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Chapter 46 – The Primordial Forge
> [Location Updated: Deep Null – Forge of First Flame]
[Environmental Warning: Thermal Reality Density Exceeds System Thresholds]
[Trait 'Liberator's Mercy' – Passive Effect Enabled: Cognitive Integrity Stabilized Under Temporal Decay]
The wind screamed as Erevan descended.
But it wasn't wind.
It was screams of time—a place where moments combusted before they could fully exist. The sky here was made of rusted stars, and the ground pulsed like a dying heart. This was Deep Null, a hidden sector between existence and deletion, buried beyond even the reach of the System.
The Primordial Forge—a mythical furnace that had once birthed the fires of divinity. A place Erevan had only heard whispers of in corrupted echoes of ancient code.
Now he stood before it.
Or rather, above it.
The land dropped off violently into a molten abyss where titanic gears ground together, each tooth larger than a mountain, powered by flame not of this world.
Erevan narrowed his eyes.
Something was waiting.
No.
Someone.
A figure rose from the forge like a god returning to life.
Ten feet tall. Muscles carved from obsidian. Hair aflame with white-hot cinders. No eyes—just burning slits in a face cracked by heat and war. He wielded a hammer the size of a house, carved with runes that hissed when Erevan looked at them.
The being grinned.
> "So. The Flame Thief comes home."
"I am Kharon, the Ashbound Warden. And I am your trial."
> [BOSS ENCOUNTER – KHARON, THE ASHBOUND WARDEN]
[Health: 4,500,000]
[Special Traits: Immune to Reality Cuts, Flame Resistance 100%, Temporal Lockfield]
[Objective: Prove Worth. Or Burn.]
Kharon swung his hammer in a lazy arc—and space collapsed.
Erevan was thrown backward by pure conceptual pressure, smashing through three layers of molten rock and embedding into a steel ridge.
He coughed blood.
Laughed.
"Good," he growled. "I was getting bored."
Round One.
Erevan blurred into motion, Spiralbreaker morphing into a jagged lance as he thrust upward. Sparks screamed against Kharon's hammer as the two collided mid-air.
Shockwaves rippled across Deep Null.
Kharon retaliated instantly, bringing the hammer down with impossible speed. Erevan pivoted, dodging to the side—and still caught the edge.
A crater a mile wide bloomed from the strike.
Chunks of Erevan's adaptive armor flew off in sizzling spirals.
> [Health -12,000]
[Trait Activated: Starborn Exoskin – Auto-Regen Initiated]
He didn't let up.
He reversed his momentum mid-air, using the shockwave as propulsion. Spiralbreaker split into twin blades, humming with stored soulstrike energy.
One blade went for the neck.
The other—the soul.
Kharon grunted as the second slash pierced through his essence.
> [Soulstrike Critical – 14,980 True Damage]
[Effect: Temporal Lockfield Disrupted for 5 Seconds]
Erevan pressed the advantage.
He roared, triggering Rage Algorithm: Tyrant Echo, his aura exploding outward. The forge responded—flames curving toward him, recognizing their old master.
Even Kharon hesitated.
"You bear the breath of the First Ember... How?!"
Erevan's voice was low, cold.
"I lit it. I lost it. Now I'll take it back."
> [New Trait Activated – Embers of Origin]
[Effect: All Fire-Based Damage Increased by 230% | Grants Flame Immunity | Restores 0.5% Health per Burn Stack Applied]
His entire body ignited—not with heat, but with purpose. Black and gold fire curled around him in living strands, forming a spectral phoenix behind his shoulders.
Final Phase.
Kharon howled and triggered his ultimate ability—Ashen Judgment.
The world froze.
Thousands of molten meteors formed in the sky, each inscribed with runes of extinction. They fell in perfect silence.
Erevan didn't dodge.
He walked through them.
Each meteor that hit him exploded into light—and vanished.
The Phoenix behind him screeched and absorbed every flame.
> [Embers of Origin – Consumed 47 Flame Events]
[Overdrive Triggered – Flame Tyrant Form Unlocked (Duration: 2 Minutes)]
Erevan became something else.
His body turned to magma-lined obsidian.
His voice echoed like firestorm.
He surged forward and rammed Spiralbreaker into Kharon's chest with the force of a collapsing sun.
The Warden screamed—
And knelt.
> [BOSS DEFEATED – KHARON, THE ASHBOUND WARDEN]
[Forge Core Claimed: Primordial Ember]
[Reward: Title – Tyrant of Flame | Soul Memory Restored +4%]
[New Passive Unlocked: Sovereign of Fire]
[System Message: You now command the First Flame.]
As Kharon faded, he spoke one last time.
"You are not the Tyrant they feared. You are worse. May the False Sun tremble when it sees what it has awakened."
Erevan turned to the forge.
And stepped in.
The flames did not burn him.
They remembered him.
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