Trial by Fire
I felt eyes gleaming like molten iron in a furnace fixed upon me.
A raptor standing atop a pile of ashes stared at me intently. These were the eyes of a predator sizing up its prey.
My instincts screamed at me from the deepest part of my being. My body tensed up naturally, urging me to run from the monster before my eyes.
Instinctive terror.
The moment it struck, flames erupted from my body.
Flames of Fear
“Ugh?!”
I groaned from the searing pain and reflexively rolled across the ground to extinguish the fire. Asha must have thought it was over; she indifferently turned her gaze away from me. Her expression said she had simply done what was expected.
The flame feathers that had detached from Asha’s body spread fire in every direction. As always, vivid red flames engulfed the monstrous bird. The inferno swallowed the entire world.
Nothing remained untouched by those flames. Even Asha, their master, had become fire itself and was burning. Only I stood unscathed at the center of that blazing heat.
“Hoo…”
I somehow managed to keep rolling until I finally put out the flames clinging to me. Letting out a sigh of relief, I stood up and covered my nose with one hand to shield my lungs from the scorching air.
“...What?”
Shock burst from Asha’s lips. She clearly hadn’t expected me to overcome her flames. Denial poured out of her, as though she were facing something impossible.
“This… this is impossible…?”
“There’s no such thing as impossible. This is Shion.”
I snorted and shot back at her muttering. The raptor’s eyes locked onto me once more.
“Hot!”
Flames rose across my body again. This time, however, I simply brushed them off lightly without making a fuss. The first time had been terrifying, but fear dulls once you’ve seen it enough times.
“Why…”
I had expected her to ask why I wasn’t burning, but Asha’s next cry was slightly different.
“Why won’t it go out?”
Why won’t it go out? That didn’t seem like the right thing to say in this situation. Still, it was probably part of the same question—why I wasn’t burning. The answer was simple.
Because I had no reason to fear Asha.
No matter how I thought about it, fondness kept winning out. My affection for the people living in this world called Last Shion.
This city was a rotten place where money could buy anything and human lives were treated like garbage. It was impossible to like.
But the people who lived in it were different. Maybe it was because I had spent so long immersed in their lives, wishing I could live alongside them.
Fondness kept blooming inside me. I probably loved the game Last Shion far more than I had realized. Even in this life-or-death moment, I felt genuine joy at meeting a character from the original story in person.
That was why Asha’s flames couldn’t inflict any real damage on me. They tried to blaze fiercely but quickly fell away. I tightened my grip on the spear and slowly closed the distance between us.
Asha seemed stunned that her power had no effect. She simply stared down at the ground. This was my chance. I was about to drive my spear into her defenseless body—she wasn’t even releasing her Mental Image—when—
“Then… I’m useless!”
Her voice exploded like a seizure. Flames burst from Asha once more, blasting everything around her into oblivion.
“Ugh…!”
The heat didn’t harm me, but it incinerated and hurled away everything else. The flames she emitted were so intense they even devoured her own body. Molten liquid streamed from Asha’s eyes. Her orange wings burned away, and new wings of flame sprouted from the charred branches.
I remained untouched by the flames, but that didn’t mean I could push through them.
“Kgh…”
There was only one way to end this. I had to charge straight through the fire and rip out Asha’s heart. But even that was far from easy.
Just one step. The heat grew so intense after advancing even that much that it was almost unbearable. If I forced my way past this line, I would be reduced to ashes.
Asha’s ability burned fear. The flames she was radiating now had to be her own terror.
Fear is contagious. Even the smallest speck of it mixes with another’s and swells until it becomes a mountain. The reason I couldn’t approach any further was likely because my own instinctive fear was mixing with hers.
To take even one more step, I would have to completely erase my fear. But how?
Fear isn’t an emotion you can simply discard. It’s directly tied to survival—especially primal fear born from fire.
If it had been Hwa-ryeong, she would have spoken of a clear mind or something. Emptying your heart to drive out fear.
But I wasn’t a swordsman. Emptying my mind was far too difficult for me.
So I chose the complete opposite approach. Instead of emptying my heart, I would cover it up. I would bury the fear beneath a stronger emotion and overcome the flames that way.
Simply imagining it would be impossible. Imagination vanishes into thin air too easily. But what if I could watch something that would continuously overwrite it in real time?
“……”
None of it seemed particularly helpful for covering up my fear. If anything, it would only make the fear worse. Still, the last one might be somewhat useful.
“…”
This wasn’t enough. The only thing I felt while reading was pity. I needed something stronger—something more primal and intense. To overcome fear, I needed a far more stimulating emotion. But was it really that easy to find a community post capable of stirring such feelings?
In a world where it was already hard to encounter books or writing that moved the heart, could I really find a forum post that did the same?
“Ah.”
At that moment, an idea that sounded both ridiculous and strangely plausible popped into my head. It was impossible to ignore. In theory, it was perfect. No, it really was.
