The Return of the Doom Omen

Firelight from the Curse-Mourning Sword fell across Nuen's face. His expression did not change, but his grip tightened until his knuckles turned white.

"I can smell Chaos on you. I never thought an oathbreaker would dare appear before me."

Nuen's voice rasped when he said "oathbreaker," the word almost forced through clenched teeth.

"Ha! I have a few things to rely on. That's why I dared come before you."

Deathbird's voice was full of respect. "You're much older than I imagined, and not quite as... sharp as the rumors claimed."

"I thought you'd attack the instant you spotted us, without a word."

Deathbird began describing the Nuen he had imagined.

"I figured you'd kill Gene and Toren first. They're oathbreakers like me. You'd never let them go."

Gene and Toren were Torchbearers too, men who had broken their oaths.

Deathbird continued, "Killing those two would take you a few seconds at most. Hardly a challenge."

Gene and Toren instinctively held their breath, as though they had already died once in Deathbird's account.

"Then there's Tania. You must have noticed she's a Starwatcher. In the Interstice Gray Domain, she could prove unexpectedly useful."

Deathbird's gaze swept across their faces one by one before he finally spoke of himself.

"Once every unpredictable factor was dealt with, you'd come for me."

Deathbird stepped forward and stopped at the edge of the line of fire.

"But you didn't attack. Instead, you're standing here with me, doing nothing, even though you hate oathbreakers so much... You've gone dull, Nuen. Is someone forcing you to hold back? Are you struggling to keep your anger in check?"

Deathbird shifted to one side, looking past Nuen's shoulder toward White Cliff Town.

"Oh, is it them? The people in White Cliff Town?"

Before he finished speaking, a lethal slash came down toward his head. Firelight condensed into a single blazing edge.

Deathbird raised his sword in time to block it, but the tremendous force drove him back several steps, leaving him stumbling.

"Ha! Don't be so tense, Nuen. We don't need to cross swords. I only want to... talk."

Deathbird steadied himself and laughed, seemingly unconcerned that Nuen might press his advantage.

"I have nothing to discuss with Chaos Followers," Nuen said coldly.

"Then what are you waiting for? Why not cut us down?" Deathbird saw through him. "Or are you buying time for the people of White Cliff Town to prepare?"

"How foolish. Has living in seclusion made you stupid? You know perfectly well that even if they give it everything they have, it won't change a thing."

Deathbird took a deep breath. "Since they need time to prepare, you might as well hear me out."

Nuen remained silent, sword in hand, guarding the ground behind the line of fire.

"Don't you feel this world losing hope, little by little? Forget the other extraordinary powers. Just look at the Torchbearers.

"The Torchbearers were founded to drive back the long night. But look at them now."

Deathbird mercilessly laid bare the truth of the age.

"The Ember Remnant fights in scattered bands. The Firekeeping Cult clings to its old ways."

"And what's more..."

"The Expeditionary Pathfinder has vanished. The Secret-Speech Sage has lost himself in the Origin Sea. The Heavenly Craftsman Iron Father hides in the Red Castle, where the sound of hammering is all anyone hears, day and night."

"This is not merely an age of isolation," Deathbird declared. "It is an age of stagnation. And stagnation means death."

"So?"

In the past, Nuen would never have shown an oathbreaker such patience. But he had grown old.

Age was a curse no one could escape. Only the Giant Gods were spared.

And age was not Nuen's only burden. To keep White Cliff Town alive, he had long refined excessive amounts of Soul Marrow from his own body, leaving him in a constant state of near-exhaustion. He was no different now.

"So..."

Deathbird considered his words for a long moment. "Join us, Nuen."

"Break my oath and join Chaos?" Nuen laughed. "Are you joking?"

"No. I'm serious, Nuen." Deathbird's expression turned grave. "And we aren't the Chaos power you think we are. In fact, we share the same goal."

"The same goal?"

Nuen stared at him, unsure whether he had misheard or Deathbird had gone mad.

"Yes. Perhaps you won't believe me, but I'll say it anyway. Our goal is to save this dying world."

Fervor lit Deathbird's face as he spoke of his purpose.

"Save the world! Save this closed, isolated world!"

To show his sincerity, Deathbird lowered the Curse-Mourning Sword and planted its crooked tip in the ground.

Nuen ignored his fervor. "I'm old and worthless. Did you really come all this way just for me?"

"Of course not, Nuen. You're worthless, but what you brought out of the Dark World is another matter."

Deathbird took a few steps forward, returning to the line of fire. His voice turned teasing.

"It's the hope of rebuilding the Sunflower Clan."

Nuen froze. Source Energy surged through him, lighting up his capillaries until glowing webs seemed to cover his body.

