Ashen Ascension: The Divided Flame-Chapter 57: World Of Phelios

Ivor paused and turned to face Nara.

Nara was taller and broader, built like someone trained properly from childhood. Yet in that moment, standing there with red eyes and trembling hands, he seemed smaller. The cold steadiness in Ivor’s gaze made the difference clear.

"I have a way to help her," Nara said again, slower this time, forcing the words out as if holding himself together by will alone. "But I’ll need your help."

Ivor did not respond immediately. He studied him instead. He was not certain whether he truly wanted to help or whether he only wanted to hear the method and walk away.

"What help?" he asked at last.

"Come back here so we can talk." Nara swallowed once. "I believe you’re from the Shrouded District. You don’t understand how things work here."

Ivor’s eyes narrowed slightly. The statement surprised him. He had not said it aloud to anyone where he came from. The Shrouded District was not something people usually guessed correctly. It was something they assumed, or insulted.

Still, curiosity outweighed hesitation.

He stepped closer, sword still in his hand, and stopped near Luna’s body. He did not sheath the blade.

Nara lowered himself fully against the trunk, leaning his back on the rough bark. He looked up at Ivor, who remained standing over him.

"Are you not going to sit?" Nara asked quietly.

"No," Ivor replied, his tone flat and unyielding.

Nara let out a slow breath and began speaking, forcing his voice to steady.

"How much do you know about the Beast Kingdom?" he asked.

Ivor considered the question and realized the answer was simple. Nothing. His parents had never spoken about the beast domain, nor about beasts beyond what was necessary. He gave a small shake of his head.

Nara nodded, as if he had expected that.

"I thought so. Then I’ll start from the beginning. Our world—Phelios."

Ivor remembered the third book still inside his bag, the one he had not yet opened. It had been about the world itself. He had not had the chance to read it. For a brief moment he wondered how much of what Nara was about to say would have already been written there, waiting for him.

"You at least know about the Ancient Catastrophe, right?" Nara asked.

Ivor nodded this time. The catastrophe was the reason Scars existed. That much he knew.

"Before that event," Nara continued, "Phelios was ruled by two races divided into two empires. The Human Empire and the Beast Empire. Despite the division, many cities were mixed. Humans and beasts lived together. Trade, governance, even culture overlapped."

He paused briefly.

"The Human Emperor ruled his empire. The Beast Empire was ruled by the Beast Sovereign."

Ivor blinked.

The idea felt foreign. He had only ever seen beasts collared, chained, or hunted. The thought of a beast sovereign ruling an empire felt almost unreal. For a moment, he tried to imagine what that world must have looked like. Streets where beasts walked without fear.

"But then something happened," Nara continued. "No one truly records it clearly. History splits at that point. Humans call the era before the fall the Golden Age. Beasts call it the Age of Darkness."

His jaw tightened slightly.

"When the catastrophe ended, everything was broken. The Beast Empire was reduced to rubble. The Human Empire was shattered as well, but humans retained control of what remained of Phelios."

Nara glanced down at Luna’s body before continuing.

"That wasn’t the only change. The world itself was damaged. When humans believed they had inherited everything, Scars began opening across the land. One disaster after another followed. For centuries, we couldn’t close them. It cost millions of lives before any stability returned."

His voice lowered.

"Today, Phelios has only one continent left. Barely ten percent of what once existed. The rest is ocean."

Ivor knew there was only one continent. Everhold. He had assumed it had always been that way.

"The continent of Everhold," Nara said quietly. "The last surviving landmass. It now hosts both humans and beasts."

He looked directly at Ivor.

"Beasts have one kingdom. We call it the Beast Kingdom but the beasts call it Primora."

’Primora,’ the word echoed in Ivor’s mind. He found himself wondering what it looked like. Whether beasts there walked freely. Whether they wore chains. Whether someone like Luna would have lived differently there.

"Humans," Nara continued, "have three unions."

He raised three fingers weakly.

"The Northern Dominion. The Central Concord. The Southern Sovereignty."

His voice regained a measure of steadiness as he moved into familiar ground.

"Each union contains domains ruled by families and clans. Most specialize in one of the Primal Matrices. Power there is structured. Ranked. Measured. Your birth decides more than you think."

He gestured faintly around them.

"We are in the Southern Sovereignty. Inside the Vladiric Domain."

There was pride in his tone now, even through grief.

"Our Vladiric family is the second strongest Umbra lineage in the world. The first is in the Central Concord."

He fell silent, watching Ivor carefully as if expecting surprise or doubt.

"I understand," Ivor said simply.

Nothing more.

Nara held his gaze for a moment longer, perhaps waiting for a question that never came, then continued.

"On the continent of Everhold, the World Scars that exist are mostly weak. They’re controlled. Used for training kids like us." He gestured faintly toward the forest around them. "New Scars opening here is rare. The last major one appeared three years ago in the Northern Dominion, and it was contained quickly."

His expression hardened.

"But that’s where the good news ends."

The grief in his eyes shifted into something heavier, something closer to fear.

"We are living on top of a ticking explosive."

He lowered his voice slightly.

"When the Catastrophe tore through Phelios, it didn’t just break empires. It split the world itself into three layers."

His gaze lifted briefly toward the ground beneath them.

"Everhold is the top layer. The surface. What most of humanity sees."

He paused before finishing.

"Beneath us, there are two more layers."