Lord: Sequence Master

"The flame will eventually extinguish; only the embers can reignite the fire…"

Rosen murmured the incantation. As he recited the final word, he vanished without a trace.

When he regained consciousness, he found himself inside the main hall of a half-collapsed temple. He glanced toward the deity's statue, where a decapitated figure stood. Cracks covered its surface, giving the impression it might shatter with a single touch.

Nearly half of the temple had crumbled, and through gaping holes in the ceiling, Rosen could see a sky painted with seven-colored light.

He immediately slipped into the Void Gallery, controlling his self-portrait doppelganger to approach the statue. At its base lay a box, an extraordinary item bearing the Howard family crest.

Cautiously opening the box, Rosen found a notebook and a pen inside. As he flipped through the pages, the first entry was from his ancestors, detailing the origins of this spiritual realm.

The precise origin of this world was unknown, but one thing was certain: it was the tomb of a true god, a place where an entire civilization had been buried. The Howard family were the last remnants of this civilization, its final guardians—the embers of the flame.

Every Howard family member, upon reaching the peak of Sequence 7, would be irresistibly drawn into this spiritual realm. They had two choices: reignite the flame within this world or perish here.

The notebook didn't explain how to reignite the flame. The ancestor who left this record likely died within the realm. As Rosen read on, he realized that every Howard family member who had reached Sequence 7 had met their end here.

Some entries were filled with excitement, others with fear, and some with curses. A few family members managed to return to the temple after exploring, leaving notes about their discoveries, though some findings contradicted others. This suggested that either the realm wasn't static or that some discoveries were mistaken.

The journal repeatedly warned not to rely entirely on past entries, as doing so could lead to death.

The more Rosen read, the more shocked he became. Though the notebook was only a finger's thickness, it contained tens of thousands of pages. Given that each person averaged about ten pages, this meant at least a thousand Howard family members had written in the journal.

The time between the first and last writer spanned over fifty thousand years—an astonishing figure, especially since the oldest human families were only known to exist for around thirty thousand years.

It took Rosen two days to reach the final pages, where he discovered an entry from the Fifth Lord Howard, who had entered the realm and survived. However, there was no record of how he left, suggesting he exited without returning to the temple, which explained why the journal ended abruptly. He was later murdered outside the realm.

The last few pages contained the final words of Young Rosen's parents. They knew the fate of all their Sequence 7 ancestors, who died one by one in this realm, and as mere Sequence 9 individuals, they had no hope of survival. Their entries were filled with regret, apologies, and expressions of love and guilt toward their son, Young Rosen.

Rosen stared at the blank final page and picked up the pencil-like tool from the box. Though it appeared ordinary, Rosen knew that a pen capable of lasting for tens of thousands of years was no common item.

He activated the Divine Book Room, placing both the journal and the pencil before the Main God Computer. Now that the Main God Computer was connected to the Main God Network, its identification capabilities had become far stronger. Any hidden information related to these objects would be revealed if there were clues on the network. After a brief moment, the computer made a discovery.

The notebook resembled a Fate Script, while the pencil was akin to a Fate Pen. Together, anything written in the notebook would bind the writer's fate to it. Even without writing, the fate of each writer was already connected to the notebook due to the entries left by over a thousand ancestors.

Moreover, after each writer's death, the notebook's power increased. Now, only one blank page remained, and anything written on it would come to fruition.

If the Howard family were indeed the embers of some ancient civilization, then perhaps this final page was the flame. The thousands of Howard family members who perished in this realm could have been the kindling needed to reignite that flame.

With just one page left, and the Howard family reduced to a single heir, it seemed that fate had been waiting for this moment, when Rosen would arrive.

Normally, only Howard family members could enter this spiritual realm. This led Rosen to wonder how his father's wife had entered as well. A suspicion formed—perhaps the notebook's final page had always been waiting for Rosen himself.

Though he now possessed a key item from this spiritual realm, Rosen still didn't know how to reignite the flame or what the consequences would be. To be cautious, he decided to search for more clues.

After thoroughly searching the temple and finding nothing of immediate value, Rosen stepped outside and was greeted by a gray wasteland. Only footprints marred the thick layer of ash that covered the land. It was as if the entire world had turned to ashes, with the dense layer resembling the ashen fog that blanketed the human world.

