The snowstorm howled across the highlands of the Northern Frost Wastes, a desolate realm few dared tread. Towering cliffs clawed at the sky, while glaciers moved like slow, ancient titans beneath the surface. To most, this land was death—a white silence that swallowed the unworthy whole.
But for Jinhyuk, this place felt… quiet. Pure.
Three weeks had passed since the events in the desert shrine. The Phoenix Flame now pulsed steadily within him, subdued yet ever-present, like a second heartbeat. It brought clarity, power—and weight. A responsibility that grew heavier with each passing day.
Yeonhwa adjusted her fur-lined cloak beside him, squinting into the windswept distance. "You're sure this is where the next trail leads?"
Jinhyuk nodded. "The fragment's resonance shifted. It's leading us here now. North."
Behind them, Baek Sohyun shivered, teeth chattering. "We traded burning sand for freezing death. Wonderful."
They stood before a massive chasm, known only in forbidden scrolls as "The Maw of Silent Echoes." According to legend, deep beneath its frozen core lay a long-buried sect—once part of the Celestial Order, now consumed by their own cursed ambition.
It was rumored that the Crimson Moon Lotus, a mythical herb that only bloomed under ice and blood, had taken root in that place. But even more dangerous was the Third Celestial Fragment, said to be hidden within.
Jinhyuk's eyes narrowed as he examined the jagged cliffside. Ancient glyphs, half-buried in snow, shimmered faintly under his breath. "It's warded. They didn't just seal this place—they buried it from memory."
Yeonhwa raised an eyebrow. "So we're breaking into a forgotten hellscape?"
Baek muttered, "At this point, I miss the sandworms."
Jinhyuk smirked and knelt, placing his palm over the sigils. His flame responded, melting through the snow and awakening the seal. Ice cracked, thunderous and deep, as the ground trembled.
From the rift came a breath—a gust of frozen air not belonging to the surface.
The entrance had opened.
---
They descended into the abyss.
Walls of black ice reflected ghostly silhouettes with each torchlit step. Whispers followed them, not from any source, but etched into the very stones—fragments of forgotten incantations, curses cast in desperation.
As they moved deeper, the air grew denser, the cold more biting. Jinhyuk's breath fogged in front of him, even as Phoenix Flame warmed his core.
"This place is wrong," Yeonhwa murmured. "The energy here… it's fractured. Like someone tried to twist nature itself."
Baek scowled, drawing her blade. "Then let's not wait to be twisted too."
Suddenly, the corridor widened into a vast cavern, where the remnants of a ruined temple stood. Obsidian pillars reached for the frozen ceiling, shattered banners bearing the Mark of the Thousand-Eyed Sect fluttered weakly in some unnatural breeze.
Jinhyuk froze.
He remembered this mark.
Not from this life—but the one before.
In his past incarnation, he had crossed blades with one of their assassins… and nearly died. He hadn't known then who they truly served.
Now, it all clicked into place.
"The Thousand-Eyed Sect," he whispered. "They weren't wiped out. They hid. And this… was their cradle."
Yeonhwa stepped beside him. "Then the Crimson Moon Lotus is real?"
"Yes," he said. "But it won't be unguarded."
As if answering his words, a low growl echoed through the cavern. Ice fractured, and from beneath the temple floor emerged a beast unlike any they had seen—a Frost-Wraith Hound, larger than a horse, its fur bristling with spikes of ice, eyes gleaming like dead stars.
Three more slithered from the shadows.
Baek Sohyun didn't wait for orders.
With a cry, she launched forward, blade dancing with frostfire as it clashed with the nearest hound. Jinhyuk surged into motion, his palm igniting as he slammed into another beast, searing flesh with phoenix fire.
Yeonhwa drew twin blades, stepping into the blur of combat, her every strike precise, clean, deadly.
---
Minutes felt like hours.
The hounds moved like blurs, coordinated, unnatural. One lunged at Jinhyuk's side, nearly piercing his shoulder before a sudden burst of flame repelled it.
He spun, chanting the first lines of the Heavenly Rebirth Flame Scripture, his aura expanding outward like wings. The cavern lit in orange and gold, and the temperature rose sharply.
The hounds faltered—then turned to flee.
But not before one whispered.
Yes, whispered.
"He… is awake."
Then they burst into shards of ice and shadow.
Jinhyuk stood still.
That voice… it wasn't one of the hounds. It was something else. Something watching.
From deeper within the ruins, an ancient bell tolled once. Faint. Hollow.
And from the shadows of the collapsed altar, a figure emerged.
Hooded. Eyes gleaming red.
"You've come far, Phoenix-bearer," it rasped. "But this is not your trial."
Jinhyuk stepped forward, fire spiraling around his wrist. "Then whose is it?"
The figure's lips curved into a thin smile.
"Your rival's."
The figure stepped forward, his robe trailing threads of darkness that curled like smoke across the icy floor. Despite the chill, a strange pressure filled the cavern—an oppressive stillness that sank into the bones.
