The world returned slowly, like breath in cold lungs.
Caelum groaned, eyelids fluttering open. The ceiling above was scorched black, its stone marked by fresh claw lines and spirals of molten ash. The scent of smoke still lingered, thick and acrid, but the fire itself had gone. Only a slow-burning heat pulsed in the walls as if the shrine itself still remembered the creature that had awakened within it.
Caelum pushed himself up, trembling.
The pain in his chest was sharp, like embers beneath his skin. The sigil the bond mark was still there, glowing faintly through the shredded fabric of his tunic. A flame-shaped crest, jagged and wild, pulsed with every beat of his heart.
And then he felt it her.
"You're awake."
The voice returned, not from the air, but within his mind. It rang smooth and clear now, not distant or hollow as before. Warm. Watchful.
He turned and saw her, perched atop a broken altar.
Ashra.
The Phoenix-Dragon, her massive wings tucked at her sides, shimmered in gold and crimson hues. Her feathers trailed ember-light with every breath, and her glowing eyes watched him like twin suns unblinking, eternal.
Caelum stared, a thousand questions fighting to rise at once. But only one escaped:
"Are you… real?"
Ashra tilted her head, her talons tapping the stone.
"Do you feel my presence inside you?"
He nodded slowly.
"Do you feel the heat in your blood, the rhythm of our breath shared across the thread of spirit?"
Another nod.
"Then yes. I am real. As real as the fire that will one day consume your enemies."
Caelum tried to stand, but his knees buckled. The energy that surged during the bond had left his body strained, muscles twitching beneath scorched skin. Ashra lowered her head, one wing shifting toward him like a protective veil.
"I don't understand… Why me?" he rasped. "Why now?"
"Because you were hollow."
Ashra's voice was steady, ancient.
"The others those born with Binding Veins are tainted by the Sanctum's false rites. Their souls are already entangled with the artificial laws of this age. They cannot host the flames of the old world. But you…"
She paused.
"You were left empty. Unwritten. You are the last vessel."
Caelum's mind reeled. "So I was broken… on purpose?"
"You were not broken. You were preserved."
The words struck deep. His entire life had been shaped by absence no binding aura, no beast spirit, no future. Now it was claimed as potential?
He didn't know whether to laugh or scream.
Minutes passed in silence.
Ashra didn't speak, merely watched. A flicker of light burned at her wingtips, dancing like starlight across the ruined shrine. Her presence filled the space not overwhelming, but immense, like fire made flesh.
Then she asked something unexpected.
"Do you hate them?"
Caelum looked up.
"The ones who named you hollow. Who spat on your silence. Who stood upon stages and watched you burn from within."
He swallowed. Images rose Lady Lyana's smirk, the nobles' laughter, the Sanctum's dismissal.
"Yes," he whispered. "I hate them."
Ashra's gaze did not shift.
>"Good. Hate is fire. But remember hate alone does not forge strength. Only purpose does."
Suddenly, the air shifted.
A pulse of energy echoed outside the shrine. Distant footsteps. Voices.
Caelum moved to the doorway, peering beyond the crumbled stone. In the distance, a group of armored riders approached robed in Sanctum blue, their insignias marked with golden flames. He counted four, maybe five.
"They followed me…"
"No." Ashra's voice sharpened. "They followed the bond. They've been watching the Hollows for years, hoping one of us would awaken. They will not let you live."
Fear sparked in Caelum's chest but so did something else.
Not panic.
Not desperation.
Resolve.
He stepped outside. The wind was colder now, carrying ash and whisper. The soldiers spotted him and halted their advance, blades drawn. One of them a woman with silver-threaded hair stepped forward, voice stern.
"Caelum Vire, by order of the Sanctum Council, you are to be detained for unauthorized awakening of a forbidden spirit. Submit peacefully and we will not harm you."
Caelum said nothing.
"Don't be foolish," she continued. "That creature whatever it is has no place in our world. We're here to protect you from it."
A pause.
Ashra's voice echoed again, only to him this time:
"Do not hide me. Let them see."
Caelum nodded once.
Behind him, the sky split with a cry of flame.
Ashra rose into the air, her wings spreading across the heavens like twin burning banners. The soldiers flinched, one stumbling backward as the ground beneath them quaked.
Their leader hissed. "He's already bonded?! That's impossible!"
Caelum stepped forward, standing beneath Ashra's radiant form.
"I didn't choose your laws," he said, voice louder now. "And I don't need your permission to exist."
"Restrain him!" she barked.
The first soldier charged.
Caelum didn't move.
Ashra descended like a meteor, fire screaming from her body. The ground exploded, hurling the attacker backward with a single flap of her wings.
Another came from the right this one wielding a beast-glove etched with glyphs. Caelum ducked instinctively, but before the attacker struck, Ashra let out a roar that cracked the very air.
The beast-glove disintegrated in the soldier's hands.
The leader stared, pale. "That's not a bonded creature… that's a Sovereign Beast…"
Ashra landed beside Caelum, her eyes glowing brighter than the sun. Flames coiled around them both, not burning but defying.
Caelum looked at the surviving soldiers, trembling now. He stepped forward again, slow, deliberate.
"This is your only warning. Tell the Sanctum I'm not theirs to control."
The soldiers retreated.
They didn't even look back.
Caelum stood in silence until their silhouettes vanished over the ridge. Only then did he let himself breathe.
Ashra lowered her wings, and the fire dimmed.
He turned to her, exhausted. "That wasn't… normal. That kind of power…"
"It was but a flicker." She smiled not with her mouth, but with her presence. "You've yet to even touch what we can become."
Caelum exhaled, eyes still locked on the horizon.
So this was it.
He wasn't a Hollow Binder anymore.
He was something the world had forgotten how to fear.
End of Chapter 2