The guardian moved with unnatural silence.
Its bones were etched with forgotten scripture. Its chest pulsed with a dying ember — black flame trapped in a cage of ash.
Kai didn't flinch.
Ayaka drew her blade. Ren formed a defensive ring of talismans.
> "What is this thing?" Ren muttered.
"It's a Memory Keeper," Kai said, eyes narrowing. "A spirit bound to protect the knowledge of the First One."
---
The Memory Keeper raised its head.
> "To carry the flame is to bear the burden of every soul it ever burned."
With a shriek, it lunged.
Kai met it head-on — Rootfire pulsing from his fists. Every strike burned through the Keeper's defenses, but the thing didn't bleed. It remembered. With every hit, it showed him fragments of the past.
Children running from flame.
Mountains collapsing.
A figure cloaked in roots, laughing as whole cities vanished.
Ayaka shouted, "It's trying to break your spirit, Kai!"
But Kai stood firm.
> "I know what the flame has done. But I won't let its past define its future."
He flared with golden fire — brighter, cleaner, alive.
The Keeper froze. Its bones cracked.
> "Then you are no longer just a bearer..."
It lowered its head.
> "You are its judge."
And with that, it collapsed — turning to dust.
---
Behind it, the shrine shifted.
A hidden path revealed itself — glowing roots lighting a stairway into the earth.
Kai stepped forward. "This is it. The last piece of the First One's memory."