The night was too quiet.
The Seoul sky hung heavy outside the hospital window, grey, as if waiting for a storm.
Inside room 407, only the steady beat of the heart monitor could be heard.
Beep... beep... beep...
Lee Hyun lay motionless. But behind his closed eyelids, another world was opening up.
He stood in the middle of a blazing desert—the sky red, the ground cracked like hot glass.
There, he saw his former self, Ling Xuan, the eternal fire sovereign. His old body was bloody, burning, yet still standing tall, staring at something in front of him.
"You... betrayed me..."
Ling Xuan's voice was faint but shaking.
Before him stood Yue Ruo, the gentle-faced woman he once loved—now gazing at him with tear-filled eyes.
"I'm sorry, Xuan..."
"Don't call me that!"
Lee Hyun's voice echoed simultaneously with Ling Xuan's. Two timelines colliding in the same memory.
Yue Ruo hurled a glowing red stone—the Heartflame Core, his very life essence—towards a chasm behind them.
The eternal fire they once shared, she was now destroying herself.
"Why..." Lee Hyun whispered softly. "Why did you destroy everything?"
The woman wept.
"Because only by destroying you... can this world survive."
The fire ignited. The world burned.
And his scream was drowned out by the explosion of light that swallowed everything.
Lee Hyun woke up, gasping for breath. Cold sweat dripped from his temples.
The sky was dark, but his heart pounded like a war drum.
"That dream again..."
He stared at his hand. His fingertips trembled, and a faint orange glow emerged from beneath his skin—it was not an illusion.
It was real.
The old energy, the eternal flame that once annihilated continents, now pulsed within the body of an ordinary man.
He clenched his hand tightly, holding back the sudden tears that came without reason.
"You're still alive here, Xuan..."
"But for what purpose?"
The door creaked open.
Yuna entered, carrying a glass of water and a snack.
"Still awake?" she asked softly.
She looked at Lee Hyun's face, then placed the glass on the table. "You look... very tired."
Hyun looked at the girl. There was something in her face—subtle, but resembling... Yue Ruo.
A warm smile, calm eyes, and a tone full of empathy.
He closed his eyes briefly. "I just... had a bad dream."
Yuna sat on the chair near the bed.
"If you want to talk, I'm here. Sometimes... nightmares feel lighter when they're shared."
Her tone was simple, but sincere.
For Lee Hyun, those words felt like a small light piercing the fog of the past.
"If I told you... I dreamed of losing everything, would you believe me?"
Yuna paused.
She smiled faintly. "Everyone has lost something. I believe... you're still trying to stand up, aren't you?"
Silence.
Then Lee Hyun let out a small laugh—faint, bitter. "Maybe so."
The night deepened.
When Yuna finally fell asleep in the chair, Lee Hyun sat cross-legged on the bed, staring at his fingers that still glowed faintly.
"If I can't forget the past... maybe I have to conquer it."
He took a long breath, and in his consciousness, he called forth something long lost.
A circle of golden light appeared on his chest—a flame that rotated slowly, as if breathing with him.
But this human body was too fragile.
Blood trickled from his nose. His breath hitched.
Every pulse of energy felt like embers burning the veins beneath his skin.
"Damn it... if I fail, I die here too."
But he did not stop the process. He continued to endure the pain, channeling the fire energy into every part of his body.
On the monitor screen, his heart rate spiked—beep-beep-beep!
Then—
CRACK!
The lights in the room burst.
Lee Hyun's body levitated a few centimeters from the bed, enveloped in a golden light that danced like fire.
When Lee Hyun opened his eyes again, the world felt different.
He could hear the clock ticking on the wall, Yuna's breathing, even the sound of a nurse's footsteps in the hallway.
Every sound... felt alive.
Every pulse of the world... felt like a part of him.
He looked towards the small mirror beside the bed.
The gaze behind those eyes no longer belonged to an ordinary man.
"Finally... I have awakened."
But at the same time—another voice sounded from within him.
"You should not have awakened, Xuan."
Lee Hyun was stunned.
The voice... soft, yet piercing. He recognized it instantly.
"Yue Ruo...?"
"If the flame ignites again, this world will burn as it did before."
Lee Hyun held his breath.
The voice did not come from outside—but from within the newly activated core. As if Yue Ruo's soul lingered there.
"You destroyed everything to save the world. But which world? This world... no longer belongs to us."
"Then extinguish your flame, before your flame devours you."
The voice vanished.
Lee Hyun was silent for a long time, then lowered his head.
His tears fell, silently, hitting the warmth of his hand.
"I have died once for love..."
"Do you want me to die again for the same sin?"
Yuna woke up to a strange noise.
Golden light was pulsating around Lee Hyun.
She rushed closer. "Hyun! What's happening?!"
The man was panting, staring at her with eyes that now glowed red-orange.
"Don't come closer!" he cried. "This energy—!"
Too late.
Yuna touched his shoulder.
And the moment their skin met, the spiritual fire surged out like an explosion of light.
WUUUSSHH!
The hospital alarm blared. The curtains caught fire, but without smoke—only light.
In an instant, the room transformed into a small battlefield.
Lee Hyun embraced Yuna, trying to contain the energy surging out of his body.
"Hold on... don't let go of me!"
He channeled part of his fire outward, forcing the energy to subside.
But the glow in his eyes changed—as if something inside him was screaming.
A black figure appeared from the shadows of the room—a faceless entity, composed of black smoke and spiritual energy.
"What... is that?" Yuna screamed.
Lee Hyun stared at the creature with blazing anger.
"It's not a dream. They've come."
The creature emitted a terrifying sound, like the whisper of a thousand souls.
The walls cracked, the air grew heavy. Yuna nearly fainted from the energy pressure.
Lee Hyun held her tight, looking at the creature with a raging fire.
"If this is the first test in the new world... then behold, the eternal flame has not been extinguished!"
He raised his right hand.
From his chest, a golden light erupted towards the ceiling, forming a swirling lotus of fire.
BOOM!
A heat wave swept the room, swallowing the creature in silent flames.
When everything subsided, only black dust remained.
Yuna lay weakly in his arms, her eyes half-open.
"Hyun... are you... human?"
Lee Hyun looked at her face for a long time.
The answer was simple, but painful.
"I used to be human... but now I'm not so sure anymore."
Morning arrived.
The fire had subsided, but the smell of scorching remained.
Yuna was asleep in the chair, exhausted.
Lee Hyun stood by the window, watching the first sunlight penetrate the glass.
"I have lost love, the past, and a name."
"But if this fire is still alive, then I will seek the truth—even if this world burns again."
And from afar—atop a glass building, someone watched him through binoculars.
"Target Alpha... has awakened the core flame."
"Command?"
"Do not kill. Observe. This world may need him—or it will die because of him."