Chapter 24: The Vault's Secrets
The descent into the Vault of Origins was not a silent one. The further Luo Qingshen, Kareth, and the others went, the heavier the air became, thick with forgotten magic and sealed echoes of a world before order.
Massive stone doors adorned with runes groaned open as the party stepped into the inner sanctum. Starlight shimmered unnaturally across the marble floor, though there was no sky above. Pillars rose like ancient sentinels, their surfaces carved with the names of extinct bloodlines and forbidden gods.
A relic-choked silence greeted them.
"So this is it," whispered Seris, the scholar girl trailing behind Qingshen. "The very vault where the Divine Accord was first written."
Qingshen said nothing. His golden eyes scanned every crevice, alert.
Kareth, for once, looked uneasy. His steps were slower, more cautious.
"You've been here before," Qingshen said quietly.
Kareth didn't answer immediately. Then, "Not in this lifetime. But yes."
Before Qingshen could press further, the temperature dropped. A flicker of frost licked the vault's entrance. A presence.
From the marble shadows stepped a figure clad in glimmering obsidian armor. A black veil masked their face. Only one title trembled in the system interface above them:
[???] — Divine-Class Invader: Whispering Blade of the Vile Concord.
Seris gasped. "No... that weapon was sealed centuries ago!"
The figure drew their weapon — a curved blade etched in hollow runes. The moment it unsheathed, Kareth faltered.
"Get back!" Kareth shouted. "That's the Whispering Blade... and that's my brother."
The invader lunged.
Qingshen's reaction was instant. Nullfang materialized into a void-lance, intercepting the slash. The shockwave split the vault floor, sending relics flying. Kareth vanished into a blur, reappearing behind the invader with a crescent arc of fire.
But the blade cut through it like paper. Kareth barely avoided the counter.
"Why are you helping them, brother?" the veiled warrior's voice slithered through the room. "Have you forgotten what they did to us?"
Kareth's silence screamed louder than a denial.
The battle spiraled. Qingshen matched the invader strike for strike, but the blade wasn't ordinary. Every time it connected with Nullfang, system sparks flew, as if the weapon was devouring part of the voidcode embedded in Qingshen's artifact.
Seris chanted runes from the rear, attempting a seal incantation. "That's not just any Divine-Class weapon... it's cursed! It feeds on identity. It rewrites who you are!"
The Whispering Blade lunged toward her.
Qingshen teleported, taking the blow in her place.
His body hit the wall, hard.
[Voidform Sync: 74%... 75%...]
He stood again, slower.
Kareth faced his brother. "You're not him anymore. He died in the fire. You—this—is a puppet."
"Then why does your guilt burn so loudly?" the invader hissed.
With a roar, Kareth unleashed his true form. Celestial wings of flame burst from his back. The temperature soared. The vault itself groaned.
The two brothers clashed, steel and fire and sorrow dancing in a deadly waltz.
But it wasn't enough. The invader stabbed Kareth in the side and leapt toward the altar at the heart of the vault.
There, floating above ancient runes, was a cube of light—the Codex Key.
"If he escapes with that," Seris said, "he'll unseal the Forgotten Realm."
Qingshen's breath slowed. His body trembled. But his grip tightened.
[Voidform Sync: 89%... 90%... Initiating Override Protocol.]
"I'm done holding back."
A pulse of voidlight exploded from his chest. His form distorted, cloaked in darkness rimmed with radiant gold. The Vault trembled.
[Voidform: Path of the Null Monarch — Activated.]
He vanished—reappeared in front of the invader—
—and struck.
Time slowed.
The Whispering Blade cracked.
The invader screamed.
But as he fell, his hand still touched the Codex Key.
A pulse of ancient magic detonated.
The vault shattered.
And so did the sky.