In a world where the gods demand pain as tribute, Yuda has served as the Great Shrine Maiden of Asterion for over a century—a Regeneration-blessed tool of the state, burning and healing without end, never permitted to die. She has long since stopped believing in the voice she speaks for.
But when a northern village is reduced to ash by a rogue flame-blessed, Yuda is dispatched to investigate. What she finds is a young man consumed by fire that will not kill him, cradling the charred body of a g
Fire Punch: Flame of Atonement - Cave at the Edge of Ice — Two People Around the Bonfire
The snow of the Ice-Rim Mountains devoured sound.
Each gust of wind sent powder swirling, painting the world white. The color of the sky, the contours of the mountainside, even their own footprints—none of it survived beyond the memory of a few seconds past. The world had narrowed to the cold that stabbed her lungs with every breath, and the howl of wind groaning deep in her ears.
Yuda wore a gray overcoat atop her white vestments, clutching its collar tight. The coat was years worn thin, barely serving any purpose against the cold. Snow slipped through the gaps in the fabric, and every time it touched her neck, a wrenching chill shot across her skin.
(It's cold.)
Yuda thought.
(A hundred and thirty years I've lived in this body, and)
(I never once grew used to the cold.)
The blessing of regeneration closed wounds, knit bone, restored lost flesh to its rightful shape. But it did not drive away the chill. When her body temperature fell, her flesh trembled honestly, sensation dulled at her fingertips, and even her thoughts grew sluggish. The blessing was not a power that erased pain. It was a power that endured pain and returned the body to wholeness.
Yuda pressed forward, one step, then another, through snow that buried her to the knees.
Behind her, Aguni walked.
No—"walked" was not quite accurate.
The fifteen-year-old boy's arms were bound behind his back, an iron collar around his neck, and Yuda held the chain that ran from it. It was a measure to keep a flame-blessed from having free limbs. The chain was forged from a special alloy made by the Blessed Management Bureau, and even Aguni's flames could not easily melt it.
Aguni's entire body was wrapped, today as always, in flames that would not go out.
When snow touched his body, it evaporated on contact. A ceaseless hiss filled the air, white steam rising from his flesh. With every step he took, the snow beneath his feet melted to expose bare ground, and that ground was scorched black by his fire. Behind him stretched a trail of charred earth.
The boy within the flames walked with his head bowed.
His short, dark-brown hair was crimped by the heat, the tips smoldering red. His amber eyes, wet with pain, could not focus. Beneath skin that burned raw and regenerated and burned raw again, his muscles convulsed without pause.
He was not breathing.
No—he had no need to breathe. The flames burned his body, regeneration repaired it, and that cycle kept him alive. Breathing was an unnecessary motion for his flesh.
Yuda tightened her grip on the chain.
(This boy is walking through pain.)
(With every step, his skin burns, peels, regenerates.)
(How long has he endured that agony?)
She reached a hand to her own back. Beneath her coat, the wing-shaped stigma of her blessing radiated heat. The stigma of regeneration gave off warmth each time her body was wounded, working to repair the damage. In a hundred and thirty years, that stigma had never once gone cold.
(I too have lived inside pain.)
(But my pain lasts an instant.)
(I'm wounded, and it heals at once. The pain does not linger.)
(This boy's pain never ends.)
(As long as the flames burn, it goes on forever.)
Yuda faced forward.
Her field of vision was, as ever, pure white.
―――
The blizzard intensified.
Wind raced up the mountainside, driving snow at them sideways. She could not see a few steps ahead; even her own feet were uncertain. Yuda stopped and tried to survey her surroundings, but all that met her eyes was white darkness.
(Not good.)
(If we keep going like this—a cliff, or a crevasse.)
(The pass through the Ice-Rim Mountains is dangerous even in clear weather.)
(In a blizzard, it's a death sentence.)
Yuda tugged the chain.
"We stop here."
