"If they won't remember what they destroyed, I'll become what they can't forget."
---
Present Day – Edge of the Hollowreach Desert
The trio stood at the cracked cliffside, overlooking the sun-scorched dunes of Hollowreach, where broken gods were said to wander like mirages.
Naira squinted at the searing light ahead.
Luv adjusted the straps of his silver armor, its polished plates glinting faint arcs of thunder.
But all eyes eventually landed on Astha.
He was no longer clad in a bloodied cloak or tattered robes.
Now, he wore a sleek, pleated dark-gray outfit, stitched with divine-thread embroidery stolen from a ruined temple. Gold crests shimmered near his chest, and twin black cords with obsidian beads looped over his shoulders. It gave him the appearance of a fallen deity or perhaps something even older.
"You look like a godkiller," Luv muttered with a small smirk.
"Good," Astha replied. "That's exactly what I am."
Across his back hovered a new weapon — a black, mid-range floating glaive, etched in Sanskrit mantras that shifted like flames. It was named:
"Tamsavrit" – The Glaive That Hunts the Divine
It hovered when not in use, summoned from the Echo of Descent, a sealed mantra pocket-space bound to his soul. It could stretch, curve, or shatter into multiple smaller blades mid-combat.
---
Elsewhere — In Swarnalok
At the Hall of Hollow Suns, beneath the golden canopy of law, the executioner Sharvaka knelt before a council of hooded gods.
"He has grown strong. His memory burns brighter than the archives predicted," one said.
"He has been tempered," Sharvaka responded, his six-bladed helm rising.
"Let me test the blade."
The gods hesitated.
"Not yet," said the voice behind the curtain — cold, low, and ancient.
"Let him remember more. Let him love more. Let him build something."
A pause.
"So I can be the one who tears it down."
---
Back at Hollowreach – Nightfall
Astha lit no fire. The White Flame now shimmered within his hand like a flickering moon.
Naira sat beside him, sharpening a jagged dagger of divine glass. Luv leaned against a boulder, eyes watching the dark.
A warm moment unfolded — rare.
"Do you remember any lullabies?" Naira asked softly.
"From your home?"
Astha didn't look up.
"No," he said. "But I remember the silence after."
"That's sad," she whispered.
"It's mine," he answered.
Luv quietly handed him a sealed scroll — a divine bounty log.
At the top, in glowing letters:
"The Boundless Flame – Class: Threat to Pantheon"
Astha's own bounty. Issued by the gods.
He burned it without blinking.
---
[ The Goddess of Hollowreach]
Far beyond, beneath the sands, an ancient presence stirred.
A feminine voice, broken by centuries, whispered:
"Who walks with fire in their veins…?"
"Who remembers what was buried…?"
"Come find me, white flame."