Ember Reborn: The Flame That Defied Fate-Chapter 63: Ash and Threads -

Sssss.

The sound wasn’t loud.

It was the quiet hiss of something burning from the inside.

Gray ash seeped out of my pores and drifted upward like smoke. My skin prickled, and heat surged through my veins—like oil had replaced blood.

I exhaled.

"Haa..."

Ash mixed with my breath.

Ignition.

Not the full Incarnation of Fire—not that violent, sky-devouring frenzy from the fight with Astaroth.

This was smaller.

Controlled.

A flame I could hold.

It consumed me just enough to refill what I’d spent, pulling mana back into my Stigma in a steady, greedy rhythm.

Across from me, the eight-eyed crocodile beast stopped moving.

It lowered its stance, all eight crimson eyes tracking the smoke curling off my body.

"Grrrrrr..."

Its growl vibrated the ground. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

I tilted my sword slightly and smirked.

"What are you doing?" I said. "It’s not over yet."

Maybe the taunt wasn’t necessary.

But if I didn’t keep its attention on me, it would return to Yuren.

And that... wasn’t happening.

"GRAAAAH!"

The beast answered with a roar and dropped to all fours.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The earth trembled as it charged like a living boulder, dust exploding behind it.

For a creature that big, it moved absurdly fast.

When it closed in, it twisted its body sharply—

WHUMP!

Its tail snapped through the air like a siege weapon, scales glinting, momentum packed into a single strike.

That tail could flatten a wall.

If I tried to block it normally, my arm would be the first thing to break.

But I wasn’t normal right now.

I stepped forward.

Not back.

Forward.

My blade ignited with a thin sheath of gray flame.

Not bright. Not flashy.

Just... heavy. Like the air itself didn’t want to touch it.

Sun Sword—Second Form.

Moon Slash.

I brought the sword down from above.

BOOM!

A shockwave rippled outward, sending leaves and grit spiraling.

For the first time, my blade didn’t bounce.

It cut.

Not cleanly through, but deep enough that the beast’s tail jerked violently and its roar cracked with pain.

The gray flame clung to the wound like it had teeth.

"Grrrk! Grrrk!"

The beast stumbled and scraped its tail against the dirt, trying to smother the fire.

Pointless.

The Primordial Flame didn’t care what you buried it under.

The flame stayed.

The beast’s eyes flicked between me and its burning tail, confusion mixing with fear.

Then, with a savage hiss, it did something I didn’t expect.

It slashed at its own tail with its claws.

A sharp snap.

The burning section fell away, rolling across the ground and smoking.

The beast staggered back, breathing hard, shoulders heaving.

It looked at me again.

Eight red eyes.

This time, not just anger—there was something closer to understanding.

This thing wasn’t mindless.

It knew what I was.

A human that didn’t behave like prey.

A flame that didn’t behave like fire.

"Grrrrrr..."

It took another step back.

Then another.

And finally—

It turned.

It ran.

"What?" I muttered. "After all that, you’re running?"

It still had strength. It could have fought.

But it didn’t want to.

Which told me something important:

The beast wasn’t here for a fair fight.

It was here for a quick kill.

The moment it realized I wasn’t easy to kill, it decided the risk wasn’t worth it.

And that made it even more dangerous.

"Where do you think you’re going?"

I launched forward.

Ignition roared through my body like a furnace refusing to cool.

Even with the heat restoring my mana, my muscles complained. My arms felt shredded, the skin on my palms raw from impacts I’d barely managed to disperse.

And my sword—

My sword was no longer trustworthy.

The earlier strike had left fine cracks running down the blade.

One wrong clash and it would shatter.

So I didn’t chase to trade blows.

I chased to finish.

The beast slammed through the trees, smashing brush aside. I followed with Wind Step, feet barely touching the ground.

Then I jumped.

My boots hit its back.

The scales were like ridged stone.

The beast thrashed, trying to buck me off, claws scraping at my legs.

Pain flared—

but the smoke rose thicker.

The more damage I took, the more Ignition fed.

It wasn’t "healing," not exactly.

It was my body refusing to stay empty.

Refusing to stay down.

I tightened my hold and leaned in close to its head.

"You made one mistake," I murmured into its ear ridge.

"You turned your back."

I drove my fist down—hard—into one of its eyes.

Not with a blade.

Not with a clean cut.

Just a direct, brutal strike.

The creature screamed and stumbled.

My knuckles went numb.

And then I poured mana into my forearm.

Berald’s Martial Art—

Mountain Breaker.

The impact wasn’t pretty.

It wasn’t elegant.

But it was decisive.

The beast’s head snapped sideways. The scream turned ragged.

Gray flame crawled across its face like a living thing hunting for purchase.

The beast staggered, clawing at itself, panicking now—because there was nowhere to cut this fire away.

Not without cutting off its own head.

"Yeah," I said, voice low. "Try that."

The beast crashed into the dirt with a quake-like thud.

It twitched. It struggled. It didn’t rise.

I backed away, chest heaving.

"Hoo..."

For a moment, I just stood there, staring.

Then the hiss around me weakened.

Hiss... shhh... hiss...

The ash smoke thinned.

Ignition was ending.

The gray flames peeled off my sword like fog retreating at sunrise, leaving my blade dark, cracked, and... finally giving up.

A final ping of strain ran through the metal.

Then the sword snapped near the hilt.

"...Great," I muttered.

I didn’t even have the energy to be annoyed.

