Ash covered everything.
Even the air had grown heavy, as if the world had forgotten how to breathe.
Kim opened his eyes slowly, feeling a lingering warmth in his chest — not fire, but its echo.
He reached forward, and the ashes scattered like gray light, shimmering before fading into nothing.
On the horizon stretched a dead city — built from shattered glass and burned steel.
But amid the ruins, there was movement…
Shadows wandering without faces, whispering in broken voices, like ghosts remembering what it meant to be human.
He took a step forward.
Each step echoed like the heartbeat of someone else.
Then, a voice whispered in his ear — the same voice he had heard in the flames:
> "You have escaped the fire… but the ashes still see you as one of them."
He turned, but there was no one.
Only the trembling air, as if the world itself was watching him.
From the haze, a gray girl emerged — her face clearer this time,
and her eyes the color of rain before a storm.
She spoke softly:
> "This is the Second World… the World of Ash.
No one is born here, and no one dies.
Everyone just waits — for something they do not know."
Kim approached her, glancing around the desolate ruins.
His voice came out low, almost a breath:
> "Is this… after death?"
She smiled faintly:
> "No. After fear."
Silence stretched between them,
while the wind carried ashes of forgotten faces through the air.
He finally asked:
> "Then what am I waiting for here?"
Her gaze turned toward the burning horizon.
> "Those who faced the fire… are tested by shadow.
Here, you will face yourself — the self that existed before your rebirth."
Kim lifted his head.
Something stirred inside him — not flame, but a black light's core, awakening.
> "So… the beginning hasn't ended yet."
She turned away, her figure dissolving into the swirling dust.
> "Beginnings never end, Heir of Flame…
they only change their shape."
And then she vanished — like a dream that fades just before you wake.