The moment she stepped through the blazing gate,
the world shattered like collapsing stars. Noona heard voices crying, screaming, and the haunting song of fire weaving itself into chains. She tried to move forward, but her legs grew unbearably heavy—bound by the weight of the past.
"Heir… erased from the bloodline…" a voice echoed, thunderous and eternal.
The flames around her darkened, then burst into a torrent of copper light, crashing into her body.
Noona staggered backward, gasping for breath, before collapsing onto the ground.
Blood—copper-red, shimmering like molten metal—spilled from her lips, as though her body could not bear the awakening power.
She vomited, the liquid gleaming in unnatural light, each drop burning into the earth as a mark of the Phoenix bloodline.
Irin rushed forward, catching her trembling form, his eyes wide with terror.
"Noona! …What does this mean?!"
But before her consciousness slipped away, a prophecy resurfaced in her mind—
the voice of Ebika, Linxian's dearest friend, who had once visited years ago:
"Calamity will strike the three races—human, beast, and spirit…
The heir of the Phoenix will rise to protect them, but his fate will demand the greatest price.
The body will remain, yet the soul shall vanish… He will become the guiding flame, but never return as himself again."
The final drop of copper blood fell,
and Noona lay unconscious in Irin's arms—
while beyond the blazing gate, the screams of the past still echoed without end…