Jinhyuk's flame flared instinctively, licking the edges of his coat. "Who are you?" he asked, eyes narrowed. "One of the Thousand-Eyed Sect?"
The man didn't answer right away. Instead, he pulled back his hood slowly, revealing a face as pale as bone. His irises were completely black, broken only by a single, vertical slit—a serpent's pupil.
"No," he said finally, voice echoing in impossible directions. "The Thousand-Eyed were but the outer shell. I am what they hid."
Yeonhwa raised both her swords. "Then you're what we're here to destroy."
The figure chuckled. "Still so quick to judge. You have no idea, girl, what game you've stepped into."
Jinhyuk took a slow step forward, gaze locked on the figure's face. "You said this wasn't my trial. What does that mean?"
The figure pointed a skeletal finger deeper into the temple, toward a wall draped in blood-colored vines and half-formed roots of the Crimson Moon Lotus. "Your rival walks the other path. A darker one. One I have prepared."
"Rival?" Baek Sohyun asked, stepping beside Jinhyuk.
"Yes. The one who mirrors the Phoenix Flame with his own inherited spark," the figure said. "Born from the same ancient cycle. The same forgotten prophecy. You call him Lee Seong."
Jinhyuk stiffened.
Lee Seong.
He hadn't seen him since the duel near the Stormcaller's Plateau. Back then, Seong had been arrogant, powerful—but still grasping for meaning. Something had changed since then. Deepened. Darkened.
"He's here?" Jinhyuk asked.
"Oh, yes," the figure whispered. "And he walks ahead of you."
---
Deeper inside the ruins, Jinhyuk and the others traversed a labyrinth of frost-covered tombs. Strange statues lined the path—human forms contorted in agony, hands stretched toward the ceiling as if begging the heavens for mercy.
A haunting melody echoed from somewhere ahead. Not quite a song, not quite a whisper. A memory.
They reached a narrow bridge of black ice suspended above a chasm of swirling mists. Below, shadows moved with purpose, whispering secrets in languages no longer spoken.
At the center of the bridge stood an altar.
And bound to that altar in roots of frozen crimson—
—was Lee Seong.
His body was suspended above the ice, arms chained by celestial vines, his head bowed, blood dripping slowly from his lips into a swirling bowl beneath him.
Yeonhwa gasped.
"He's alive," Baek said. "Barely."
But it was Jinhyuk who stepped forward, sensing something deeper. A resonance. Lee Seong's aura was twisted, bleeding out like ink in water—but burning with the same divine intensity as his own.
"He's been offered," Jinhyuk whispered.
The figure appeared beside the altar without sound. "Correct. He walks the path of the Moonfire—opposite to your Sunfire. He needed pain to awaken. Betrayal. Suffering. It is the only way the Lotus will bloom."
"You forced him into this," Jinhyuk growled, fist clenching.
"No," the figure replied calmly. "He chose it. The truth lies in the roots."
The vines writhed as if alive, and the bowl beneath Lee Seong erupted in red light. A massive bloom of the Crimson Moon Lotus unfurled in a flash of scarlet petals, releasing a pollen so dense it shimmered in the air like blood-soaked snow.
The effect was immediate.
Lee Seong's eyes snapped open.
But they were not the same.
Gone was the confidence, the pride.
What stared back was pure fury. Pure power. A gaze that burned not just with ambition—but with a soul scorched clean.
He broke the chains with a roar that shattered the bridge.
---
The cavern collapsed into chaos.
Chunks of ice and rock rained from above as Jinhyuk lunged forward, grabbing Yeonhwa and Baek, dragging them back as the chasm widened. Lee Seong rose amidst the destruction, his aura exploding outward in waves of red flame.
"Seong!" Jinhyuk called, voice echoing.
Lee Seong turned toward him slowly, crimson fire swirling behind him like wings.
"You…" he said, voice cracked and ancient. "You came too late."
The figure reappeared beside Seong, placing a hand over his shoulder. "He chose the Moon Lotus, Jinhyuk. You chose the Phoenix Flame. Now the cycle continues."
Jinhyuk's fists clenched.
He could feel the pull now—opposing forces awakening, like magnets locked in cosmic tension.
It wasn't just a rivalry anymore.
It was destiny.
Seong floated upward, rising with the now-glowing petals of the Crimson Moon Lotus. "We'll meet again, brother," he said softly. "When the flowers bloom in blood."
Then he vanished in a spiral of red light.
The ruins collapsed completely.
And Jinhyuk fell into the chasm, swallowed by mist and memory.
---
He awoke hours later in a snow-covered clearing outside the ruins.
Yeonhwa and Baek were already awake, their injuries minor.
No sign of Seong.
No sign of the Lotus.
Only a single petal, red as blood, resting in Jinhyuk's palm.
He closed his fist around it.
"He's stronger now," Yeonhwa said quietly.
"He's not the only one," Jinhyuk replied.
From here on out, it wasn't just about relics or fragments.
It was about balance.
And the war between sun and moon had only just begun.