Reincarnated as the Last Dragon Egg-Chapter 23: The Unwritten Flame

There was no wind.

No sun.

No stars we recognized.

Just a sky like dull iron—cloudless, yet sunless. The color of mourning.

Sand stretched in every direction, pale grey and glassy. Not warm, not cold. Still.

And beneath our feet... nothing but echoes.

---

The World Beyond

Kaela drew her sword, the steel dim in this unnatural light. "What is this place?"

Neriya crouched, pressing her palm into the ground. "Not a realm. Not even a dead world. This is... something else."

Solin turned in slow circles. "No ley lines. No flame roots. No pull from the Rift. It’s not just lifeless—it’s outside of life."

And yet, I was breathing.

My heart beat.

My flame burned—but barely.

"I don’t think we’re meant to be here," I muttered.

Kaela glanced at me. "Then why were we brought?"

The answer came not in words.

But in a sound.

A pulse.

Boom.

From deep below.

---

The Underground Gate

We followed the source across the dunes for hours, until the sand gave way to obsidian—a black glass field stretched across miles, cracked in sharp lines, as if something massive had once risen and fallen here.

At its center:

A door.

Circular.

Rimmed in lightless silver.

No handle. No runes.

Just the image of an eye.

And around it, etched in alien script:

> "WE WATCH THE FLAME

AND WHEN IT RISES

WE END IT."

Solin backed away. "They were waiting."

"For us?" Kaela asked.

"For me," I said.

---

Into the Black

Neriya reached toward the door.

"No," I warned. "Let me."

I placed my claw on the center of the eye.

The obsidian clicked.

Rotated.

Opened.

Downward.

Steps spiraled into darkness. Not shadow. Not flame-deep gloom.

Real, crushing absence.

I led the way.

Flamelight from my core pushed barely ten feet ahead.

The walls were smooth, metal-glass, covered in carvings of dying stars, of dragons... falling.

We reached a final platform.

And saw it.

---

The Library of the End

A vast circular chamber.

Shelves upon shelves of stone cylinders, each humming faintly.

And in the center...

A floating black sphere, with rings orbiting it like an unlit sun.

"Records," Solin breathed. "These are histories."

"Not ours," Neriya said. "Not yet."

Kaela looked at one of the carvings.

It showed a flame burning.

Then flickering.

Then... vanishing.

A caption beneath it:

> "Cycle 943. Flame: Purged. Outcome: Total Silence."

---

The Collector Appears

Suddenly, the black orb pulsed.

The rings stopped.

And something stepped out from the sphere.

Not a beast.

Not a god.

A shape, humanoid, seven feet tall, no face—only an orb where the head should be.

The voice was many-layered.

Mechanical. Timeless. Icy.

> "Flame Anomaly Detected.

Reincarnated Core Located.

Cycle 944 End Process Initiated."

It raised a hand.

And my flame began to die.

---

Darian Resists

I dropped to my knees as the heat was sucked from my bones.

Kaela rushed forward—slammed her blade into the being’s chest.

It passed through.

No damage.

Solin tried a glyph. Nothing. Neriya threw her soulfire—it was absorbed.

I forced my flame to rise.

Sunshard light cracked from my core.

"Not again," I growled. "You don’t get to erase us again."

> "Resistance acknowledged," the being said. "Your flame is now catalogued. Your end has purpose."

And then—

A second orb appeared.

Floating beside the first.

But this one glowed red.

And from it...

A voice.

Familiar.

---

The Echo of Vaelus

> "Stop."

Everyone froze.

The Collector tilted.

> "Identity: Broken Core Fragment. Vaelus-class. Terminated in Cycle 943."

"I wasn’t terminated," the voice answered. "I survived."

It was Vaelus.

Or... some fragment of him.

> "This world is not yours to cleanse. This flame... has already evolved."

The two orbs flickered, communicating.

And then both... vanished.

---

Left Alone Again

We collapsed in silence.

Kaela caught her breath. "Was that really... him?"

I nodded. "A piece."

Solin whispered, "Then maybe... not all endings erase."

