The air was different when they returned to the surface of Floor 18.
Lighter.
Colder.
As if the Dungeon itself was holding its breath.
Noah stepped ahead of the group, golden fire still trailing faintly from his shoulders like smoldering ash. His body had adapted to the Apocalypse Core, but the power… hadn't settled.
It wasn't quiet.
It pulsed in him now. A second heartbeat. Stronger. Louder.
Too loud.
Welf noticed it first. "You're not walking the same."
Noah stopped. "I'm not the same."
Lili scoffed, arms crossed. "You say that like it's news. You're glowing."
Cassandra walked beside him, her voice soft. "You brought something back with you."
Noah said nothing.
Because the truth was, they were right.
He could still hear Kevin's voice.
Not a full consciousness. Not possession. But an echo.
A warning.
A whisper.
"You're not ready yet. But you're close."
---
The Guild's Floor 18 checkpoint was chaotic when they returned. Reports of tremors had reached the upper floors. Multiple teams had gone missing near the Floor 19 entry—and now the Guild's top officials wanted answers.
Noah gave them none.
Just handed over the scrolls, the relic fragments, and a sealed crystal encoded with data from the tower.
Then he left.
Back to the surface.
Back to her.
---
Night had already fallen over Orario when he walked into the ruined church.
The moment the door opened, Hestia leapt from her chair and launched into him like a fireball.
"Noah!" she shouted. "I swear if you don't stop giving me heart attacks—"
He caught her easily, arms wrapping around her waist as he steadied her. "I'm alive."
She pulled back just enough to glare into his eyes—and then froze.
"…You're not."
He blinked. "What?"
"You're… burning."
He tilted his head. "Always have been."
"No," she said softly. "Your soul. It's hotter now. It's screaming."
Her divine senses flared. She placed a hand against his chest—right over the Ember Core.
"I can feel someone else inside you."
Noah nodded.
"Kevin."
Hestia's eyes widened. "He's… taking over?"
"No," he said. "But he's… awake."
She stepped back, her fists clenched. "You need to slow down."
"I can't."
"Noah—!"
He met her eyes, calm but heavy.
"I have to burn. Because if I stop now, it won't just be me that dies."
She looked like she wanted to scream.
Instead, she walked to the table, picked up a small wrapped cloth, and shoved it into his hands.
"Then take this. From her."
Noah unwrapped it.
Inside was a steel coin, blackened with time but etched with fire runes.
"The blacksmith came by," Hestia muttered. "Said you'd know what to do."
He did.
He left immediately.
---
The forge waited for him at midnight—exactly where he'd first found it.
The blacksmith stood at the anvil, hammer already glowing. She didn't greet him.
Just motioned to the cloth bundle.
"You saw the tower," she said.
"I was the tower."
She nodded once. "Then you're ready."
He handed her the coin.
She took it gently, then placed it on the anvil.
"The first weapon Kevin forged for himself wasn't Heaven's Judgement," she said. "It was this."
Noah raised a brow. "A coin?"
"It's not a weapon yet," she replied. "But it remembers."
She poured molten essence over it—pulled from a hidden forge core—and began to shape it.
"Memories forged into steel… that's how Kaslanas live on."
As she hammered, Noah felt something twist inside him.
A surge.
A flicker of anger. Fear. Grief.
Not his.
Kevin's.
Images flashed in his mind: A battlefield drowning in ash. Mei's dying scream. A monster that could not be burned.
He staggered.
The blacksmith didn't stop hammering.
"You're not merging yet," she said. "But the closer you get to the Deep, the thinner the wall becomes."
He gritted his teeth. "How do I stop him from overtaking me?"
"You don't," she said.
"You accept him."
The final hammer strike rang out.
And she held the weapon up.
Not a coin anymore.
A blade.
Short. Curved. Forged of blacksteel flame. The hilt pulsed faintly with Kevin's crest.
"Not a sword for slaying monsters," she whispered.
"A sword for killing truths."
> [New Weapon Acquired: Sunveil – Flame Echo Blade]
Type: Sub-Weapon / Memory Forged
Effects: Unlocks hidden memory-triggered techniques. Passively purges mental corruption when unsheathed.]
Noah took it.
The moment his hand closed around the hilt—
He heard Kevin clearly for the first time.
"Good. Now let's finish what I couldn't."
---
Back at the church, Hestia sat at the window, watching stars she could barely see through tears she wouldn't let fall.
She felt it the moment Noah re-entered the city.
Stronger.
Sharper.
Scarier.
But still… him.
"Please," she whispered. "Don't let the fire erase you."
---
Because far below the city, something ancient twisted awake.
A pulse shook the Dungeon's lowest sealed chamber.
And in the dark, the voice that haunted Kevin once…
Now whispered to Noah.
"I see you now, flameborn.
Come.
I remember how you burn."