"To reach the summit of the Cinder Spine is to step upon bones that once ruled the skies. The dragons do not sleep. They wait."
— Stonecarved Verse, Eastern Flame Epoch
🏔 Journey to the Peaks
The skies were heavy with anticipation as Jin and the Sea-Bound Host departed from Shellspine Isle. Their route curved eastward across fractured sky-ridges, riding upon Vo'Kora's translucent manta form. Dozens of other flying beasts and cloud-sailers followed, each carrying warriors of their sects—Silent Tide Sect, Coral Breath Guardians, and Moonwater Mirror Clan among them.
Beneath their flight, landscapes passed like scrolls:
Withered forests that whispered lost prayers.
Rivers turned black from forgotten wars.
Ruined sky pagodas floating midair, chained by broken oaths.
Jin stood at the prow of Vo'Kora, eyes closed. Every pulse of the world echoed in his core now—since merging with the Leviathan Blade, the Tidebound Sutra made him attuned to all waters, even those that once flowed in blood.
🧭 Memory-Storm over the Dragon Scar
Two days into the journey, the sky convulsed with red lightning. A Memory-Storm surged—a rift where fractured lives bled into the open world.
A scream pierced the clouds.
From the storm emerged a winged creature—a Half-Memory Wyvern, body stitched from regret and soul-echoes. It dived toward the convoy, roaring in tongues only past lives could understand.
Su Ren's war-fans flared, Lin Xue summoned her Seven-Silver Lotus blades, but Jin lifted a hand.
"It's me it wants."
He leapt into the storm midair.
For a moment, all sound vanished.
Jin's soul left his body—drawn into the storm's core, where time and identity unraveled.
There, he saw a past version of himself, kneeling among dragons, whispering betrayal into a dying flame.
"You sealed them. You unmade the Accord."
Jin met his own eyes.
"Then I will unseal it with who I am now."
He grasped the wyvern's shadowed form—did not strike it—but embraced it.
His core pulsed.
The Leviathan Blade reappeared, glowing with tides of remembrance.
The wyvern let out a final cry… and shattered into wind.
The storm calmed.
The convoy cheered as Jin fell back onto Vo'Kora's back, breathing heavily.
Lin Xue whispered, "He doesn't just fight the world. He fights what it remembers of him."
🏞 Arrival at Cinder Spine Peaks
At dawn, they reached the edges of the Cinder Spine Peaks—a range of volcanic mountains whose jagged edges resembled the ribs of a sleeping god.
The summit was choked in ash clouds, black winds coiling through ancient dragonbone arches. But even before they could step forward, the air changed.
Other Realms had arrived.
To the North: The Wolffang Sect stood in crimson steel, their breath fogged with killing intent.
To the South: Golden Plume Monks, silent, faces painted like cranes.
To the East: A caravan of veiled warriors glowing with jade light.
To the West: Silent emissaries wearing armor of water and flame—Jin's own past sect reborn under a new master.
The center of the summit was a flat, circular platform marked by seven draconic runes—each pulsating with dormant power.
As Jin approached the Western rune, it blazed.
The other sects took notice.
A monk stepped forward from the Southern side, speaking with calm wrath:
"So. The Flamebearer walks again."
A woman clad in frost-iron from the Northern Peaks drew a skyblade:
"Where is the proof you are not the same betrayer who fed our dragons to the Void?"
Jin unsheathed his invisible blade.
It sang like crashing waves.
The runes pulsed in response.
🐉 The Sky Trembles
Suddenly, a rumble tore through the sky.
The runes lifted into the air, forming a floating arena. Light gathered into a dome of fire, water, wind, and soul.
"The Summoning begins!" cried a herald.
From above, thunder cracked.
Then—dragons.
Seven titanic forms—each a silhouette of elemental power—spiraled in the clouds, bound by seal markings glowing gold. Only their eyes were visible.
One eye blinked in storm.
One blinked in sorrow.
One in fury.
A voice deeper than death shook the Peaks:
"Those who bear our seals… kneel, or awaken us."
Jin stepped forward.
"I do not kneel."
The Western Dragon's eye narrowed.
"Then awaken us, Reclaimer."
Jin raised the Leviathan Blade.
Lightning struck the circle.