Night draped itself over Arvadan like a velvet shroud, heavy with silence and secrets. The fires of Camp Shakta still burned in memory, but within the city’s towering walls, another fire had begun—one kindled not by liberation, but by vengeance.

  Arjun lay awake in the loft of a forgotten shrine, his eyes fixed on the cracked ceiling. The gods once worshipped here had long since been abandoned, their statues defaced, their altars shattered. Now, it served as the Fireroot’s temporary hideout.

  His chest rose and fell with slow, deliberate breath. Despite the calm on his face, the air around him pulsed faintly with warmth.

  The Karmic Flame within him was never still anymore.

  > [Trait Active: Liberator’s Path]

  Your fire burns brighter when justice fuels it.

  “Couldn’t sleep?” Meera’s voice came from the shadows. She stepped into the candlelight, a thin blade strapped across her back, her eyes wary.

  “Sleep is hard to find when every silence feels like the moment before a scream,” Arjun said.

  She nodded, tossing him a flask of herbal water. “You’ve made noise, Arjun. Good noise. But the king doesn’t like noise. Especially not from someone like you.”

  Arjun smirked. “Then let him try and silence me.”

  He spoke bravely, but even before the words left his mouth, the air shifted.

  The first assassin came without sound.

  A whisper of wind. A flicker of cloth. A poisoned needle hurled through the broken window.

  Arjun rolled, the needle embedding itself in the stone where his head had just been. In one motion, he surged to his feet, his palm flaring with flame.

  Another figure dropped from the ceiling.

  Masked, robed in black, moving like liquid shadow. A dagger shimmered in one hand, curved like a crescent moon.

  > [Danger Detected: High-level assassin – “Night Talon”]

  Karma Drain Resistance: Unknown

  Status: Hostile Intent Confirmed

  The assassin lunged.

  Arjun’s flame met steel.

  Sparks flew as dagger clashed against heat. The masked figure twisted unnaturally, dodging a gout of fire by flipping backward off a support beam. Meera joined the fight with a roar, blades drawn.

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  “You weren’t wrong,” she hissed. “They sent someone.”

  “Correction,” Arjun growled. “They sent two.”

  Another shadow detached itself from the wall—a second assassin, smaller, faster, darting toward Meera with twin knives.

  The shrine became a blur of motion.

  Fire, steel, smoke. Every movement was death’s breath.

  Arjun ducked a blade, kicked a pew into his attacker’s knees, and blasted the wall with a column of flame. It missed—but it gave him space.

  “Who are you working for?” he shouted.

  The first assassin said nothing. But the second chuckled, a childlike voice, disturbingly calm.

  “We are silence. We are the king’s will. And you... are a candle in the wind.”

  > [New Adversary: Whisper and Talon – Twin Shadows of Arvadan]

  But Arjun wasn’t the boy he had once been.

  He grounded himself, centering the flame not in rage—but in control.

  He reached into his system.

  > [Skill Chosen: Ember step]

  Cooldown reset: 0s (Liberator’s Path bonus active)

  He blinked across the shrine, fire trailing behind him in an arc. Appearing behind the smaller assassin, he slammed his palm against the ground.

  The Flame Ripple exploded beneath them.

  Meera danced through the blaze, unharmed. The assassin yelped, thrown across the altar.

  The older one—Talon—charged through fire like it wasn’t there.

  His blade struck Arjun’s shoulder.

  Pain erupted, white-hot.

  But instead of collapsing, Arjun seized Talon’s arm and let the karma flow.

  > [Karmic Drain Activated – Target: Talon]

  For a moment, their eyes locked.

  Arjun saw it—flickers of Talon’s past. A child taken from his village, trained by the King’s secret blades, stripped of voice and name. Made into a weapon.

  The flame reacted.

  It didn’t burn Talon.

  It showed him the truth.

  Talon staggered back, clutching his head.

  “What—what did you do?”

  “I showed you the cost of silence,” Arjun said.

  Talon blinked, eyes wide behind his mask. Then he vanished into the shadows, retreating.

  The second assassin tried to follow—but Meera’s blade caught her ankle.

  “Not so fast,” she said, twisting the blade. “Tell the king—Arjun is no candle.”

  “He is wildfire,” Arjun finished.

  The assassin scrambled out a side window, leaving blood on the sill.

  Silence returned.

  This time, not ominous.

  Just... quiet.

  Later, Arjun sat near the cracked altar, binding his wound.

  Meera tossed him a bottle of salve. “We should relocate. If the king sent his Shadows, he’ll send worse next.”

  “I agree,” Arjun said, grimacing. “But not yet. I want to send him a message first.”

  “Oh?”

  Arjun stood slowly.

  > [Karma Checkpoint Reached]

  Total Karma: 310

  New Ability Unlocked: Voice of the Flame

  “His people live in fear. His court believes he rules through divine right. It’s time they hear another voice.”

  He stepped outside.

  The streets of Arvadan were quiet at this hour. Only beggars and moon-singers wandered.

  Arjun raised a hand—and flame spiraled upward.

  Not wild. Not destructive. It formed a shape.

  A phoenix, wings spread, soaring above the city. Made of karmic fire. Visible for miles.

  The people looked up.

  And they remembered.

  The slave boy who refused chains.

  The fire that burned without ash.

  The rise of something no king could stop.

  > [Announcement: The Phoenix Burns]

  You have sent a karmic symbol across the city.

  Fear in the King’s court: +20

  Hope among the people: +45

  In the royal court, the high priest screamed blasphemy. The war ministers whispered of rebellion. But the king sat in silence, watching the firebird from his balcony.

  Finally, he turned to his advisor.

  “Summon the Bone Seer,” he said.

  “She hasn’t been called in twenty years—”

  “She sees beyond karma. Beyond flame. If Arjun wishes to rise... let her see how high he flies before he falls.”