The footprints left by previous Howard ancestors who had ventured out of the temple remained untouched, suggesting there was no air movement in this world.

It was then that Rosen realized he hadn't drawn a single breath since arriving. While his body could go without air for weeks, this felt different—it wasn't that he was holding his breath, but that he had forgotten to breathe.

Among the footprints, Rosen quickly identified the tracks left by Young Rosen's parents using his hunter tracking skills. Unsure which direction to go, he decided to follow their trail, hoping to retrieve their remains. They might very well be his descendants.

Rosen followed the footprints, occasionally spotting signs where the two had stopped to rest. The temple stood in a valley, but the river that once flowed through the valley had long since dried up. Young Rosen's parents had followed the riverbed downstream.

Hours passed as Rosen journeyed through winding canyons and the ruins of riverside settlements. The remains of these structures had been scorched by fire, with only stone fragments surviving, while everything else had turned to ash.

At one point, the footprints paused for a day, evident from the signs of digging in the ash, but nothing seemed to have been found.

Rosen quickened his pace, following the trail through one ruin after another. Finally, two days later, he found the ashen remains of two figures lying by the riverbank.

Young Rosen's parents had perished here, seemingly turning to ash in an instant.

Kneeling down to examine the scene, Rosen realized that nowhere in the journal had any writer mentioned finding human-shaped ashes after someone died. All accounts spoke of people vanishing without a trace after encountering strange phenomena.

Furthermore, the location of their deaths was less than 3,000 miles from the temple.

According to the journal, none of the Howard family members who returned had ventured beyond 3,000 miles from the temple. This area was considered the safe zone in this world.

Of course, the safe zone gradually shrank, though its reduction was random. The location where they died, only a few hundred miles from the temple, should have been safe, even with the shrinking.

Rosen took out two urns, preparing to collect their remains. As he scooped the ash into the urns, he was surprised to find two thumb-sized crystals—each containing a flickering flame—hidden within the ash.

He refrained from probing the crystals with his spiritual energy and sent them to the Divine Book Room for identification by the Main God Computer.

"These are fragments of Divinity and Civilization's Ember?"

Rosen was stunned by the results.

A demigod can convert spiritual energy into divine energy, while a Sequence 0 being can ignite godfire, condense divinity, and establish a divine kingdom to become a god.

To become an immortal true god, one must first master the Ember of Civilization.

While a god can be sealed or killed, the only way to truly destroy a true god is to extinguish their civilization's ember.

Every ember of civilization is linked to a true god, representing the backbone of various civilizations throughout history.

But how could Young Rosen's parents have possessed divine fragments and a piece of civilization's ember?

Rosen pondered this. It seemed that the Fifth Lord Howard had made a grave mistake—perhaps encrypting the family's secrets into a novel.

While ordinary Sequences would struggle to see through such hidden information, higher-level demigods, Sequence novelists skilled in fate, prophecy, and mind-reading, or even nearly omnipotent gods and true gods would have no trouble uncovering these secrets.

From the time of the Fifth Lord Howard, it seemed the entire Howard family may have already become pawns in someone's grand scheme.

After years of preparation, the plan set in motion during the generation of Young Rosen's parents was finally ready to unfold.

Outwardly, it appeared that Young Rosen's parents were accidentally drawn into this spiritual realm. But in truth, they were mere pieces on a chessboard, moved by someone else's will. Even up until their deaths, they never realized that they were carrying fragments of divinity and the ember of a civilization within them.

However, it seemed that the mastermind's plan ultimately failed.

As for why Young Rosen was able to grow up safely, and why Rosen himself hadn't detected any external influence controlling him, the most likely explanation was that the mastermind had either abandoned their attempts to infiltrate this spiritual realm, or something had gone wrong, preventing them from maintaining focus. As a result, Young Rosen grew up without any significant issues, and Rosen's transmigration into his place hadn't triggered any trouble.

Regardless of the truth, this world harbored secrets tempting enough to intrigue even true gods.

Months passed quickly, and Rosen now found himself riding his mechanical mount, preparing to return to the ruins of the temple.