Aguni said nothing. He simply halted. His flame-wreathed body looked almost eerily vivid against the snow. In the white blizzard, only his form gave off a wavering light of orange and red.
(Even in this blizzard, this boy's flames don't go out.)
(No matter how much snow falls on him.)
(No matter how the wind beats against him.)
Yuda searched the surrounding terrain. Drawing on memory, she pictured the mountainside here. The southern slope of the Ice-Rim Mountains, roughly half a day from the pass. There were supposed to be several caves in this area, dug long ago by ice beasts.
From the direction of the wind and the slant of the slope, she worked out a rough bearing.
"This way."
Yuda pulled Aguni's chain and set off cutting across the slope.
Aguni followed in silence.
At his feet, snow melted, exposing black earth. That ground, lit by his flames, floated dimly out of the white. Yuda used that light to check her footing as she went.
(To think this boy's flames would prove useful out here.)
(Irony.)
Before long, she spotted a black hole opening in the slope.
A cave.
The entrance was large enough for one adult to pass through stooped, and the interior was dark, its depth unknowable. Yuda stopped before the entrance.
(There may be ice beasts inside.)
(But in this blizzard, there's no choice but to take shelter.)
(Better to fight an ice beast than freeze to death in the storm.)
Yuda drew a short blade from inside her coat. As a regeneration-blessed, she had no real need of weapons. But to crack an ice beast's carapace, an edge made things faster.
"We're going in. If anything's in there, drive it off with your flames."
Aguni raised his face for the first time.
Within the flames, his amber eyes fixed steadily on Yuda.
"...You... go in first..."
His voice was hoarse. A rasping voice, broken by pain.
"If I... go in after... the entrance'll... melt..."
Yuda was, for a moment, at a loss for words.
(True enough.)
(This boy's body is always burning.)
(If the cave mouth is narrow, his body will touch it, and the rock will melt.)
(The rock melts, and the entrance seals shut.)
"...Understood."
Short blade at the ready, Yuda stepped into the cave.
Cold air flowed out from the depths. Wind mixed with snow struck the cave walls and whistled. Yuda advanced inward, one hand on the wall.
A few steps in, the cave opened up abruptly.
It was a space large enough for several adults to lie down. The ceiling was high, tall enough to stand and walk. The floor was rock, and dry. Toward the back she could see the traces of an old campfire. Someone had once passed a night in this cave.
(Here we can wait out the blizzard.)
Yuda moved deeper in and stopped beside the fire scar.
"Come in."
Aguni entered from the mouth of the cave.
As his body passed through the entrance, the rock wall hissed and glowed red, melting slightly. The molten rock dripped down and cooled on the floor.
Aguni walked to the center of the cave and sat down where he stood.
His flames lit the cave walls.
Shadows of fire wavered across the rock. Red light reached into every corner, staining Yuda's white hair a faint rose.
Yuda put distance between herself and Aguni and settled against the wall.
(This boy's flames burn the skin from mere proximity.)
(But inside this cave, those flames were the only light, and the only warmth.)
Outside, the blizzard shrieked.
Wind blew snow through the cave mouth, and the white powder touched Aguni's flames and vanished.
Yuda turned up the collar of her coat and hugged her knees.
(Cold.)
(Walking through that blizzard chilled me to the core.)
(Like this, I can't even sleep.)
Yuda glanced at Aguni's flames.
(If I held my hands out to that fire—)
(Would it be warm?)
(No.)
(Touch it, and I burn.)
(If I only held my hands near, it might be warm.)
Slowly, Yuda reached out a hand.
It was unconscious.
Her frozen body, seeking warmth, moved on its own.
Her white fingertips stretched toward Aguni's flames.
The heat of the fire touched her fingertips.
Warm.
Yuda caught herself and snatched her hand back.
(What am I doing?)
(This boy is a target for elimination.)
(To seek warmth from those flames—)
Aguni raised his head.
