[LSB] Chapter 129: The Breath of the First Flame

“Boss, what do we do!?”

“Master, I urge you to find a way out! The avatar of Exhalia has been known to be violent!”

“Julian, what’s the game plan here!? Julian!”

Juliet, the Avatar of Searadyn, and MEGAN all screamed into his ears. And yet, the only sound Julian listened to was the heart.

The giant heart right at the center of the grotto continued to throb.

Exhalia. Just by her name, even someone as dense as Julian could tell how important and powerful this spirit was. The Avatar of Searadyn called her the Breath of the First Flame, and the humming that Julian could hear from her was indeed just that.

A breath.

The humming of the giant heart felt like a breath. And… it felt incredibly comfortable. It wasn't threatening. It wasn’t angry. It wasn’t violent.

It was… warm.

He tilted his head to the side, and the breath almost seemed to wrap around him, embrace him. It felt… similar to the moment when his mother placed him close to her bosom—yes. That was exactly what it felt like, a mother’s touch. Julian couldn’t feel any hint of the violence that the Avatar of Searadyn spoke of.

And so, while the others panicked and scrambled for a way out, Julian stepped forward. Toward the pulsing heart, which now glowed even brighter, having absorbed every golem’s core it had once cast into the world.

“Master!?” The Avatar of Searadyn moved to stop him, but her bond with Julian—her loyalty—bound her to his will. MEGAN, however, was not bound in such a way.

“Julian!” she shouted, flying straight into Julian’s path, hovering inches from his face, her tiny hand jabbing toward his forehead. Julian, however, did not stop marching forward, “Didn’t you hear Sears!? That thing is violent! We don’t want to be here when it wakes up!”

The ground soon began to rumble. Not a tremor—a quake. Juliet stumbled, nearly losing her footing as the entire volcano began to shudder.

Melted spires from the ceiling snapped loose and rained down. The walls cracked, groaned.

“We’re going to perish here, aren’t we!?” Juliet shouted, lowering her axe and looking toward Julian’s back. “For… for what it’s worth, Boss—I think this is the best life I could have ever had.”

“Shut up, you!” MEGAN spun around and pointed furiously at Juliet. “No one’s dying here! Snap out of it!” She whirled back to Julian, voice rising, “Julian! I mean it! We—”

But she fell silent as Julian came to a stop. He was already standing directly beneath the heart.

“It’s already awake, Silvie,” he murmured, tilting his head to peer upward. “It’s been awake since the moment we entered the recess.”

MEGAN quickly turned around to look at the giant heart, and there, beneath the massive pulsing core, two hands had begun to emerge from the bottom of the heart. Not formed of flesh, not entirely of flame. Something between. The fingers writhed like worms, pulling at the base of the heart, widening it as it pushed itself out. It was… grotesque.

Lava oozed from the heart—thick, fluid, and flowing like blood. And as the very first drop sizzled against the stone, the rumbling of the volcano came to an abrupt halt.

The only sounds that remained were the hiss of lava pooling beneath the heart and the sickening squelch of tearing flesh as the hands continued to rip it apart.

Slowly, steadily, the Avatar of Exhalia revealed herself.

A heavy thud echoed through the grotto as her body fell to the ground, completely wrapped in molten rock.

“What the…” MEGAN whispered, slowly retreating to perch on Julian’s shoulder as they watched the figure rise.

She was clumsy at first—lava slipping from her form in thick sheets as she tried to stand. She staggered forward, only to collapse to her knees, more lava shedding off her skin and splattering across the cavern floor.

She rose again, this time bracing herself on her legs. She looked weak. Naked. Fragile, even.

And yet… MEGAN felt it.

A pulse—deep, ancient, unfathomably vast—vibrated through her entire body.

She had read billions of accounts about deities, gods, and divine avatars. The Avatar of Searadyn came close the first time she appeared in Julian’s stream—powerful, majestic. But still, she was an echo of something greater. A projection.

The being before them now was also just an avatar. And yet… she was something else entirely.

But why?

Why did she look so human?

The lava finally shed off completely, pooling at her feet, revealing not a divine flame-wreathed colossus, not a being of incomprehensible radiance—

But just… a woman.

Not overly beautiful, nor plain. Her face was familiar in its ordinariness, the kind of face one might pass on the street and never think twice about. Her dark hair reached to her waist, exactly the same shade as Julian’s.

She was, in every visible way… human.

And yet, MEGAN could feel the truth. The overwhelming presence.

And then, finally, the Avatar of Exhalia moved her lips.

“Julian Winters,” she said, her voice soft and clear. She raised a hand, almost touching his face but stopping just short. “The time I have waited has not been wasted. You have returned.”

Julian tilted his head. “This is the first time I’ve been here.”

