The sky was on fire. Not the scattered glow of burning rooftops or the desperate flicker of torchlight, but a living blaze that swallowed the heavens whole.The Doppelgänger, now a colossal infernal titan, towered above the Goodman manor. His molten limbs stretched wide, dripping rivers of fire that scorched streets, melted stone, and sent entire neighborhoods crumbling into ash. The city screamed beneath him.And on the fractured courtyard stone, Jeffrey Goodman stood alone, fire wreathing his shoulders like a mantle, his broken blade glowing like the heart of a dying star. He tilted his head up, eyes burning gold. “Then let’s finish this.”The infernal giant moved first. Its arm swept down, a molten hammer meant to crush Jeffrey and the manor in one strike. The impact split the ground, sending shockwaves that toppled walls and threw men screaming into the air.But Jeffrey was already moving. He leapt skyward, fire propelling him like a comet, and met the giant’s strike head-on. His

The world was fire. Jeffrey’s lungs burned, his skin flayed by molten air. Darkness pressed in from all sides, pierced only by violent flashes of red and white.He tried to move. His body didn’t respond. Then, voices. Whispers, endless, writhing. They slithered through the inferno, caressing his skull like smoke.Child of flame. Son of ash. You are not broken. You are becoming. Jeffrey’s eyes snapped open. He wasn’t in the courtyard anymore. He wasn’t anywhere human.The ground beneath him was charred bone. The sky above was a ceiling of fire, cracking, bleeding light. Chains hung down from nothing, rattling with no wind, stretching into infinity.And between them, two shadows. The Doppelgänger. The Beast. Alive. Waiting. The Doppelgänger loomed, his molten form reduced but no less menacing, heat dripping from his limbs. His eyes burned, twin suns locked on Jeffrey.The Beast crouched opposite, its body darker than void, its eyes two smoldering embers. Chains slithered from its skin,

The world was gone. There was no sky, no ground, only chains. They swarmed like serpents in the dark, rattling with a sound that sank into bone.They dragged Jeffrey down through fire, through smoke, through the black pulse of the abyss until he no longer knew if he was falling or being devoured.His chest seared where the molten tears had burned him. His sword was gone, torn from his hands, his flames smothered by the coils around his arms.Every breath was ash, every heartbeat a hammer against the cage of chains. And then, sudden stillness.He hit ground that wasn’t ground at all but a shifting surface of steel links, stretching endlessly into black. The Crucible. “Here, the heir will be tested.”The Third Shadow’s voices rolled through the dark, three mouths speaking from nowhere and everywhere.Chains slithered, forming walls, a dome, a prison. Within it, shapes stirred. Figures. Shadows coalescing into forms Jeffrey knew too well. The first to step forward made his blood run cold

The night split open. Camilla staggered back as fire swallowed the skyline, a column of molten light roaring upward from the ruins below Goodman Tower.It wasn’t just destruction, it was proclamation. The city itself seemed to bow beneath the force of it. Windows shattered for miles. Car alarms wailed. Every living soul felt it in their bones.And then, through the smoke and fire, he rose. Jeffrey Goodman. But not the Jeffrey she remembered. His body was wreathed in fire that did not consume him but crowned him.His eyes glowed gold, so bright they were blinding, and strange sigils crawled across his skin like living scars. His every step melted stone; the ground trembled beneath his feet.Martin fell to his knees, choking on the smoke, whispering like a man in prayer. “It’s him. He survived. God help us… he survived.”Camilla clutched the balcony rail, her breath caught in her throat. Her heart screamed recognition, this was the man who had once held her, once bled for her, once whis