Sparks danced between Nuen's teeth as he breathed, as though his throat opened straight into a hell of molten rock.

"You fled Daylight Holy City with it all those years ago. You ran and ran, with both the Firekeeping Cult and the Chaos Followers hunting you. Even we once thought you had died one night in the Wilderness."

"The Sunflower Clan has no hope of being rebuilt," Deathbird said bluntly. "Rather than take it to the grave with you, give it to me."

Nuen did not answer. His sword burned, its crimson glare searing the eye.

Even before that roaring fire, Deathbird kept his lofty bearing.

"I looked into White Cliff Town's plight before coming here. I can save everyone. I can do more than take them to live in Her City. I could even send them to the Flamecore Inner Ring, or let them live in the sanctuary itself."

Deathbird held out his hand. "All you have to do is give it to me."

"So word got out after all?" Nuen said without expression. "I distinctly remember killing everyone who knew."

"You did kill everyone who knew. Even the Firekeeping Cult's investigation into you ended years ago." Deathbird's tone shifted to mockery. "But it seems you don't understand that thing's true power."

"The moment it left its vessel and returned to this world, every living being felt its lingering heat."

He asked, "Can you hide the rise of a blazing sun?"

Nuen smiled as though a weight had lifted from him and raised his longsword high.

"Then I'll kill everyone who knows, one more time."

Nuen's spine thrust outward like a steel beam buckling in a furnace. The flames of his Soul Marrow charred his skin into scales, and magma-bright blood churned beneath every crack.

Reeking of sulfur and scorched flesh, Nuen slowly swung his sword. The bricks beneath his feet melted into glass, and the heat twisted the air into a spiraling wail, as if thousands of tormented souls had wrapped themselves around the blade.

In that moment, the long-dormant blade was truly drawn from its sheath, and its full power stood revealed.

"The records say you were only at Rank Four the last time anyone saw you."

Deathbird laughed aloud. "As expected of the last of the Sunflower Clan! You advanced even further, reaching Rank Five and becoming an Embermark War Duke!"

At the same time, darkness fell completely. Twin moons appeared, Grey Fog spread across the land, and countless demons materialized from thin air.

Nuen unleashed a tornado of flame. Twisted figures broke apart within it, scattering sheets of ash.

A deadly blast of hot wind struck them. Deathbird stood firm at the front, but blisters instantly spread across Gene's and Toren's skin, and the hems of their clothes caught fire.

"The Three Sages tried to unite everyone behind noble ideals, but they failed. Perhaps it's time we tried another path."

Deathbird preached from within the flames.

"It's time to abandon that naive dream. Virtue and honor cannot unite anyone!

"Only knives and swords, only absolute power ruling this world, can save them all!"

He reached out to meet the oncoming blast of scorching wind.

The heat burned away Deathbird's glove. Amid the crumbling ash, a tattoo appeared on the back of his hand.

A black raven with its wings spread.

"No... That's impossible."

Nuen stared at the tattoo in disbelief. It struck him like a hammer blow, almost shattering his resolve.

"That siege a hundred years ago..."

What happened at the end of that siege? Nuen demanded of himself.

"Nothing is impossible." Deathbird displayed the tattoo for him to see. "The Sunflower Clan's century-long campaign failed. But we, the Doom Omen Clan, survived."

At the words "Doom Omen Clan," Nuen's mind went blank.

"The hatred between our clans is a hundred years old, Nuen. I don't want to kill a member of the Sunflower Clan. If we can, let's work together!"

"For this world!"

Nuen answered with Source Energy that climbed wildly and Soul Marrow that burst into full flame.

He crossed the line of fire, his roar like thunder.

"What a shame..."

Deathbird cut open his own chest with a dagger. A crimson, crooked shoot slowly emerged.

Its stem twisted in a spiral like a tentacle forged from lava. Tiny, sharp scales covered it, glimmering with a dark phosphorescence.

It grew without restraint, bloomed, and became a blazing sun!

What a warped scarlet sun it was. Its outline blurred, its edges swelling and shrinking as though kneaded by invisible hands.

Wild patterns like sunflower petals covered its surface, as restless and agitated as lines flung across a canvas.

Its light offered no gentle comfort. It became blade-sharp scarlet rays that sliced wildly through space, bathing everything on the ground in blood-red light.

The Interstice Gray Domain churned and boiled. Enough Source Energy to crush reality poured forth, bringing the physical world to the brink as parts of it collapsed toward the Spirit Realm.

It was power from something supremely exalted. Before it, Nuen and the Boiling Sword in his hand seemed terribly frail.

Gazing at the scarlet sun that could burn out his eyes, Nuen murmured,

"Abomination..."