Untamed bond

They emerged from the rift like ghosts reborn.

Aure's feet touched a ground that no longer remembered it's own name. The sky above them was neither night nor day but something else entirely. They stood Still Watching.

He was still beside him the one once called Lian but now, he was flickering.

His body held form, but his soul… it was unraveling slowly, like threads pulled from a tapestry.

"Hey," Aure whispered, holding his hand tight, "Stay with me."

"I'm trying," he breathed, his voice softer now, like wind through feathers. "But the name… it held me here. Without it, I'm just a memory."

"No," Aure said. "You're more than a memory."

From the horizon, something rose.

Not a beast.

Not a god.

A crown.

Forged from smoke and ash and broken vows, it hovered in the sky like it was looking for a new ruler. It pulsed with power the kind that could remake realities.

Aure felt it.

So did he.

"It's calling you," he said.

"It's calling us," Aure corrected. "Together."

The crown descended. Each spike shimmered with a memory they thought they'd lost. Their first fight. The first time he braided flowers into Aure's hair, laughing when they complained. The first promise of forever whispered beneath the bone moon.

And at its center two glowing sigils, entwined.

The bond reborn.

"Take it," the crown whispered, not in command but invitation.

Aure hesitated. "What if it burns us?"

His smile was bittersweet. "Then we burn together."

Their hands reached.

The moment they touched the crown, it shattered into a thousand ribbons of flame—and entered them.

Not on their heads. Not like kings.

Into their bones.

Their blood.

Their bond.

The ground trembled. The realm reshaped. Mountains bowed. Stars blinked.

And from the wreckage, two figures stood not human, not divine but something new.

Boundless.

Wild.

Untamed.

And in the silence, a voice one Aure didn't recognize echoed across the veiled sky:

"The Ash Crown has chosen. And now… the true war begins."