside him wouldn't shut up.
It pulsed beneath his skin like a second heartbeat. Heat coiled in his spine, humming low and restless. Every time he blinked, he could still see the moment of ignition — that red blaze tearing out of him back in Cavite.
It hadn't left. It was still there. Still hungry.
Across the dorm, Kael was slipping on his Dominion vest, tightening the black-buckled straps with one hand. He glanced at Renzo and gave him a crooked smile.
"Hope you stretched, newbie," Kael said. "Today's when they try to kill you."
Renzo blinked, bleary-eyed. "What?"
Kael snorted. "First Trial. Mandatory for all untrained flame users."
He opened the door and let the hall's red glow spill in.
"Welcome to the Dominion."
---
TRIAL CHAMBER – "THE PYRE PIT"
Massive steel doors hissed open with a screech that echoed like a scream.
Renzo stepped inside with the rest of the initiates, heart pounding. The air hit him like a wall — thick with sulfur, ash, and something else... blood.
The chamber was vast, circular, and sunken. Stone bleachers ringed the perimeter, high above. Dominion elites watched from the upper balcony — silent silhouettes clad in Shadowsidian armor, their helms shaped like fire gods and beasts. Each armor shimmered faintly in the forge-lit gloom, as if drinking in the heat.
Below them, at the center of it all, lay the Pit.
A ring of polished obsidian fifty feet wide, with glowing fire-veins streaking across the cracked stone like lightning under glass. The ground throbbed faintly beneath Renzo's boots.
This wasn't just a battlefield.
It was alive.
At the center stood Instructor Dal, arms crossed. Behind him hovered a scroll, bound in dragon glass and held aloft by a burning glyph that turned in the air like a compass spun by fate.
Dal raised a single hand. The air went still.
"All initiates, hear this," he said, voice like flint striking steel. "You will face your flame today. Not mine. Not your enemy's. Yours."
Then he turned and pointed. Right at him.
"You. Cavite boy. You go first."
The crowd stirred. Buzzed. Murmurs rippled like heatwaves. Smirks. Pity.
Renzo swallowed and stepped into the circle, the obsidian warm beneath his soles.
---
TRIAL TYPE: MIRROR FLAME COMBAT
The glyphs flared.
Symbols ignited along the edge of the pit — ancient, angular, shifting between tongues older than fire. A Dominion voice spoke from everywhere and nowhere, emotionless as stone:
> TRIAL INITIATED.
> OPPONENT: SHADOWSELF.
> FLAME RECOGNITION: RED.
> COMBAT LEVEL: CLASS C.
The floor in front of Renzo cracked open.
A figure rose — a mirrored version of himself, but twisted. Its flesh shimmered like blackened glass. Its eyes burned like coals left too long in the pit. Red aura flame danced around its body — jagged, untamed, radiating pure hate.
But it wasn't random. Unlike Renzo's fire, which flared with panic and instinct, this flame moved with cold precision. As if it had already killed him once.
Renzo staggered back. "What the hell is that—?"
Yna's voice crackled from the upper deck.
"That's your shadowself," she said. "Every regret, every failure, every ounce of rage you've ever buried... given shape and flame."
Dal added without flinching:
"If you lose, you die. If you win… congratulations. You're still pathetic. But alive."
---
BATTLE: RENZO VS. SHADOW RENZO
The clone moved first.
No warning. No scream.
Just movement — pure and lethal.
It blurred forward, red flame trailing behind it like burning chains. A punch screamed through the air toward Renzo's chest.
BOOM.
Renzo dove sideways. Just in time.
Stone shattered behind him. He rolled, came up gasping, and felt his right hand ignite — instinctive, messy, wild. A rough globe of red fire formed around his fist.
He swung. Missed.
The shadow ducked low, spun, and launched a flaming kick straight into his ribs. Pain exploded in his side. He was airborne before he realized it — then slammed against the obsidian with a breath-crushing thud.
Too fast. Too clean. It wasn't fighting like him.
It was fighting better.
It didn't speak. Just kept coming — relentless. A reflection of everything he loathed. The rage he didn't control. The fear he never voiced. The helplessness that choked him when Dad disappeared.
> Why didn't you fight back?
Why did you freeze when it mattered?
The thoughts weren't his — but they echoed like truth. Like wounds reopening.
Renzo roared and slammed his fist into the floor.
FWHOOM.
A column of red fire burst up around him. The clone recoiled. Renzo staggered to his feet, fire spiraling up his arms, teeth bared.
"I'm not scared of you!" he shouted. "I am you!"
He charged.
His fist caught the clone square in the jaw — fire howling. Then again. And again. His strikes were wild but full of truth. Flame wrapped his limbs like armor now. Not perfect, not clean — but real.
Punch after punch.
Until the clone cracked.
Until its body shattered like burning glass.
Until only embers remained, floating gently to the pit floor like red snow.
Silence.
Then the glyphs dimmed.
> TRIAL PASSED.
---
MEDICAL BAY – LATER
Renzo sat shirtless on the edge of a steel cot. His ribs were tightly wrapped, the bandages stained faint pink. The flame hadn't left him — it now flickered quietly around his chest, like a candle in the stillness after a storm.
Instructor Dal entered without knocking. Tossed him a bottle of water.
"You lasted longer than I expected."
Renzo cracked a dry grin. "Thanks… I think."
Dal's face didn't change. "You've got potential."
Renzo met his eyes. "But?"
"But it's not enough."
The words landed heavier than Renzo expected.
"What is?"
Dal's tone dropped low, almost quiet. Not a threat — a warning.
> "Control. Without it, you're just a bomb waiting to go off."
He turned to leave. Paused at the door.
"There's a reason most people never make it past red," he said. "Anger's easy.
Mastery? That's hell."
Then he left.
---
ABOVE THE EARTH – VERUS' SANCTUM
In a place unshaped by time or gravity, Verus floated within a ring of burning constellations — an astral sanctum carved from forgotten flame.
He stared at the celestial map before him, watching flame signatures swirl like galaxies.
One mark pulsed red.
Renzo's.
The spark was growing.
Verus' hand clenched around the map's edge. Cracks spidered outward, leaking gold light.
> "A mortal with red flame shouldn't be beating his own shadow," he muttered. "Not this clean."
From the dark behind him, a voice whispered:
"You fear the boy."
Verus didn't turn. His golden eyes narrowed.
"No. I envy him."
He raised his hand to summon his own flame — golden, divine, god-forged.
But it flickered. Hesitated. Then died.
Hollow.
> "The Void doesn't answer gods who fake emotion."
Verus stared again at Renzo's growing flame. It pulsed once — strong. Stable.
> "But it listens to him."
---
IGNIS DOMINION – FLAME RANK BOARD
The mess hall buzzed with noise — initiates chatting, eating, complaining. On the far wall, a massive digital board listed flame classifications and names.
Kael walked over to Renzo, two rolls of bread in hand, and a glowing energy drink tucked under his arm.
"You moved up to Yellow threshold," he said, biting into the bread. "Not bad. Most people don't pass red without losing a finger. Or an eye."
Renzo blinked. "Wait… I thought I was still Ember class."
Kael grinned and held up his wristband. It pulsed once.
> Rank: Igniter Class — Yellow Initiate.
Flame Stability: 81%.
Renzo glanced at his own band. The glyphs shifted.
> Status: Updated.
> Aura Flame Classification: YELLOW.
He stared for a moment.
And then — he felt it.
Not heat. Not anger.
But peace.
The flame wasn't raging anymore. It wasn't demanding. It was… listening. Steady. Like it had decided, at last, to stay.
But one question remained.
> What's next?