Live, even if the world forgets you."*
"Live, even if heaven itself tries to erase your name."
He woke up in a grave of stars.
Floating fragments of ancient ruins drifted across a colorless sky, bathed in the faintest ember-glow of dying moons. Beneath him was no ground, only dust—cold, gray, and heavy. His fingers trembled as he touched his chest. It was there. Still burning.
A small ember—no larger than a heartbeat—flickered behind his ribs. Not fire. Not Qi. Not soul. Something older, his 'Soulbrand'.
And yet, he remembered nothing—no mother, no father, no past, not even his own name.
Then, the whisper came. Eirian. "The sound echoed like a lost prayer. A soft, feminine voice—fragile, desperate. As if someone, somewhere, still remembered him. And that fragile memory... gave him form".
Eirian, Your name is Eirian Aurelia.
He opened his eyes fully. That name — it didn't feel like something he was given. It felt like something ripped from the world just before it collapsed.
"Eirian sat up, all around him, statues of faceless gods crumbled. Ash and glass swirled in the air. Symbols of long-forgotten realms shimmered and vanished. This was no mortal world."
This was the "Dust Realm"
The place where failed souls are sent to fade.
And yet... his Soulbrand was active. That wasn't possible.
"You should not exist."
"And yet... you burn."
A figure emerged from the void—a tall man in robes stitched with starlight. His face was hidden behind a glass black mask, cracked and smeared with shadow. But his voice was indifferent.
"Eirian," he spoke, tasting the name like poison. "Who remembered you?"
Eirian stood. His bare feet sank into the dust.
"I don't know," he said honestly.
"Then you are dangerous". The figure raised a hand. A spear of fractured karma spear glowed in his palm.
But something stirred within Eirian. A flicker. A scream. A memory.
A woman's body covered in blood, ablaze. A child crying. A single name etched in fire.
"Live. Even if I burn for you."
The ember in his chest exploded.
Eirian roared as flame burst from his back, forming the ghost pattern of a broken phoenix — a creature not of rebirth, but invincibility. His Emberflesh Realm body lifted off the ground as memory and fire fused into something raw and divine.
The starlit attacker hesitated. "Impossible. Your Soulbrand is..."
Eirian's voice echoed with something older than truth.
"It's not mine.
It was given.
And now it burns."
The flame struck like the wrath of a dying god. When the dust settled, only ash remained where the figure once stood.
"Eirian dropped to his knees. The flame receded.
He was alone again. But not powerless."
"In his memories, one day a giant hand tore through the heavens. With unimaginable demonic power, it split the sky in half and shattered the world he had once known. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in the lower realm — the Dust Realm."
Ash drifted like snow through the fractured sky. Eirian stood alone among ruins, the last embers of his awakening flickering dimly across the bones of the Dust Realm.
His chest still ached from the fire that had erupted within him—Not a power of his own making, but a legacy left behind.
A mother's last flame. A memory carved into soulfire.
He didn't know what the man in the mask had meant by "dangerous." But he knew this, if someone wanted him erased, there must be something worth remembering."
His fingers curled into the dust, and he whispered his name again.
"Eirian" Not a name of power. Not yet.
But a name he would carve deep into the Realms.
"He wandered through the remains of a ruined shrine, its architecture half-swallowed by centuries of decay. Cracked murals spoke of ancient beings Ascendants who once rose beyond the Dust. Their faces had been chiseled out."
Buried beneath shattered offerings, he found it: A slab of obsidian, etched with words in a language he didn't recognize. But his Soulbrand pulsed.
As his fingers brushed it, the letters rearranged themselves before his eyes.
[ THE FIRST LAW OF ASCENSION: BURN NOTHING YOU ARE UNWILLING TO LOSE.]
A flash—
Searing black.
Voices screaming.
Then silence.
Eirian gasped and fell to his knees unwillingness and confusion filled his heart. Around him, the world had changed. The dust was gone.
Now he stood in a vast and endless Forgotten Gallery. Flickering flames floated in the air, each with a face inside—men, women, children, beasts. Some wept. Some raged. Some unwilling. Some were simply empty.
"To violate nature's law is one thing. But the Ashborne Laws? They do not judge. They do not punish. They simply... unmake."
A woman stepped from the dark. Her hair was woven from dying starlight. Her eyes were hollow, like mirrors showing your regrets.
"You are not ready. You are not meant to remember these truths."
"I don't care what I'm meant to do," Eirian growled.
"You broke the First Seal. That makes you a Lawbreaker"
She stepped closer. "And a Lawbreaker must choose."
She raised two fingers, one held a flickering violet flame. The other, a jet-black cinder.
"One grants you power. But you forget your past."
"The other grants you memory. But you lose the unique talent you have now."
His hands trembled. His breath came short.
His mother's voice whispered in the back of his mind.
"Live… even if the world forgets you."
He reached for — "The cinder."
It penetrated into his palm. Pain screamed through his bones as his Soulbrand twisted—its ember deepening, growing darker, hotter, older.
Rek: Cinder is the last ember of a dying fire blackened but still holding traces of heat and what remains after...
But in that agony, a voice returned.
"A woman's lullaby.
A name - Seris."
His mother's name.
And with it… a face. A smile. Her sacrifice.
Eirian collapsed. But the woman didn't look angry. She looked… almost proud.
"You will walk the path of pain, not power."
"But pain is truth. And truth is eternal."
"Mother"...
His voice was not a cry, but a thunder that tore through the silence of the void
The word was a blade plunged into the ribs of destiny.
"I will carve my name into the bones of the universe. I will break every law of life and death. And when the Wheel of Eternity grinds to dust.. you will open your eyes."
The world faded.
-------------
He woke in the Dust Realm once again. But this time, the winds had changed.
He wasn't just a soul anymore.
He was a "Lawbreaker".
One who chose "memory over power".
A rare path. A cursed path.
But maybe… the only one strong enough to break the Realms..!!
Mortal Ascension (Foundation Stages)
1. Emberflesh Realm – Body reforged in flame.
2. Soulspark Realm – Soul ignites, emotions shape reality.
3. Infernal Lord Realm – Command fire like a warlord.
Dear Readers,
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining me on this incredible journey as a new author. Your support, enthusiasm, and curiosity mean the world to me—it's what turns solitary writing into a shared adventure.