“……”
Well. They do say fear and lust are two sides of the same coin. Both are primal emotions, so it should be enough to overwrite the fear. Just as I was about to type the search term, one question made my hand pause.
But… are there even any Asha lewd images?
I’m not exactly speciesist, but Asha is a harpy. Half-human, half-bird. Do characters like that even have that kind of fanart?
Whatever. Let’s just search. They say everything in existence has lewd images. The otakus would probably anthropomorphize her somehow. I entered the search term.
Some unknown new world unfolded before me. Had I searched for the right thing? What the hell was a “baby food dispenser”? Why did every title sound like it had nothing to do with humans?
Whatever. This was good enough. At least while I was looking at these, I wouldn’t feel any fear.
Just as I thought, simply reading the titles made the scorching heat lessen noticeably. I kept the lewd images open in the corner of my vision and charged straight into the flames. To survive until the end.
Inside the inferno, I met the gaze of the raptor whose eyes dripped molten iron.
#
I am a monster who deserves to die.
You are a monstrous bird who devoured your own parents.
You are useless.
Those are the words Grandfather always said to me.
I know exactly why I hear them. I possess the greatest talent for reading emotions, yet I was lazy and caused my parents’ deaths. Because I failed to awaken in time, I am useless.
Someone as useless as me must prove their worth if they don’t want to be abandoned. So I worked desperately. I awakened late and obeyed everything Grandfather said. It hurts to do what he tells me, but that is because I am useless.
So I must endure. Until the day Grandfather says I did well. As I waited for this moment to end amid the burning logs like always, Grandfather, who looked pleased, came to find me. Even before hearing his voice, I could sense intense joy radiating from him.
“Asha. The time has finally come.”
“Time…?”
“Yes. Now no one will be able to look down on us. Once they see your performance, everyone will fear you. Hehehe…”
I still don’t understand what Grandfather means. But there is one thing I do know. If I carry out Grandfather’s request well here, I will finally be acknowledged as useful.
“Asha. Burn everything. Show them the power of the Red Tower. Display your Mental Image so everyone can see it. Make them all fear you.”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
“Show your flames to everyone.”
Flames.
Flames are terrifying. They hurt when they touch you. And above all, they steal my precious memories.
Still, the good thing is that flames can even burn fear itself. Thanks to that, I feel no fear while producing them. That is how I can be useful to Grandfather.
To be useful to him, I close my eyes tightly and wait. The waiting time is quite long, but I don’t dislike it. In this darkness, I don’t have to see the flames. If possible, I want to keep my eyes closed like this forever.
“…?”
While I waited with my eyes closed, a twinkling light appeared in the darkness. It was a light I hadn’t seen in a very, very long time. Pure goodwill sparkled amid the ashen fear and captured my gaze. It was so beautiful I wanted to open my eyes and see it directly.
But I must not open them. No matter how beautiful the star, stars can only shine in darkness. If I open my eyes to see the star, everything will burn away. So I endured.
Even if it was a star I had to burn anyway.
And finally, the time to open my eyes arrived. For Grandfather. To escape this hellish pit of fire. I open my eyes and look at the burning world.
I feel the pain of feathers and skin burning together. My eyes melt from the heat. To end the pain quickly, I soar high into the sky. As if my wings are melting and causing me to fall, I surrender my body to the flames and burn everything.
In that burning world, I see the light once more. This time I fly toward the star at full speed to take it into my eyes. But even as I draw closer, I cannot see the star. As always, only flames remain. That was how it had to be.
“…What?”
This time is different. The light is still visible. A brilliant light shines within the flames. A star that continues to shine even while wrapped in fire. A star that has already been burned once should never shine again.
“This is impossible…?”
“There’s no such thing as impossible. This is Shion.”
This cannot happen. It must burn.
“Why…”
That light must be extinguished.
“Why won’t it go out?”
The light must disappear. If I cannot follow Grandfather’s orders, I am useless.
“Then I’m useless!”
I cannot be useless. Because then I cannot leave this place.
Cannot leave? From this pit of fire?
“Ah…”
The thought of being unable to escape this hellish place makes even greater terror boil up inside me. The flames consume my body more violently. Heat surges through my skin. The resulting flames blaze fiercely and completely incinerate everything around me.
So that nothing else can be seen. So that only the terrible flames remain. They trap me inside the pit.
And at that moment—
“Ah…”
Whoosh.
Someone burst through the flames. A foreign object entered my world that had contained nothing but fire. It radiated a mysterious light I had never seen before.
That sight instantly captured my heart. It stopped my feet, which had instinctively tried to retreat. If this continued, I would fail to follow Grandfather’s orders.
Yet… why? If I could keep looking at this sight, I thought maybe it wouldn’t matter.
I could no longer see any flames in my eyes. That was an incredibly comforting feeling.
The final survivor has emerged.
#