The man's eyes glowed silver.
But he had no flame.
No aura.
No life, if you looked too closely.
Zhao Feng took a cautious step back. "Uh… friend or world-ending enemy?"
The man tilted his head.
> "I am neither."
> "And both."
I stood firm, Void Flame flickering in my hand.
"Where's Qing'er?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he reached into his chest—and pulled something out.
A silver ember.
It pulsed once.
And I heard her voice.
> "Kael—help me—please—!"
Then silence.
I lunged.
But my flame passed through him.
Like smoke.
---
He stepped backward calmly.
> "She is not dead."
> "But she is no longer... yours."
---
[System Alert]
> Unity Flame Fragment Displaced
Host: Qing'er – Status: Isolated
Warning: Spiritual Core Severed
Estimated Time Before Collapse: 48 Hours
---
I froze.
Zhao Feng blinked. "Okay, so we've got two days to find her before she melts like expired soul jelly. Great."
The silver-eyed man raised a hand.
> "She isn't melting."
> "She's evolving."
---
He gestured at the ground.
A swirling image formed—Qing'er, unconscious, floating inside a cocoon of silver and white flame.
Her body pulsed with strange symbols—neither script nor rune.
> "You ignited the Unity Flame too early," he said.
> "It triggered the final protocol—Prototype Fusion."
My heart dropped.
"She's fusing with it?"
He nodded slowly.
> "If the process completes... she will not remember you."
> "She will not remember herself."
---
Zhao Feng scratched his head. "So wait, we either save her and maybe kill her... or leave her and she turns into a flaming goddess who doesn't know we exist?"
The man looked at me.
> "There is a third path."
> "But it requires you to burn something… personal."
---
Silence.
I asked, "Who are you?"
The man turned toward the river.
> "I was the First Vessel."
> "The original prototype for the Unity Flame."
> "But I failed. My soul rejected it."
> "I lost my flame… and became what you see."
I stared.
"You're a shadow of the flame."
> "Correct."
> "I am the memory the Unity Flame didn't want."
---
He extended a hand.
> "Come with me."
> "There's a place between timelines… where echoes still burn."
> "It's the only way to reach her before the fusion finishes."
I hesitated.
Then—
The sky turned red.
---
A distant roar echoed across the mountains.
Flames burst from the horizon.
> "He's coming," the man said.
> "You don't have much time."
---
[System Message]
> Entity: Flame Collector
Distance: 18 km
Aura Surge: Detected
Projection: Direct Confrontation Imminent
---
Zhao Feng swore.
"I vote we follow the creepy flame ghost and figure out the rest later!"
The man opened a portal—not with flame, but with silence.
> "This path leads to the Broken Ember Vein."
> "Where the Unity Flame first failed."
I looked into it.
It shimmered like cracked glass—showing images that flickered between our past, Qing'er's cocoon, and a graveyard of flame spirits.
I stepped forward.
Then stopped.
"Tell me one thing," I said.
"If I go in there… and she doesn't come back the same... what happens to her?"
The man didn't smile.
He didn't blink.
> "Then she becomes the Flameborn Empress."
> "And you become her enemy."
---
I stepped through.
The world vanished behind me.
---
Last Scene – Far Away
In a scorched plain littered with flame-bleached bones, a massive figure stood quietly.
His robes whispered in the wind—shimmering between black and white.
The Flame Collector opened his eyes.
And whispered a single word:
> "Found you."
The mountain behind him exploded as he stepped forward—
And vanished.
---
To be continued...
---
✍️ Author's Note – by [Your Pen Name]
🔥 Chapter 32 unlocked a wave of twists:
The silver-eyed man is the Unity Flame's first vessel—a failed prototype
Qing'er is fusing with the Unity Flame… but it could erase her identity forever
The MC must choose to follow this unstable path into a burnt timeline to reach her
And now, the Flame Collector has locked onto them