"The only thing more dangerous than an unseen enemy… is a trusted ally with a hidden blade."
The moon bled red over the academy.
Fog coiled across the ground like slithering serpents, choking the breath from the air itself. Somewhere beneath the surface—deep under the Academy's eastern mountain—an ancient structure pulsed with corrupted qi.
It was known only in forgotten tomes as the Crimson Maw.
A buried ruin from an era before the eight kingdoms.
A place even the elders feared to mention.
And tonight, the Shadow Flame Division would enter it.
Mission Briefing – Shadow Flame Division
A circular room beneath the library, sealed with Asura's flame qi.
The core members—Lira, Kai, Yue Lin, and Xian—sat around an obsidian table carved with runes from multiple kingdoms. The air was tense, and everyone could feel it—this wasn't just a mission. It was a plunge into something ancient and wrong.
Asura stood at the head of the table, his arms crossed, eyes gleaming with restrained fury.
"The Crimson Maw has awakened. Its qi is leaking. But the academy isn't sending any official team. That's our job now."
Lira frowned. "Why is no one else acting on it?"
Asura's jaw clenched. "Because they know. And they're afraid."
Xian leaned forward. His voice was quiet. "You think the Demonfang cult is involved?"
"I don't think," Asura replied coldly. "I know. Rei's memories showed me the ritual spot. The Crimson Maw is their staging ground. If we don't strike now, they'll begin the soul-harvesting rituals. And once they start… it won't stop."
Kai cracked his knuckles. "Then we burn it down."
Yue Lin remained silent—but her fingers trembled. Her celestial qi shimmered faintly, reacting to something only she could feel.
Asura noticed.
"Yue. What is it?"
She hesitated, then finally whispered, "The Maw… I've seen it before. In my dreams. A gate covered in chains. And a voice that said—'You carry part of me, girl. Return, and become whole.'"
Everyone went silent.
Asura's expression hardened.
"We're going. Now."
Descent Into the Forgotten
The entrance to the Crimson Maw was hidden beneath the Ancient Training Grounds, buried under centuries of earth and sealed by celestial scripts. Asura broke the seal by fusing flame and demonic qi—a feat no one else could manage.
The air beneath was thick, rotten with spiritual decay.
As they walked deeper into the tunnel, the walls began to move—flesh-like. Veins pulsated across the stone. Whispers drifted in the air, too faint to understand, too loud to ignore.
"Asura… come closer… flame and void… you are not him, yet you are…"
Lira's grip on her blade tightened. "I don't like this. Something's watching us."
"Not something," Xian said, disappearing into the shadows. "Everything."
They reached the first chamber.
It was filled with statues made of blood and bone, shaped like kneeling humans with hollow faces—some still bleeding. At the center was an altar with a single black lotus hovering in midair, dripping crimson dew.
"This is a harvesting node," Yue Lin whispered, voice tight with fear. "They're preparing to extract essence from students… while they sleep. They'll die over weeks, never knowing why."
Kai's face darkened. "Then let's destroy it."
But just as he stepped forward—
BOOM.
The chamber walls ruptured, and monstrous figures poured out—Blood Wraiths, corrupted specters once human, now enslaved to the cult's will. They screamed as they charged.
Asura stepped forward.
"Heaven's End: Blade of the Eternal Horizon."
He drew his sword, and the world slowed. Each swing shattered specters, cutting not just their forms but their very existence—erasing them from reality.
Lira covered his flank, her blade dancing like a hurricane.
Kai held the entrance, fists glowing like molten ore, every punch causing tremors.
Xian moved through shadows, severing wraiths with ghostly precision.
Yue Lin chanted a forbidden celestial incantation—light poured from her palms, burning corrupted qi from the air.
After minutes of relentless battle, the last wraith dissolved into nothingness.
Silence.
They'd won.
But just as Asura was about to destroy the black lotus—
"Stop."
The voice echoed across the chamber.
A shadow stepped forward from behind the altar.
It was a boy. No older than sixteen. Jet-black robes. Golden pupils. A crown of bone floated above his head.
Lira gasped. "That's… Prince Zahak. From the Celestial Kingdom."
Asura narrowed his eyes. "You're supposed to be in seclusion."
Zahak smiled. But it wasn't a smile of kindness—it was the grin of a predator that had finally found prey.
"Seclusion? No. I was being prepared. Unlike you, Asura, I embraced the darkness. The Abyss doesn't corrupt us. It frees us."
Betrayal and Revelation
Suddenly, Yue Lin screamed and collapsed to her knees. Her eyes glowed blue and black. A symbol appeared on her back—a sigil in the shape of Vraxxion's eye.
Lira shouted, "Yue! What's happening?!"
Zahak laughed.
"You think you were chosen by the gods? You were born of the Abyss, girl. Your mother wasn't celestial. She was one of us."
Asura moved fast. He shattered the altar with a strike from Heaven's End, breaking the sigil's control over Yue.
But the damage was done.
Yue Lin lay unconscious, her body torn between two bloodlines.
And Zahak…
…was already fading into a portal of darkness.
"This was only the beginning, Asura. The next time we meet… you won't just be fighting the cult. You'll be fighting your own destiny."
Final Scene – A New Name
Back at the division's base, Asura laid Yue in the healing chamber.
Everyone else was silent.
Xian looked at him. "What now?"
Asura didn't speak for a while.
Then finally…
"We need a new path. A way to uncover the sleepers hidden within the academy, and a way to track the Abyssal Qi across the kingdoms."
He stood tall, his aura flaring silently.
"I'm going to meet the Sealed Flame Oracle. She's the only one who's fought Vraxxion… and survived."
Lira stepped forward. "She's in exile."
"I know," Asura replied, a small smile playing on his lips. "But she's also… my grandmother."
Everyone turned to him in shock.
End of Chapter 93