My legs felt like wet sandbags. My shoulders trembled. The world tilted slightly whenever I blinked.

The Primordial Flame was absurd.

And the price was just as absurd.

’So that’s Ignition.’

Automatic mana recovery.

Mana quality boosted with the flame’s pressure.

But it still drained the body like it was squeezing water from cloth.

I stumbled back toward the rock where Yuren lay.

"I need to report this..." I muttered. "I really need to report this..."

But my Hero Watch felt impossibly heavy.

I raised my wrist and tried to tap the screen—

Nothing.

I didn’t have enough mana left to even power the interface properly.

"...Of course."

I swallowed a curse and took another step—

Then froze.

Grrrr.

A low sound.

Not from the dead crocodile beast.

From the forest.

Another growl answered.

Then another.

Leaves rustled.

Shapes slid between trunks.

A pack.

Wolves.

At least ten.

Their eyes glowed red through the foliage—some with three, some four, some five.

And none of them had markers.

My jaw tightened.

"...You’ve got to be kidding."

The smell hit me next—wet fur, blood, and that metallic demonic energy that clung to the back of the throat.

They were the same species as the first wolf I’d killed.

Which meant one thing:

They’d tracked the scent.

Not just mine.

Their kin’s.

The eight-eyed beast’s chaos had likely called them in too—predators gathering to feast on a battlefield.

I reached instinctively for my own sword—

Then remembered it was in two pieces.

I stared for half a second.

Then moved.

I grabbed the sword at Yuren’s waist and pulled it free.

A real blade. Heavy. Clean.

And right now, it felt like it weighed twice what it should.

"Haa..."

My breathing was rough.

My arms were shaking.

I forced my grip to tighten anyway.

Because if I hesitated, I’d die.

And if I died here, even if I revived...

Yuren wouldn’t.

"Come on," I muttered. "Let’s do this."

The pack circled.

Their paws were silent, but their intent wasn’t.

They weren’t even cautious.

They were hungry.

"Grrr!"

One lunged.

Then another.

Then the entire pack moved at once.

I raised Yuren’s sword—

And—

Twang.

A sound like a harp string being plucked.

Silver threads shot through the air from multiple angles, so thin they almost looked like moonlight.

They wrapped around the wolves mid-leap.

The beasts hit an invisible net and jerked to a stop, snarling and writhing like hooked fish.

Snap.

The threads tightened.

The wolves went limp in unison, dropping into the grass like puppets whose strings had been cut.

The forest fell silent.

Heels clicked against stone.

A familiar scent drifted in—tobacco, clean and sharp.

"Sorry I’m late," a calm voice said.

I turned my head slowly.

Professor Elisha Baldwin stepped out of the trees in her black suit, hands in her pockets like she’d just finished a casual stroll.

The scar crossing her left eye made her beauty more dangerous, not less.

She looked past me at the dead eight-eyed beast, then at the shattered barrier remnants, then at Yuren unconscious on the rock.

"Hm," she murmured. "You really did it."

I stared at her.

"Late," I said flatly. "Your timing’s a bit too perfect."

Elisha shrugged.

"I was moving the moment the first abnormal report came in."

"Abnormal report?" I repeated.

She tapped her ear lightly.

"Your message about the unmarked wolf earlier. We didn’t ignore it."

So they were watching.

I exhaled sharply.

"At first," Elisha continued, "I intended to step in when things turned truly fatal."

My eyes narrowed.

"And it wasn’t fatal when an eight-eyed beast showed up?"

"It was," she said, tone unchanged. "Which is why I’m here now."

She glanced at me.

Smoke residue still clung faintly to my skin, like the aftermath of a fire.

Her eyes sharpened.

"But I didn’t expect you to... handle it alone."

I didn’t respond.

Because I didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t reveal too much.

Elisha took one step closer.

Then another.

Her gaze didn’t soften.

If anything, it became more focused—like a needle finding thread.

"A candidate with the Blessing of Revival," she said slowly, "who also uses an unknown ignition-type power... and fights like someone with experience far beyond a cadet."

Her violet eyes gleamed.

"What exactly are you, Dale Han?"

I let out a tired laugh.

"You can check the roster."

"The roster," she repeated, amused.

Then she leaned in slightly—close enough that if I didn’t move, the situation would become misunderstandable again.

I immediately raised a hand and stopped her.

"Professor," I said, voice firm despite my exhaustion. "If you’re going to investigate, do it without... weird methods."

Elisha blinked.

Then she smiled.

"Hmm. You’re cautious."

"I’m tired," I corrected.

"And," I added silently, I don’t feel like dying to Iris’s glare later.

Elisha’s smile widened by a fraction.

"Fine," she said. "I’ll be professional."

She looked down at Yuren.

"First priority: secure the candidates and the exam site. This isn’t an ’accident.’"

My stomach tightened.

"So you agree something’s wrong."

Elisha’s expression cooled.

"An eight-eyed beast doesn’t ’wander in’ by coincidence."

She turned her gaze toward the forest beyond the stream.

"Something opened a path."

A chill crawled up my spine.

Elisha clicked her tongue.

"Can you walk?"

"Barely," I said honestly.

"Good," she replied. "Because I need you conscious long enough to tell Lucas what happened."

I swallowed and nodded.

"...Then we should move. Before more of them show up."

Elisha’s eyes flicked to the trees.

For the first time, her voice sharpened.

"They already are."

And somewhere deeper in the forest—

A low, distant growl answered her.