Heart of the Fire

The pigeon cooed proudly as it plunged into the raging inferno. It deftly evaded all of the fire snakes grasping at its wings and quickly found a relatively safe path through the flames. With the way secured, it came back to Adam and chirped urgently.

Speed was paramount now. The fire was everchanging and the safe passage found by the bird could vanish at any time. The bird flapped its wings and took point, guiding Adam toward the other side.

Adam's face was covered by the wet sleeve torn from his hoodie. He was fully concentrated on his surroundings as he ran swiftly behind his guide. His enhanced senses picked up every minute change in the flames that raged around him.

Every gust of wind and every fluctuation in the temperature were registered in his mind and taken into account as he sped through the blaze.

He could barely keep up with the bird only thanks to his increased attributes. Even before the Impact, Adam had been very fit for his age. Now though, running through the fiery hell, he felt that his body reached a new peak.

Nevertheless, Adam was only a human. Puffs of black, oily smoke blew into his eyes and through the wet cloth, blinding him and making him cough and gasp for air. Tongues of fire licked his sides, sending stabs of pain through his body and igniting the air that managed to reach his lungs.

Despite all of this, Adam didn't waver. He had a goal. One that he would achieve no matter what stood in his way. He had to reach his family. His daughter and pregnant wife were waiting for him at home and he wouldn't fail them. Because of this, he would get through the firestorm alive.

He kept his eyes on the damned bird, as it swished through the fire seemingly with no effort and followed it closely. He barely noticed large amounts of the Tainted moving willingly through the flames.

They were all around him, walking or crawling on the ground, all in the same direction. Their eyes were singed with an otherworldly fire and even as they burned alive in the inferno, they never stopped moving forward.

As the Tainted died in droves, white mist rose from their burning corpses and continued the journey in their sted. It danced and swirled in the air making the fire around it grow hotter and gain unnatural crimson hues.

Adam was slowly losing hope. He was almost blind and every part of his body screamed in pain. He didn't give voice to his suffering only because he feared what the flames would do to him if he opened his mouth even for a second. He lost sight of the bird in the thick black smoke some time ago and he couldn't run as fast as before. He was stumbling through the fire using nothing more than his intuition.

He gradually came to terms with the fact that he would die here. He didn't regret his decision, only the fact that he wouldn't be able to see his family again. He still didn't surrender though and pressed forward stubbornly.

As more time passed, Adam was forced to crawl, moving only thanks to his indomitable will. Countless charred bones of the Tainted crunched beneath his body as he blindly moved forward on his hands and knees.

He was only half-conscious at this point. His clothes burned away already, exposing his skin to the flames. It was painted black and his lungs were filled with nothing but smoke.

Just as Adam's mind was finally about to give in to the darkness, a gust of cold wind caressed his face. His burned skin cracked as he smiled, thinking that he finally died, but a triumphant shriek of a bird woke him from his stupor.

He managed to just barely open his eyes and saw that he reached a safe haven amongst the roaring flames. He was in the eye of a fiery tornado, a peaceful zone created in the heart of the inferno. Outside of it, the blaze rose ever higher, fed by the converging mist and enraged by the fact that Adam survived the journey.

The pigeon sat on the mound of burned bones located at the border of the circle of tranquility, cooing brightly as if nothing happened. An enormous crater occupied the middle of the area. It marred the ground like a festering wound and at its center, Adam saw the shard, the cause of it all. One of the many pieces of the asteroid laid before his eyes, and among its shattered remains, Adam saw a large green gem. It hovered above the ground and slowly absorbed all the mist coming to it through the flames.

As Adam gazed upon it, he heard a deep, hoarse voice in his head.

[Welcome, Inheritor of Blood.]

The voice echoed in his mind as a sound and a vision at the same time, not unlike the messages sent by the Ouroboros System. Despite the similarities, it couldn't belong to the same being. It vibrated with barely contained emotions. It sounded almost human in a way.

[I was waiting for you.]

Experiencing the voice, Adam lost control of his body. It moved on its own, and crawled forward, approaching the mysterious crystal. The last thing that Adam saw before he finally lost consciousness was the green otherworldly flame bursting from the crystal and coiling around his body. Then, there was only darkness.

After Adam lost consciousness, his body was lifted from the ground by the green flame and pulled gently toward the gem. A small part of the gathered mist converged on him and began mending his broken, charred body.

When Adam reached the crystal, it sucked in all of the remaining mist and began pulsing with an eerie light. In time, the pulses synchronized with the steady beating of Adam's heart, and the two pulsed in unison.

When it happened, the crystal moved. It slowly approached Adam's chest, flickering with anticipation. At the moment the two touched, the gem became translucent and sunk into Adam's torso.

When the crystal merged with him, Adam's body gently floated down and onto the ground. The healing process sped up and the gruesome burns covering Adam vanished in a matter of seconds.

The silence was broken by a victorious hiss of the flames. Without the crystal, the invisible barrier that kept them at bay vanished, and now the fire was ready to claim this territory and finally get its prey.

Just as the flames leaped forward, a drop of water fell on Adam's lips. As it flowed into his mouth, more and more drops of water began to fall, and the scorched earth welcomed its first rain in weeks. A violent storm attacked the fire, dousing it in a matter of minutes.

The parched land drank the water greedily, silently screaming with joy. Deep in the earth rivers of white mist roiled, slowly nourishing and changing everything around it.

Adam wasn't aware of any of this though. After merging with the crystal, he entered a deep, dreamless slumber.

When the green gem entered Adam, deep beneath the surface of the ocean, a similar crystal flickered slightly.

It rested on the seabed, amongst the broken pieces of the shard, countless fish carcasses floating around it.

The crystal was greedily absorbing the white mist released by the corpses. A small part of it was sent toward a large creature coiled around the gem. As the particles of light were gradually entering it, the creature slowly changed.

[One of us has found a suitable vessel already] The gem suddenly spoke with surprise.

Another green crystal, buried in snow on a slope of a majestic mountain, gave a listless sigh.

[A vessel has been found. How unfortunate.]

There was no mist around it, but a circle of people draped in loose robes, chanting an arcane sutra in unison.

The crystal dimmed with every uttered verse until its light flickered out and it dropped to the ground.

One of the robed figures, an old bald man, approached it at this point and stored it in an ornate metal box.

In a city ruined by the Impact, a young girl approached a shard of the asteroid embedded in the earth. Her clothes were old and tattered, and numerous bruises were visible on her body.

[You must hurry little one. You must free me as soon as possible. One of the other me already secured a vessel.]

The girl nodded seriously, determination flickering in her eyes. She would do anything for her savior.

As Adam slept, the bird landed on his bare chest. The green flame that was everpresent in its eyes slowly left it and rose to the air.

It flickered for a moment in hesitation before it followed the green crystal and vanished into Adam's body.

The bird looked around startled. It cooed sadly, thinking about its partner, and flew off, finally in control of its own body.