"The Last Flame"

"The Last Flame"

(A Chat GPT experiment)

(A story idea from Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD)

The stars knew him as V — the last of the Creation Dragons, ancient as silence, powerful as storm. His wings once stirred the cosmos, and his breath forged suns. But now, only one thing stood between him and ascension: the Orb of Eternis, hidden among the Maidens of the Yuu clan.

He found her on the seventh moon of the blossom cycle. YuuA. The youngest of the Maidens. Bright-eyed. Reckless. Stubborn. Alive in a way V had long forgotten to be.

The rule was ancient and cruel.

A Dragon must love the Maiden. Truly. Deeply. And if he severs that love after taking the orb, he is claimed by the universe — never to return, never to rise again. Only dust. No rebirth. No legend.

For one year, they circled each other like comets. At first, out of duty. Then curiosity. Then something far more dangerous.

YuuA laughed at his solemn silence. Dared to tease the last of his kind. Taught him how to dance barefoot in temple gardens. He showed her how to hear the voice of stars.

She was his first sunrise. His final weakness.

And she loved him back.

When the day came, the moon was full and trembling. The Elders prepared the ritual, the Orb glowing softly in YuuA’s hands. She knelt before him, head bowed, voice steady.

“I give it willingly,” she said. “My heart is yours.”

He looked down at her, every breath a war.

He could take it.

Become eternal.

Become everything his ancestors dreamed and demanded.

But—

He saw the lines that would one day mark her face. The gray that would touch her hair. The soft ache of age, of years lived fully. And he saw her surrounded by children, by joy, by life.

And none of it would be with him.

Because the moment he took the orb, her heart would be bound — and his would be torn. Dragons weren’t meant to love and let go. Not without consequence.

And so he did the unthinkable.

“I will not take it,” V said, voice trembling. “I choose you. I choose your life.”

YuuA’s eyes widened. “You’ll be lost. The stars will take you.”

“I know,” he said. “But they’ll take me knowing I loved something enough to let it go.”

He touched her face one last time. “Live long. Laugh often. Burn bright.”

And then he stepped back.

The sky fractured above them. The stars wept fire.

And V—Creation’s final echo—turned to dust, carried away by the winds of time.

YuuA clutched the orb to her chest, knees sinking to the earth.

The world lost a dragon.

But the universe, for a moment, knew what it meant to love completely.

And remember forever.