Dancing on the golden ashes

Something's not right… I can still think…

Did I become a ghost?

I laughed—or at least, I thought I did. Somewhere deep inside my mind. Wait… do I even have a mind? Or is it just my soul talking again? It reminded me of that first time, when I was dragged into this world. Floating like this… it was familiar.

But no matter what it was, I knew one thing—I could never get used to this.

It's weird…

You couldn't feel your body. Not a single limb, not even the shape of your form. It feels like I never existed… and that thought alone leaves something cold inside me.

Well… moving on.

Time started to pass. Slowly. Painfully so. There was no sun, no ticking clock, just the void and my thoughts. So I counted. Just to hold on to what little remained of my sanity.

One… two… fifty… ten thousand… one million two hundred twenty-one…

And then, every time, I'd lose it. My mind would slip. My thoughts would unravel. But in this strange rhythm, I believed—no, I knew—that at least a thousand years had passed.

Boring.

Way too boring.

Someone get me out of here! I screamed, though only within myself. Not like anybody would hear me anyway…

Then suddenly—hot.

Wait! HOT?! I can feel something!

Joy erupted through me, wild and erratic. Where is this emotion even coming from? I don't have a heart… not like I would, since I'm dead. Stupid me. But still, it was something. Something new. And I clung to it like a starving man to a crumb of bread.

It happened around… maybe five thousand years after I became whatever this was. A burning sensation. Not pain, not quite—but heat. Alive. Fierce.

This feeling… it's familiar…

I couldn't grasp it. Not fully. But it pulled at me, tugged at something buried deep inside. Is something calling me back? Or is it me who wants to return?

Who knows.

But one thing was certain.

I'm still alive… in some form.

Time passed slowly, dragging itself along with the burning sensation that kept trying to reach me from somewhere distant. It pulsed, steady and relentless, like a heartbeat I could no longer feel but still knew was mine.

What is it…? AHHHH! I can't remember…

Another thousand years ticked by, slipping through the cracks of my mind like sand in a forgotten hourglass. So slow it was agonizing, yet so fast I could barely grasp its weight. Time had no meaning anymore. Just an endless rhythm of silence and sparks.

Think, Gaon… how did I die? There was… lightning. Yes… I think so. Then pain. Too much pain. And fire… my body turning to ash. Wait… fire… I burnt…

Am I onto something?

The thoughts spun endlessly, chasing ghosts of memory. For the next four thousand years, I drifted through the dark, trying to remember who I was and what the hell was happening to me.

AHHHHH! I remember! The Flame of Eternity! It burned me. It reduced me to nothing. And now I was here—wherever here was.

But wait… what does it have to do with the fire I've been feeling?

That fire had been growing, steadily, for the last five thousand years. I couldn't see it. There was no light. Only heat. Only sensation. It was inside of me, creeping slowly, wrapping around the hollow shell of my soul like a snake preparing to strike.

Right… I forgot. It was always a part of me.

The Flame of Eternity. The desire to become something more. To rise above the system. To revive the friends I lost. To uncover the truth no one wanted me to see.

That's what drives me. That's what keeps me alive.

Suddenly, the fire blazed to life.

It flared so violently that my thoughts were pulled into it, consumed like kindling. But it didn't hurt. No. It felt natural—right. Because it was me. I was the one burning. My very soul, ablaze with purpose.

Then something shifted.

I could feel something pulling me upward. Something calling me back.

And then—light.

Bright, wild light exploded into my vision, so blinding it painted the world in cosmic flames. My eyes, if I still had any, saw shapes forming within the brightness. In front of me… there was a forest.

So green. So lush. So beautiful. So alive.

BOOM!

Something deep within me detonated. Energy poured into my soul like a divine river breaking through a dam. I trembled, overwhelmed. My soul shivered under the weight of it. I was being reborn—from the very flame that had once destroyed me.

I had finally reached it.

And I was back.

I tried to move my hands, and to my surprise, they came into view. They were burning—no, glowing—with the same cosmic fire I had felt for eons. My fingers were slimmer, more delicate than I remembered, like they had been reshaped anew.

I looked down.

My dress was no longer black. It was white—pure, soft, flowing like a river of snow. My hair tumbled down over my chest in golden strands, long and gleaming, shimmering like sunlight poured into silk. So radiant, so ethereal, it didn't feel real.

Why did I change again…? I wasn't sure. But I could guess.

Perhaps the system accepted this as rebirth.

"Come to life, my friend…" I whispered, my voice echoing with a strange, melodic tone—beautiful and cold at the same time.

My scythe responded with a thunderous roar that made the very ground tremble. It startled me, even though it shouldn't have. It had always been there—my companion, my weapon. But now, it too was white, glowing like the divine.

How did this happen?

I was a demon. And yet… I looked like an angel.

My scythe pulsed with a power I couldn't even begin to measure. It didn't belong to this world.

Woooooooosh!

A strange sound echoed above. I looked up.

A star was falling from the sky.

Yes… a star. A real one. In the middle of the day.

Tuuuuuum… CRACK!

The ground in front of me exploded in a blast of shattered earth and white light. A black orb—at least three meters wide—emerged from the crater.

And then… another star fell.

Then another.

And another.

Stars began raining down around me, crashing into the once-lush forest, ripping it apart. Burning trees. Splintered roots. Life being devoured by cosmic ruin.

CRACK!

The black orb before me split open with a sharp, cold sound. Light spilled out like liquid moonlight.

I think there's someone inside…

A hand reached outward, trembling, forcing open the two halves of the shattered star. I stared in silence, and if I still had a heart, it would have shaken violently in my chest.

There was a man.

He pulled himself out of the glowing cocoon, arms stretched, brushing aside the dust that clung to his face. White hair. Familiar. But everything else…

Black wings curled behind his back. Black clothes draped across his tall frame. Red eyes, like fresh blood, glowed beneath a silver crown of shadows. Pointed ears. Black as night horns. Dark presence.

He was nothing like before. And yet…

It was him.

Seong-hoon…

Reborn from the darkness of my heart. A demon forged in the embers of everything we lost.

"Hello, big sis…"