The dream shattered.

Silence swallowed Vin whole.

A silence so vast it felt older than planets.

No wind.

No ground.

No Lynn.

A flash erupted across the void.

Soon, that canvas of zero flashed into a new, vibrant scene.

Vin found himself in a vast, endless field of lavender grass and trees that stretched to all horizons.

The sky above burned ruby red, lit by three moons slowly orbiting one another.

It wasn't Earth.

It wasn't Auroraan.

It was… somewhere else.

The black phoenix rose from a blaze, perched atop a mound of ash a few paces away.

Its gaze burned straight through him, unveiling every fear, every flaw, every vow he never kept.

It saw everything.

The cowardice.

The promises.

The moments where he wasn't enough.

And the one moment where he tried harder than he ever had—to save a girl who never deserved to suffer.

It had given him the power.

It had answered his plea.

And now it came to collect.

Vin's anger snapped to the front of his mind.

"You didn’t save her!" His thoughts boomed.

"I told you to save her. You didn’t keep your end!"

The phoenix's wings folded inward.

"I have not failed."

Vin's fury held.

"I granted you power so you could save her. The vow is ongoing."

Vin clenched his jaw. "Ongoing?!"

"How! I saw her—"

A pulse of dark intent stunned him. "You saw her freeze."

"Just as she saw you burn. Yet you live."

Images flickered in Vin's mind—

The icy blue fairy.

The way the swamp froze solid.

His chest tightened. "You're saying shes alive..."

"That thing just froze her to use later."

"But why us!?"

The phoenix's flames curled outward, stretching like tendrils toward the sky.

"Because you both possess something other mortals on this planet do not."

Vin staggered forward, breath shaking.

"Don't just stop there! What do you want from us!"

The phoenix's wings stretched toward the red sky and three moons.

The answer came with a heat that felt like destiny igniting.

"Home."

Vin blinked.

"What?"

The phoenix turned its burning gaze on him again.

"My world, Vulcorath, was consumed three hundred years ago."

"Assimilated as your planet will be soon."

"All gods are held by the ordinances of Auroraan, so I have chosen you to enact my will."

According to it, there were three planes of existence: the lowest was the Mortal Realm, where he'd died.

The middle was the Archival Dimension, a place that stores information from assimilated worlds.

The top was the Astral Plane, a place that bound all gods' true forms. Thus, the reason they selected mortals to do their bidding.

"The first step to restoring my world will be to enter the middle realm. The Archival Dimension."

"Then what?"

"Soon," it replied.

Vin glanced at the mound of ash on the ground.

He'd gain nothing in refusing.

The field around him began to dissolve—

ruby sky fading to gray, grass melting into mist,

The last thing he heard as he spiraled out of that plane was—

A vow, for a vow.

A blessing for a promise.

Then the world collapsed into blinding white—

and Vin surged back toward life.

"Assimilation Complete."

"Welcome, humans, to the Planet Auroraan."