The night in Velmora was quiet.
Too quiet.
Even the stars had dimmed, retreating behind a veil of strange celestial static. Riku could feel it—the world holding its breath. Something was about to shift.
Valen watched him silently from the edge of the broken fountain. Her eyes followed the slow flicker of the spiral mark on his chest, glowing with more than energy—with memory.
"You said you've remembered things," she finally said.
"But do you remember your first death?"
Riku froze.
"No," he said quietly.
"And that's what scares me most."
But the answer came uninvited.
The Core inside him pulsed once.
Reality bent.
Riku staggered—and suddenly, the ground beneath him changed. He wasn't in Velmora anymore. He stood in a shattered city of gold and white marble, beneath a sky frozen in time.
🔓 Memory Chamber: DEATH_000_1
The voice echoed like a system's whisper—but ancient, older than the concept of systems.
Riku stepped forward. The city felt familiar. Not like something he had visited—but something he had created.
Then he saw it.
A throne. Shattered. Burned. Marked by divine spears.
On it sat a boy.
Not a man. Not a warrior. Just a boy… with his face.
But younger. Eyes wide with hope. Body impaled by six golden blades—each one bearing the crest of a different god.
"This was the first time they feared me," the echo said.
"And the only time they succeeded."
Riku walked closer. His heart pounded—not from fear, but from recognition. He watched the boy on the throne smile, even as the blood ran down his chest.
"You'll come back," the boy whispered, his voice fading.
"That's what they don't understand. You're not a soul. You're the answer to their lie."
The scene changed again.
He stood in a hall of gods.
Each divine being loomed above—Regalus the Flame, Seraphyne the Chain, Ithyl the Mirror, Velst the Decayer. The same who now watched from afar.
In the center, bound by unbreakable light, knelt the boy again.
A god's voice boomed.
"Your name has no place in this world. We erase it now."
"You are not divine. You are error."
The boy raised his head.
And then he said it.
"I am not error."
"I am the Refractor."
Lightning struck. Reality fractured.
The memory ended.
Riku gasped as he dropped back to the Velmora ruins, knees crashing against the stone. Valen rushed to him, but froze when she saw his eyes.
They no longer glowed.
They burned white.
"I remember my name," he said, voice distant.
Valen hesitated. "What… is it?"
Riku stood tall, a new energy radiating from him—not from outside, but from within. Ancient, buried, stolen.
"My name was taken because it was stronger than their titles."
"I am Riku, yes. But before all that… I was known as…"
He raised his hand. The air around him distorted. The stars realigned above him, forming a symbol never meant to be seen.
"Elyos—the Refractor."
And in that moment, across every plane, the gods trembled.
Because that name was never supposed to be remembered.
End of Chapter 15.