Neriya stood and pointed to the shelf. "Look."

One cylinder had begun to glow.

A new carving appeared.

A new record.

> "Cycle 944. Outcome: Interrupted.

Anomaly Status: Darian.

Status: Unwritten."

The cylinder glowed.

A new one.

Untouched. Blank.

Not etched in ancient scripts or carved in stardust—but waiting.

Solin whispered, "This is prophecy. Real-time."

"Not prophecy," I said. "It’s history in the making."

> And my name was on it.

Darian.

Anomaly.

Status: Unwritten.

The first flame to escape the purge.

The first cycle to survive past extinction.

---

The Chamber of Forgotten Cycles

Neriya led us deeper through the Library of the End.

Each corridor was colder than the last—until the walls shimmered with ice that didn’t melt, and time slowed with each step.

We entered a massive hollow chamber. Seven statues towered overhead, each carved from strange, dark stone.

Each one... different.

One held a sword made of water.

Another wore a cloak of stormclouds.

The third had no face at all—only a pit of golden sand where a head should be.

> "These aren’t gods," Kaela whispered.

Solin nodded, pale. "They’re elements. Not just flame... but storm. Stone. Time. Tides. Void. Mind."

And above them all, floating in chains—

A shattered eighth statue.

Its plaque read:

> "The Flame. Cycle Broken. Initiator: Darian."

---

Unwritten Threat

Beneath the statues lay an altar.

An obsidian slab inscribed in a language none of us recognized—but I understood instinctively.

It wasn’t a warning.

It was a summon.

A riddle etched across the stone:

> "When one survives, the Unwritten comes.

To erase what dares to remember.

Flame lives. Void feeds.

And Silence awakens."

Kaela stepped back. "We’ve seen the Hollowed, the Rift, even gods. But this..."

Solin finished her thought. "This isn’t corruption or power. It’s oblivion given will."

---

The Starwell Map

Neriya approached the central dais. Her hand brushed against a sliver of crystal embedded in its surface.

Light flared.

A massive projection rose above us—a star map.

Thousands of points of light. Some blinking. Some burning.

One... flickering red.

"That’s us," I said.

Solin gasped. "And the flickering ones?"

"They’re dying."

Kaela squinted. "Wait... what’s that?" freeweɓnøvel~com

She pointed to a cluster of stars far away—dim, pulsing like a heartbeat.

But then something crossed in front of them.

Not a planet.

Not a ship.

A shadow.

So massive it bent the map around it.

The room dimmed.

The stars shivered.

And the map blinked out.

---

The Voice of the Unwritten

We weren’t alone.

The air turned flat—no scent, no warmth, no texture.

And from behind us...

A voice.

A soundless one.

A pressure on the bones of the world.

> "One flame escaped the tally.

One name defied inscription.

So now the page must be torn."

I turned slowly.

There was no form.

Just absence.

And a mouth made of starlight teeth.

---

Flee the Library

"Run!" Neriya barked.

I grabbed the glowing cylinder from the pedestal as the Unwritten’s presence surged forward, ripping shelves from their sockets, erasing entire histories with its touch.

Kaela pulled me through a narrow arch as Solin chanted a barrier.

"Get us home!" I shouted.

"I don’t know how—!"

The black egg in my satchel—the one from the Void Temple—began to vibrate violently.

Without thinking, I threw it to the ground.

It cracked.

And light ripped us backward—

Through space.

Through memory.

Through reality itself.

---

Back in Emberwatch

We fell.

Hard.

Onto real stone.

With real air.

I looked up.

Emberwatch’s towers stood above me.

Sky blue.

Sun warm.

Kaela groaned beside me. "Are we back?"

Neriya checked the ground. "Yes. But... not the same."

Because the flames that once danced along the torches... had turned pale blue.

And the sun?

It flickered.

Like a dying candle.

---

The Cycle Breaker

I stood and opened my hand.

The cylinder I’d taken from the Library of the End still glowed.

But now, one more word appeared beneath my name:

> "Cyclebreaker."

And beneath that:

> "Unwritten threat level: Omega."

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