The platform exploded. One instant Jeffrey was clutching Camilla, the chain branding into his chest. The next, the molten rock beneath them shattered, flinging them into the air as the abyss itself reared to life.The shadow rising from the magma had no face, no body, only vast wings of fire and a crown of molten stone. It towered over the cavern, its roar making the rock walls quake as if the mountain itself would collapse.Jeffrey’s fire flared in instinctive response. For a breathless moment, abyss and heir glared at one another like two predators deciding which would devour the other first. And then, it struck.A hand of molten stone the size of a building shot upward, slamming across the cavern. Jeffrey barely had time to wrap Camilla in a cocoon of flames before the impact hit.The force hurled him across the abyss, smashing him into a jagged cliff wall. Rocks shattered, dust billowed, his bones screamed in protest. He tasted blood.But worse, the chain still burned against his

The roar shook the world. Jeffrey’s ears rang as if thunder had burst inside his skull. The molten throne blazed with a power that wasn’t just heat but dominion, the cavern trembling under its weight.And on that throne sat his reflection, his Doppelgänger, wearing Jeffrey’s face twisted into something crueler, prouder, absolute.The army of molten creatures knelt, bowing as though welcoming the only king they would ever recognize. For the first time since entering the abyss, Jeffrey’s fire guttered small. He had been rejected.“Do you see now?” the Doppelgänger’s voice rang out, warped with fire and authority. “This empire was never yours to reclaim. Above ground, you were disinherited. Below, you are unwanted. I am the Goodman heir the abyss accepts.”Its eyes glowed like suns, pinning Jeffrey in place. “You are nothing.”Camilla grabbed Jeffrey’s arm, hauling him upright though his body screamed with pain. Blood dripped down his chin, his skin burned raw where the fire had seared.

The sky was burning. The Goodman Capital had never seen fire like this, not in its wars, not in its riots, not in its darkest nights.Flames fell from the heavens like meteors, igniting rooftops, sending spires crashing into streets. The air boiled with heat, choking the screams of thousands.And at the heart of it all, suspended in the flames above the shattered skyline, floated him. Jeffrey Goodman, yet not Jeffrey.The Doppelgänger’s blazing form loomed over the city like a god of fire, eyes glowing pits of molten rage. His voice thundered across the trembling metropolis, every syllable carved in flame.“I AM THE HEIR! The firstborn of Goodman blood! You cast me aside, but I have risen in fire! You will kneel or burn.”Below, chaos swallowed order. Guards dropped their weapons and fled, merchants trampled their own customers, children screamed as mothers dragged them through falling ash.The proud Goodman banners that lined the grand avenue ignited, curling into blackened scraps.A

The world was fire. Jeffrey’s body hung limp in the Doppelgänger’s flaming grip, his veins scorching as if molten lead flowed through them. His skin blistered, his muscles convulsed, his lungs refused to draw breath.The crowd’s screams blurred into the roar of the inferno. Somewhere, faint but piercing, Camilla’s voice cried his name.The Doppelgänger raised him higher, the firestorm wreathing them both like a crown of damnation. “Behold!” he thundered to the city. “This is the fate of weakness. This is the end of false heirs!”And then, with terrifying finality, he began to close his burning fist. Pain ripped through Jeffrey’s consciousness, but in the darkness of near-death, something stirred.A voice, not his Doppelgänger’s, not his father’s, whispered like steel dragged across stone. Get up, Jeffrey.He remembered exile, the alleys soaked in blood, the throne of the underworld he carved with his own fists. He remembered the scars that no fire could erase. He remembered his father

The fire swallowed him whole. Jeffrey’s scream was drowned in the roar of molten flame. It seared his skin, clawed down his throat, boiled the blood in his veins.His body should have disintegrated instantly, reduced to ash, yet something deep within him refused. The beast’s voice thundered through the inferno. “Die, Goodman. Die as your father should have.”Jeffrey’s vision blurred. The broken blade slipped from his fingers. His knees buckled. And in that moment, between life and death, a shadow moved.It wasn’t the beast. It wasn’t the chained remnants. It was something else, darker, older, sharper than fire. A voice that coiled inside his skull.Stand, heir. This fire is not your enemy. It is your birthright. Jeffrey’s eyes snapped open, his pupils contracting to slits.The flames that should have consumed him bent, spiraled, and wrapped around him instead. They didn’t burn, they bled into him, stitching wounds closed, filling his lungs with power.The beast roared in fury. “Imposs