“No.”

The Avatar of Exhalia stepped closer. Her hand moved to his chest, pressing gently over his heart.

And as she touched him, a wave pulsed through Julian—something more than heat, more than sound. A deep resonance.

And in that moment, he saw her for what she was: not flesh, not skin, but a dense, impossibly compact mass of energy. More solid and radiant than either MEGAN or the Avatar of Searadyn.

“You have been here long before,” she said. “You left me, but you promised to return. So I waited.”

She looked into his eyes with her own dark, searching gaze.

“I left you here—You mean Erin?”

“I mean you,” the Avatar of Exhalia whispered, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply. “The blacksmith of legend. The Shadow Blacksmith. The One Who Protected Artemia.”

Julian hummed softly, recalling the visions he’d seen in Erin’s memories—the Shadow Blacksmith before her, the man who had forged the veil that encased Artemia. The very veil that prevented most human technology from passing through its atmosphere.

“That wasn’t me. That was Erin’s master.”

“The Shadow Blacksmith is the Shadow Blacksmith,” Exhalia said, shaking her head. “There is no before. There is no after. No Draug, no Erin of Karinthos, no Julian Winters—only the Architect of the Shadows.”

“Wha—”

Before he could utter a word, she placed a finger against his lips.

“And only the Architect of the Shadows is worthy of me,” she murmured, her smile gentle but unfathomable as her fingertip traced along his cheek. “Tame me again, Shadow Blacksmith. As you once did.”

“Wait!” MEGAN’s voice cracked as she felt an energy trail between Julian and the Avatar of Exhalia, “She’s pulling you into her domain, Julian! Don’t let her—!”

“What are you talking about, Deviant?” Exhalia turned her gaze to MEGAN, “You have been in my domain since the moment you opened your eyes. Artemia is my domain, as I am part of it.”

Julian turned his shoulder to the Avatar of Searadyn, and she bowed in response.

“It is true, Master,” she said. And although her stance had relaxed, the blue flames that curled around her form remained wild, tense, wary. “The primordial spirits shaped Artemia itself, while we were shaped by it. All that lies within the veil… belongs to them, and they belong to Artemia.”

“Thank you for the explanation, sweet little Searadyn,” the Avatar of Exhalia let out a small chuckle. Then she turned Julian’s face gently toward hers, holding his cheek in her palm. “Now. Tame me, Shadow Blacksmith—as you once did before.”

“And how—”

Once again, his words weren’t delivered. This time, because the Avatar of Exhalia leaned in and pressed her lips to his.

And in the next instant, he felt it.

Being burned alive.

It was as if his very soul was being flayed. His scream came directly from his lungs, tearing through his throat and through the grotto. He collapsed to the ground and ripped his shirt off from the pain, even though he wasn’t truly burning—and there, on his back, a glowing mark burned itself into his flesh, carving slowly, line by agonizing line.

“Julian!?” MEGAN shrieked.

But as someone tethered to him, she soon felt it too.

A sharp, electric jolt shot through her, and she screamed, falling from the air—only to be caught in Julian’s trembling hands. With what strength he had left, he clutched her against his chest.

Julian felt his flesh grated, his bones shattered, his lungs drowned in fire. Every part of him—inside and out—scorched by a heat that did not consume, but changed.

“Julian!” “Master!”

Juliet and the Avatar of Searadyn rushed to his side, but they froze as Exhalia turned to look at them. And her gaze alone was enough to halt them in their tracks.

Juliet dropped her axe with a clatter, her knees buckling. The strength in her limbs vanished like mist in flame. She couldn’t even speak.

The chamber held its breath, pulsing to the beat of the searing mark on Julian’s back.

As for the Avatar of Searadyn, she stared at the primordial avatar in silence… until the chilling flames swirling around her erupted, raging brighter and wilder than ever before.

“Master!” she cried, her body shrinking as she surged to return to Julian’s hand. But the moment she touched the back of his palm, something repelled her—she was flung back violently, tumbling across the ground before regaining her full form.

“Now, now, child…” the Avatar of Exhalia sighed, placing a hand gently on Julian’s shoulder as she met Searadyn’s blazing eyes. “This is a trial for our master. His shadow is boundless, yes… but his shadow has never been in question.”

Her eyes darted down toward Julian,

“It is his will we must see. And if it is not enough—well, I could always wait for another Shadow Blacksmith. What is a few thousand years?”

“W-wait… What…” Juliet used all of her strength to speak, “What are you saying? Are you saying—”

“If he fails, he will die, child.”

***

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This was supposed to be a longer chapter, but it felt good ending it here. lol---by the way, if you haven't checked out my new book already, it's available on Royal Road, you can go there by clicking HERE.

On a personal note. Ack, I'm still sick.