NOVEL WEB Chapter 24: The Flame Copy
We were halfway down the mountainside when the sky cracked.
Not thunder. Not lightning.
Something tore open.
A ripple in the air, like glass shattering behind a wall of flame.
Lan Ruo reached for her sword.
Qing'er gasped and stumbled.
Zhao Feng held up the cursed scroll like it was a shield. "Uh… did I do that?"
---
A figure stepped through the crack.
My first instinct was to shout.
My second was to stare.
Because it was me.
Same face. Same build. Same smirk.
But his flame burned darker.
Black with streaks of red, wild and twitching.
Even the air hissed when he breathed.
Qing'er whispered, "It's… your echo."
Lan Ruo didn't wait for answers. She lunged.
---
He caught her blade—barehanded.
And grinned.
> "Always the hot-headed one."
Then he threw her. Hard. She slammed into a tree and groaned.
"Lan Ruo!" I shouted.
Zhao Feng blinked. "That's not you, right? Like… you didn't suddenly start moonlighting as an evil twin?"
"I'm sure. I don't smirk like that."
> "Wrong," the flame copy said. "You just forgot how."
He turned to Qing'er.
> "She remembers."
Qing'er backed away. "I don't know you."
He stepped closer.
> "But you loved me."
---
I moved between them.
"No. She didn't love you. She loved him. And he's dead."
The Flame Copy tilted his head.
> "Are you sure?"
---
He struck.
His flame wasn't just hot. It was fast—twisting through the air like smoke with blades.
I activated Void Chains to block.
He broke them with a snap of his fingers.
Lan Ruo returned, blade glowing with soul light. She attacked from behind.
He kicked her aside like a leaf.
"New plan," Zhao shouted. "We run!"
"No," I growled. "We fight."
---
The Flame Copy summoned a sword—curved, jagged, wrapped in black flame.
He moved with perfect memory.
He was me, if I had embraced everything Ashen Fang had been.
He whispered as we clashed:
> "You don't deserve the girls."
> "You don't deserve the flame."
> "You're weak because you care."
And then—he struck Qing'er.
---
I screamed as she collapsed, blood spilling from her shoulder.
Lan Ruo lost it.
Her aura flared—a brilliant burst of silver-white Qi.
She moved faster than I'd ever seen her, her blade carving glowing arcs.
The Flame Copy grunted as she slashed his side.
But he didn't fall.
Instead, he laughed.
> "Ah. You're stronger when she bleeds."
> "So much like me after all."
---
Zhao Feng finally stepped in—by tripping over a rock and accidentally hurling the cursed scroll like a frisbee.
It hit the Flame Copy in the face.
He blinked.
Paused.
> "What... is this?"
The scroll unrolled and smacked him again.
> "Your aura smells like secondhand regret," it hissed.
> "Did you steal that flame from a street performer?"
He snarled.
> "It's alive?"
"It's very rude," Zhao offered.
The copy incinerated the scroll.
---
That gave me time.
I summoned the Memory Flame—the spark left behind at the Sparkblood Temple.
It wasn't strong.
But it was real.
And mine.
When I slashed at him this time, it wasn't as a copy.
It was as a choice.
> "You're not me," I said. "You're what I could've been."
> "And I don't want to be that anymore."
He hesitated.
Flickered.
And then—
He smiled.
> "We'll see."
And vanished into smoke.
---
Qing'er groaned.
I rushed to her side. "You okay?"
"Been better," she whispered.
Lan Ruo stood nearby, arms crossed. Angry. But also… worried.
"Next time," she said, "warn us before your trauma walks out of thin air."
---
We made camp. Zhao cooked.
He burned it.
Qing'er rested in my lap.
Lan Ruo sat on a rock, sharpening her blade… and glancing at us when she thought I wasn't looking.
I was.
---
Later, I sat beside her.
She didn't move.
"Thanks," I said.
"For what?"
"Saving me. Again."
"You looked like you were about to cry over that girl."
"She's bleeding."
"She's always bleeding," Lan muttered.
Then she softened.
"You care about her."
"I care about you, too."
She looked away.
"That's the problem."
---
Zhao interrupted by tripping over his own feet and announcing:
"I just realized something important."
We turned.
He held up a piece of burnt scroll with strange writing on it.
"This insult scroll? Was binding something."
"What kind of something?" I asked.
He grinned.
"Something that just woke up."
---
[SYSTEM UPDATE]
> Echo Defeated: Partial
Memory Stability: 88%
Flame Sync: Unstable
Qing'er Wound Status: Recovering
Lan Ruo Affection Level: Denial
Zhao Feng's Scroll: Binding Seal Broken
New Threat Detected: Classified – Tracking Enabled
Next Location: Whispering Vale
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To be continued...
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✍️ Author's Note – by [Your Author Name from Shadows of the Last Light]
🔥 Chapter 23 included:
A Flame Copy of the MC born from unresolved guilt
Qing'er wounded protecting the team
Lan Ruo going full sword-wife mode
Zhao Feng's cursed scroll causing chaos again
A temporary victory… with a bigger threat now awake