At first, he had been extremely cautious, carefully avoiding the taboos mentioned in the notebook. But over the course of several months, after traveling hundreds of thousands of miles from the temple, all he encountered was a world shrouded in ash. Even more strangely, no supernatural occurrences took place.

This emboldened Rosen. He sent Grey Mouse underground to investigate, while the mechanical mount ascended into the sky to interact with the multicolored light. However, the underground was made entirely of ash, and the light in the sky, though visible, couldn't be touched.

After wandering aimlessly for months, Rosen finally decided to return to the temple.

A few hours later, he stood silently before the now-ashen ruins of the temple.

Though the temple had been half-collapsed, none of the previous Howard family ancestors, many of whom had gone mad, had ever managed to damage it. Even the cracked statue of the god had remained indestructible.

But now, inexplicably, the temple had turned to ash.

Rosen took out the notebook and pencil. Was it truly asking him to write something?

He hesitated, then began thoughtfully writing the incantation to enter the spiritual realm:

The flame will eventually extinguish; only the embers can reignite the fire…

The moment he finished the last stroke, both the notebook and the pencil vanished, merging silently into his spiritual energy.

The notebook fused with his mental canvas, while the pencil merged with his divine pen, becoming part of the Painter Sequence's extraordinary substance.

In the spiritual domain where his Sequence Tree stood, sheltered by the castle's protective energy, a small ember ignited out of nowhere. Simultaneously, a spark of multicolored light emerged from the temple's ashes, forming a small campfire.

Within a 34-meter radius of the fire, all the ash transformed into gray logs ready to fuel the flames.

Rosen felt no harm to himself, so he entered the Divine Book Room to inspect the changes through the Main God Computer.

Sure enough, both his mental canvas and his divine pen had undergone transformations, and even his Painter Sequence had changed.

First, his mental canvas gained a new miraculous trait:

Miraculous Trait: Ashen Curtain — The mental canvas can transform into an Ashen Curtain, reflecting the last remnants of a civilization reduced to ashes.

Next, his divine pen acquired its own miraculous trait:

Miraculous Trait: Everlasting Flame — With the light of the embers, it can reignite a civilization's fire.

Finally, Rosen noticed a shift in the Painter Sequence's extraordinary substance within the divine pen. He had transformed from a regular painter into something unheard of—a Flame Painter.

After becoming a Flame Painter, his original extraordinary substance began to split. One part remained in the pen, while the other part gradually merged with his mental canvas, preparing to fully activate the Ashen Curtain's miraculous trait.

After waiting a week, the extraordinary substance had fully divided.

The moment the Ashen Curtain activated, Rosen understood its nature.

It was common knowledge that the destruction of life and civilizations was not the end.

Both life and civilizations leave traces in the Spirit Realm after their demise. In the deeper parts of the Spirit Realm, remnants of history often persist, growing stronger in an attempt to break free and reappear in the real world.

But what happens when even those remnants are erased?

The answer is the complete extinguishing of the flame of civilization, with all traces of its existence reduced to ash before the ember of civilization dies out.

The spiritual realm Rosen had entered was a fragment of history from the deepest parts of the Spirit Realm, a remnant of a once-great civilization reduced to ashes.

This was a place even true gods found difficult to reach—the final resting place of civilizations.

The Ashen Curtain could reflect the last glimmer of light from a civilization's ember.

What was this "glimmer"? In this context, it referred to the final spark of light before a civilization was completely extinguished.

For example, if a city had been destroyed by the flames of its collapse, the Ashen Curtain could reflect the scene just before its destruction by burning a log from the campfire. The higher the level of Rosen's mental canvas, the further back in time he could project the city's past.

The Everlasting Flame ability of the divine pen allowed him to bring back to life whatever the Ashen Curtain showed, reigniting the fire of a long-extinguished civilization.

Thus, the Flame Painter Sequence granted Rosen the ability to rekindle the embers of civilizations through ash, recreating remnants from the deepest parts of the Spirit Realm. This power was beyond his previous comprehension, granting abilities that even true gods would struggle to match.

However, with great power came a price. The Flame Painter Sequence had transcended the human civilization's painter sequence, meaning Rosen could no longer rely on the Artist Sequence Tree to advance his Painter Sequence level.

