The ruin's path narrowed into a jagged artery of stone. Black ash clung to the walls, crumbling beneath Kael's touch. Every step felt heavier, as if the air itself tried to press him down into the earth.
Silna moved just ahead, her blade drawn, amber eyes catching the faint ember glow that still bled from the sigils carved into the rock. The silence was suffocating—no whispers, no rasp of unseen things this time. Just stillness, too clean to be natural.
Kael exhaled slowly. "It's waiting."
Silna didn't answer. She didn't need to. Her grip tightened on her blade, and her posture spoke louder than words.
The corridor bent, and then it opened.
The Vault stood before them.
Or what remained of it.
A vast chamber stretched outward, its roof cracked open to reveal veins of dead stone. At the center loomed a colossal door of bronze and obsidian, its surface webbed with fractured glyphs that pulsed faintly like dying coals. What should have been a sealed sanctum now gaped wide, broken nearly in half—one slab tilted inward, the other toppled into shards across the floor.
And from within, a low hum. Not sound, but vibration. A pulse that resonated in Kael's chest, answering the rhythm that had haunted him since the ruins began.
> System Scan: [Oath-Bound Vault — Crowned Age Origin]
[Integrity: Critical Failure]
[Binding Sigils: Shattered]
[Anomaly Status: Escalating]
His vision wavered for a heartbeat. The system's words bled red across his sight, and something beneath them—like whispers in an older tongue—flared before vanishing.
Silna's voice cut through the static. "This… wasn't broken by time."
She knelt, gloved fingers brushing one of the toppled slabs. The surface bore no wear, no erosion of centuries. Instead, deep gouges tore through the bronze, melted edges hardened into black glass. The marks of violence.
"Something forced it open," Kael murmured. His hand ghosted over the hilt of his sword, flame kindling faintly at its edge.
The air stirred.
Shadows crawled along the broken doorframe, gathering like smoke too heavy to rise. From that smoke, forms began to pull free—half-shaped, armored fragments, faces like skulls crowned in ember light.
Not one. Not two.
Dozens.
> System Alert: [Wraithborne Activity Surge Detected]
[Containment Failure Confirmed]
Silna rose smoothly to her feet, back sliding against Kael's without a word. He felt her breath steady, felt her resolve harden.
"They're not attacking," she whispered.
He could see it too. The Wraithborne lingered at the edges, shifting but unmoving, their ember eyes locked on the Vault. Guardians, not hunters.
"Forced open," Kael said again, his voice low. "But not by them. They're waiting."
The hum in his chest deepened. Each pulse shook him to his bones, like a heartbeat that wasn't his own. His flame answered without command, curling hungrily along the blade's edge.
Silna glanced at him, her eyes sharp. "Kael."
He blinked, realizing the flame had grown wild—crimson sparks cracking at its edges, the system's warning flare still burned faintly in his sight.
"I'm fine," he lied.
For a moment, they stood on the Vault threshold, two against a silent horde. The fractured glyphs glowed brighter, as if sensing Kael's presence.
Then, without warning, the Vault door groaned. The broken slab shifted inward, scraping against stone, revealing more of the darkness beyond.
And from that darkness came a sound.
Not a whisper. Not a rasp.
A voice. Low. Resonant. Ancient.
"…Crownless."
The Wraithborne stirred, their ember eyes flaring. The hum in Kael's chest spiked into a roar, and his knees nearly buckled beneath the force of it.
The system's voice snapped across his vision.
> Critical Warning: [Trace Entity Identified]
[Classification: Oath-Echo / High-Risk Residual]
[Recommendation: Immediate Withdrawal]
Kael's hand tightened on his sword. Silna's voice was at his ear, steel-calm.
"We don't turn back."
He forced a breath, lifting his blade, flame steadying. His eyes locked on the Vault's abyss as the voice echoed again—closer, sharper.
"…Crownless."
The shadows thickened. The Vault pulsed.
And Kael stepped forward.
---