Chapter 9: "The Voice Beneath the Flame"
Smoke drifted through the garden as the white fire receded. The assassin lay unconscious, scorched and twitching, cloak half-melted into the stone. Yui stood in the center of the ruined courtyard, chest heaving, eyes unfocused. The heat had vanished—but the voice hadn't.
It lingered.
"You heard me. Say it, and I'll give you more."
Yui staggered backward, clutching his temples. The flame had retreated beneath his skin, but it still pulsed—alive, aware.
"No," he whispered. "I don't need you."
The voice was quiet now, but not gone. Just waiting.
---
Lucen found him an hour later, leaning against a shattered pillar, arms scraped and bloodied.
"You held back," Lucen said without greeting.
"I didn't mean to let it out," Yui muttered.
Lucen crouched beside the unconscious assassin. "He's a Rank 1 from the Shadow Track. Skilled. Precise. He wasn't here to test you—he was here to eliminate you."
Yui stared at the blackened blade, now cracked in half.
"Why?"
Lucen's expression darkened. "Because someone knows what's inside you—and they're afraid of it."
---
The next day, the entire academy buzzed with rumors.
The garden attack had been silenced by officials, but whispers spread. Some said a demon had possessed Yui. Others claimed he'd summoned forbidden flame spirits. A few even believed he had made a pact with death itself.
Yui didn't answer any of it. He went to class. He trained with Lucen. He walked the halls with his hood pulled low.
And each night, when he closed his eyes, the voice returned.
"You're wasting us. We could be so much more."
"I'm not yours," Yui would say.
"Yet you used me. You always do."
He stopped sleeping. Shadows grew under his eyes. His white flame flickered even when he was still.
---
One afternoon, Aera Voss cornered him outside the combat gym. Her silver hair shimmered like ice in the sun.
"You're slipping," she said bluntly.
Yui didn't answer.
"You let something out during our fight with the beast," she continued. "And now it's trying to get back in."
He looked at her. "You felt it?"
"I see it," Aera said. "It's eating you."
He turned to leave, but she stepped in front of him.
"You don't have to win by yourself."
Yui flinched. Her words struck deeper than any spell.
"I do," he said.
She stared at him, then stepped aside.
---
That night, Yui stood in the empty training arena alone. The flame was awake now, full and bright. It coiled around his fingers like a serpent.
The voice was louder than ever.
"Let go, Yui. Stop pretending you're in control. You're not."
The ground beneath him cracked. The flame surged, higher than it ever had before.
He dropped to one knee.
Then—something unexpected happened.
From the far end of the room, a second pulse flared to life.
A mirror flame—deep black with veins of silver.
Yui looked up, eyes wide.
A figure stepped from the shadows. Cloaked. Familiar. Watching.
"You're not the only one who made a pact," the figure said quietly.
Yui rose slowly. The flame dimmed around him.
"Who are you?" he asked.
The figure smiled beneath the hood.
"Someone who made the same mistake you're about to."
END OF CHAPTER 9