The fire around began to shift—still searing, still golden—but no longer blazing with the kind of heat that threatened to consu whole. It had beco warm, almost tender to the touch. Don't get wrong, I know fire. I am fire. My entire body was reforged in it, reborn through fla. But this? This fla was different. It was hotter than anything I'd ever felt—and that's saying sothing. Hot enough to make even hesitate, to make wonder if stepping forward might an surrendering everything. If it truly wanted to, this fire could devour , burn my soul down to its roots. It wasn't just divine—it felt supported by an entire planet, by sothing ancient and alive... and by the person inside the barrier.
I watched as the wall of fla lted away, dissolving into cinders that drifted upward like ash-born stars, carried off by a gentle wind. It was quiet. Beautiful. Sacred. And then I saw her.
The one who had waited behind the barrier.
She was beautiful before—I rember that much—but now… she was beyond. Like a vision of the world itself carved into the shape of a woman. A goddess not forged to rule the world, but to beco it.
Her crimson hair danced in the flas, glowing like embers caught in a storm, wild and alive, and for a mont I couldn't take my eyes off her. She looked so damn beautiful it almost hurt to look directly at her—there was a softness in her features, a fragile kind of grace, but beneath that delicate fra lay sothing unmistakably demonic. The horns that curled like obsidian crowns, the slender tail that swayed with a mind of its own, and those black wings—thin, sharp, full of dark mory. She hadn't changed. She looked exactly like she did the last ti I saw her, like a mory pulled straight from the depths of fire, and yet... sothing was different. Sothing in the way the flas clung to her, kissed her skin like they belonged to her. And then I saw it—really saw it.
Her body. Her form. Her presence.
It was like mine.
No, not just like. It was mine—or at least, it had been. The wings. The tail. Even the subtle shape of her body beneath the flas. It was all there, all too familiar. And that terrifying realization struck like a blade to the chest.
Had I taken her form without knowing?
Had I been shaped in her image?
Was the I once was—when I wore those sa wings, when I called myself a demon—not my own creation, but a reflection of her? Was I always ant to walk in her footsteps, to beco like her, or was it sothing deeper, sothing planted inside long ago by the other ? And if that's true… then what was I? A reincarnation? A copy? A shadow chasing the ghost of soone else's past?
I didn't know what scared more—the idea that I was becoming her, or the idea that I already had. That I had been molded, bit by bit, soul by soul, into sothing I didn't choose. And the worst part? It felt right. Her presence didn't feel foreign. It felt familiar. Too familiar. Like I had always known her, even when I didn't rember her. Like my fire had always carried the mory of her within it, burning low in the corners of my being, waiting for a mont like this.
And now I had to ask myself—was my existence ever ant to be human at all?
Or was that just another mask, another illusion created by soone else's sins?
Just what the hell did the other do... to make , to make all of us?
The questions were crawling under my skin, hissing through my fla, and I couldn't stop them. I didn't want to. I needed answers. I needed to rip every layer off this truth until I saw the bleeding heart underneath, until I knew why I was born the way I was—and why, even now, I still felt the fire calling ho.
"You really look—and even sll—like her… a perfect copy." Her voice echoed through the air, smooth as smoke, and though her tone was calm, almost affectionate, those words hit sothing raw inside . A perfect copy. That confirmation, no matter how softly it was said, still stung. I didn't know why, but it did. It made my jaw clench. Made my flas hiss under my skin like they wanted to lash out and burn sothing, anything. Maybe it was pride. Maybe it was the thought that I was never truly original. Maybe it was both. All I knew was that I suddenly felt like tearing this whole place apart just to prove I was more than that.
"Haha! Even your fluctuations are the sa," she added with a laugh that sounded both amused and nostalgic, "but don't worry. I don't an you're just a lifeless copy. You're more like a… rebirth. A continuation of the woman who once stood beside as my closest friend. She ca here, created a legacy of her own, burned bright enough to leave a mark even after death. But you're right, too. You're not her. You are just you. And you have every right to feel that way." Her eyes softened as she turned to face fully, that smile blooming across her lips—bright, charming, and warm in a way that pulled at like family, like sothing sacred and long-lost. It felt strange. Too strange. Because I wanted to trust her. I wanted to fall into that smile, to believe it was ant for . And yet, sowhere deep inside, I still felt that hollow ache of being born from soone else's shadow.
"So tell , Lee Gaon," she said, her voice dipping to sothing gentler, sothing solemn, "what is your goal in this life of yours? And why have you co here to et , the old demon who long ago lost any purpose to live?"
I t her gaze without flinching. My answer was already burning on my tongue, bitter and bright.
"My goal?" I scoffed, letting the fire ripple through my skin, letting it show in my voice. "I think you can already feel it. It's to kill him. To destroy every last one of those damned angels. And then? I'll take that fucking throne from all of them. I'll end this endless struggle. And I'll beco the one who rules it all. That's my goal. You don't like it?" I leaned in slightly, my smirk sharp and wild. "You can fuck off."
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