The heir tilted its head. “Curious. Flame resists flame. You are stronger than the others. Good. We will enjoy breaking you.”Its other hand shot forward, plunging through Ethan’s sternum. Ethan screamed as fire licked his veins, his body becoming glass about to shatter.The remnant’s voice flickered at the edges, faint and desperate. “Ethan don’t let it rewrite you fight.”The heir snarled, golden light devouring the silver remnant in an instant. “Silence, ghost. You are ash.”Ethan coughed blood, eyes wide. His skin cracked with light, as if his bones glowed through his flesh. “stop.”The heir bent lower, its molten face inches from his. “No. Begin.”Images poured into his skull cities burning, oceans boiling, Victor’s fists breaking against flame, Miriam crushed under molten claws, Julian’s laughter cut short by a molten blade, the hybrid screaming as golden fire consumed him.“NO!” Ethan roared, thrashing. His body flared with white heat, shoving the heir’s hand back a fraction. “

The ground buckled as the second golden hand burst from the fissure, scattering molten stone in every direction.Victor leapt back, his boots skidding across ash and fractured rock. The heat singed his skin, but he didn’t move his eyes from those hands that looked human. Hands that looked like Ethan’s.Miriam stumbled closer, broken shard pressed to her chest. Tears streaked her soot-stained cheeks. “It’s him it has to be him.”Julian barked a laugh, coughing blood into his palm. “Yes, darling, it looks like him. But so does a puppet when the strings are pulled just right.”he hybrid was on the ground, shaking, muttering to himself. “Too late, too late, too late…”. Then the fissure widened. From the molten glow, a head emerged.Not fully heir, not fully human. Ethan’s face ashen skin, eyes glowing white-hot, lips cracked like cooling stone. His hair burned at the edges, strands dissolving into ash.He dragged himself higher, body convulsing, voice torn between a scream and a growl. “V

“Victor ,it’s me I’m still here!”. Victor staggered forward, blood pouring from his mouth, fists blazing. “Then fight with me! Don’t let them take you!”The heir’s molten face split wider, golden jaws opening to swallow them both. Victor planted his feet, fists raised, eyes blazing. “Come on, then! Let’s see if the legion can break a fist that’s never lost!”The void screamed. Ethan screamed. The heirs screamed. And as Victor hurled himself forward, he saw it Ethan’s white light flaring from within, struggling against the gold.Not gone. Not yet. The void was fire. Claws, jaws, golden cracks spreading like veins of lightning. Screams piled over each other until sound itself broke.Victor’s fists blazed white, every strike detonating with sparks that shattered hands before they could close around him. But there were too many.He staggered back-to-back with Ethan. Ethan’s body flickered between white fire and molten gold, his veins splitting the difference. His face twisted with pain, b

Julian shook his head, backing away. His voice was hoarse. “That’s not him. That’s not Victor. That’s.”“Don’t.” Miriam’s voice cracked like glass. “Don’t say it. You don’t know.”The factions stirred. A commander of the Steel Guard barked to his troops: “Weapons up!” Shields snapped into place, rifles charged.Across the plaza, zealots in crimson robes dropped to their knees, raising their hands in frenzied worship. “The Flame made flesh! The union of light and gold!”The figure stopped in the center of the plaza. His chest heaved once, twice. His shadow stretched unnaturally long, splitting into claws against the stone.Miriam broke free from Julian’s grip. She stumbled forward. “Ethan it’s me! It’s Miriam! Please, tell me it’s you!”Julian lunged to grab her but froze when the figure’s gaze cut toward him. The golden eye burned with alien hunger. The white one flickered with human pain.For a moment, both stared at Miriam. The air trembled with the weight of it. And then the voices

The fissure still pulsed in the sky, wide as a wound, dripping light. Every few seconds a ripple of heat tore through the capital; glass warped, banners burned to ash.Miriam stood on what had been the plaza’s center. The stones under her feet were still hot.Julian crouched beside the remnants of his data case, the screens flickering with unreadable symbols. His voice came out in fragments.“They’re merging frequencies… the Key-space is leaking. That thing whoever it is doesn’t just exist here. It’s echoing through everywhere.”Miriam barely heard him. Her eyes stayed fixed on the hybrid.He it stood motionless amid the smoke, head tilted, gaze blank. The white eye flared once, soft as a heartbeat. The gold one never stopped burning.People had begun to move again: soldiers forming a perimeter, zealots chanting, civilians running. Every faction wanted to claim the moment, but none dared get too close.Julian whispered, “If we don’t contain it, the heirs’ signal keeps spreading. The w