Within the fire, his amber eyes looked at Yuda's hand.
"...You..."
Aguni's voice was hoarse.
"...Are you cold...?"
Yuda did not answer.
Aguni watched her for a while, then slowly shifted his body.
He moved to the wall of the cave and leaned his back against it.
"...Sit... here..."
Aguni gestured with his chin at the floor beside him.
"...Between the wall... and me... if you sit there... it'll be just right..."
Yuda frowned.
"What are you saying? Your flames will burn me if I touch them."
"...Then don't... touch them..."
Aguni pressed his body flush against the wall.
"...Here... even if you sit... you won't touch... my body..."
"...But... the heat of the flames... will reach you..."
"...You're cold... aren't you..."
Yuda was silent for a while.
(What is this boy thinking?)
(Is he trying to warm me?)
(When I'm the very one who bound him and is hauling him to the capital.)
(When I'm the very one who wrote him into the report as a target for elimination.)
Yuda rose slowly.
And she sat down beside Aguni.
There was a narrow gap between the wall and Aguni's body. Yuda slid into it and leaned her back against the stone.
The heat of Aguni's flames wrapped around the left half of her body.
It was warm.
Steam rose from her snow-soaked coat. Sensation crept slowly back into her frozen fingertips.
Yuda closed her eyes.
(Warm.)
(How long has it been since I felt this warmth?)
(There was a hearth in my chambers at the Grand Temple.)
(But that hearth fire was only a tool.)
(Mere fire, to warm the body.)
(This boy's flames are different.)
(These flames are his body itself.)
(His pain, his life, his very existence.)
(And I am now being warmed by them.)
A strange silence fell between them.
Outside the cave, the blizzard went on.
―――
How much time had passed?
Aguni's breathing suddenly grew ragged.
"...Nn... ah..."
Aguni twisted in pain.
His flames flared abruptly. The cave walls glowed red with heat, and small fragments of rock fell from the ceiling.
"...Luna..."
His sister's name slipped from his lips.
"...Luna... where are you..."
His eyes could not focus. His amber gaze wavered, vacant, seeing something within the flames. A hallucination. Yuda could see nothing. But Aguni could.
"...Luna... I'm sorry..."
Aguni repeated it like a man delirious.
"...I'm sorry... if I'd... if I'd been... stronger..."
Yuda looked at Aguni's back.
His back was burned raw. Seared by flame, the skin peeled away, exposing red-black flesh. The blessing of regeneration struggled to close the wounds, but the residue of Doma's fire remained in them as black crystals.
(Those black crystals.)
(The residue of Doma's flames.)
(The embers of a fire that never dies.)
(That's what's hindering this boy's regeneration.)
Yuda stood.
"Don't move."
Yuda reached toward Aguni's back.
The heat of the flames burned her hand. Her skin hissed and charred. Ignoring the pain, Yuda hooked her fingers around a black crystal.
(If I scrape away these crystals—)
(Regeneration will close the wounds.)
Yuda drew her short blade and began to chip away the black crystals.
Her fingertips were burned by the flames, regenerated, burned again. Pain raced up her arm. But Yuda did not stop.
(Pain like this—)
(I've tasted it countless times over a hundred and thirty years.)
Bit by bit, the black crystals were scraped away.
Aguni kept muttering.
"...Luna... it's not... your fault..."
"...I did it... myself..."
"...I thought... it was for the village..."
"...But... Luna... you were crying..."
"...Every night... every night..."
Yuda's hand stopped.
(For the village.)
(Did it himself.)
(Every night, his sister wept.)
Yuda stared at the wounds on Aguni's back.
Beneath the black crystals, new skin was trying to regenerate. But the crystals blocked it, and the skin would not close. Yuda set the blade moving again.
"...Why..."
Aguni's voice trembled.
"...Why... did you leave me... and die..."
"...Luna..."
"...You said... live..."
"
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