To continue advancing his Flame Painter Sequence to Sequence 6, he would need the ember within his spiritual energy to consume the embers of other civilizations.

With a sigh, Rosen stepped forward and collected the campfire and logs formed from the temple's ashes.

The campfire was a special miraculous item, capable of burning logs by consuming divine energy. These logs, formed from the ashes of civilizations, would fuel the flames.

Rosen ignited the campfire with his spiritual energy, causing its weak flame to flare up brightly. He tossed in the logs formed from the surrounding ash, and the fire roared to life.

He then activated the mental canvas, transforming it into the Ashen Curtain and casting it into the flames.

Immediately, the fire projected the last moments of the temple and its surrounding 34-meter area before the flame of that civilization was extinguished.

Rosen could see shadowy figures through the fire—beings that radiated an overwhelming presence. Even at a glance, Rosen could tell that the weakest of these figures were demigods, and there were hundreds of them, densely packed and kneeling in prayer before the god's statue.

Rosen also saw the statue, still intact and with its head, and as soon as he saw its face, he froze in shock.

The face of the statue looked exactly like his own.

Rosen fell into deep thought. Had he truly transmigrated while drawing comics for his boss?

Or had something else happened to him afterward, something he had forgotten?

Had he once become a true god, creating a civilization of his own?

Had that civilization been utterly destroyed, leading him to lose all memory of it, while only the Divine Book Room and the Main God Computer remained as he fell into a long slumber, only to awaken in this era?

From the very beginning, had it been him who bound this spiritual realm to the Howard family?

Was he, in fact, the true master of this spiritual realm, which was why he hadn't encountered any danger, why the temple had turned into a miraculous campfire, and why he had inexplicably become a Flame Painter?

If all this was his doing, why didn't he have any memory of it?

Rosen continued watching the Ashen Curtain, seeing the worshippers inside the temple grow increasingly terrified.

Then, a flash of golden light swept across the scene, and the heads of everyone in the temple, including the god's statue, were decapitated. One by one, the terrified heads flew out of the temple, while their headless bodies disintegrated into nothingness.

Next, the temple suddenly collapsed, and the last remnants of the civilization's ember were extinguished.

Rosen withdrew the flame from the campfire and noticed that the ember within him had grown slightly stronger.

The campfire, after burning the logs, had also subtly changed. It could now continuously project the final moments of the temple and its surroundings. As Rosen's spiritual energy grew stronger, he would be able to see even further back in time.

Rosen shrunk the campfire to the size of his palm and began walking around the temple ruins.

Soon, the ashes within a several-mile radius of the temple had been transformed into logs. He ignited the logs to peer deeper into the civilization's final moments.

This time, he finally saw the enemy—and when he did, he froze again.

Standing at the temple's entrance, the figure who had effortlessly decapitated everyone inside was a man who looked exactly like him.

Had he killed his own statue and worshippers?

Half-believing, half-doubting, Rosen expanded his search, gathering more logs from the ashes.

But the more ash he converted, the more he sensed his time in the spiritual realm was running out.

The very existence of the realm was sustained by the ash, and by converting it into logs, the world was losing its foundation. If he wanted to take the logs out with him, he would need to be selective about which ash to convert.

Using the notebook as a guide, Rosen visited the ruins of several cities surrounding the temple.

Although these cities had been consumed by the collapse of their civilization's flame, some traces remained. Before long, Rosen had collected logs from dozens of cities, which he added to the campfire. Eventually, the realm rejected him, expelling him back to his hotel in Frost Snow City.

To his surprise, no time had passed—he had only been gone for a second, or perhaps not even that. Though it felt like days in the spiritual realm, only a moment had passed in reality.

Holding the campfire, Rosen entered the Divine Book Room. He decided to reignite the flame of civilization using the final moments reflected by the campfire.

However, he wasn't planning to reignite the temple's fire. Instead, he intended to select one of the cities, project its last moments through the Ashen Curtain, and find its library or equivalent. Then, he could paint that library on his canvas.

If the Everlasting Flame of the Divine Pen truly worked to revive what the Ashen Curtain projected, he could uncover valuable insights into the lost civilization through its books.

(End of Chapter)