Kaelen did not answer the masked girl at first. He stared at her, every instinct screaming danger. Her presence was like a wound in the air, bleeding something older than magic. Her cloak barely moved, and yet he could feel its weight like a storm cloud pressing against his lungs.
"Swear an oath," she had said. "To survive long enough to betray yourself."
"What does that mean?" he asked. His voice cracked, rough from disuse, fear, and fury.
The girl knelt slowly, gathering her legs beneath her as if preparing to wait all night. Her mask shifted subtly with the flicker of cave-light, and though no eyes were visible, Kaelen felt her watching him.
"It means," she said, "that your path is not what you think it is. You came here to hunt your betrayer. You want revenge. But revenge is only the surface of a deeper game."
"I don't play games," Kaelen said.
She tilted her head.
"Everyone plays. Some just don't know the rules yet."
Kaelen clenched his fists. The cave was quiet again. He could hear his heartbeat. He could hear something else too, the faint hum of the system still running through his thoughts like a background program, always active, always watching.
"What are you really?" he asked.
"I am a fragment," she replied. "Left behind when the Oathforged system was born. It was designed to guide and contain. I am what it was made to contain."
"You're... corruption?"
"No," she said. "I'm memory. Truth. The part of the system that remembered the First Betrayal."
Kaelen's chest tightened.
"Is that supposed to scare me?"
"It should," she replied.
Silence settled between them again, broken only by the occasional rattle of wind outside the cave. Kaelen moved closer to the wall and sat, keeping her in his line of sight.
"What happens if I refuse the oath?" he asked.
"You'll wander blind. You'll chase ghosts with a blade made of broken promises. And eventually, the system will consume what's left of you. It always does."
"And if I accept?"
"Then I will show you what the system does not want you to see. I will help you survive the Oathbound Trials. I will help you remember."
"Remember what?"
"Who you were before either of these lives. And what Virelith truly is."
Kaelen narrowed his eyes.
"Then give me the oath."
She raised a hand and traced a symbol in the air an ancient curve of light and shadow. It hung there, burning softly.
"Repeat after me," she said. "I swear, by soul and silence, that I will follow the path of broken truth. That I will reach the mirror of betrayal. That I will survive long enough to choose myself or destroy him."
Kaelen hesitated. Every fiber of him resisted. Oaths were power in this world. He could feel it threads forming and tying to his essence, invisible but binding. But he also knew he needed answers. And this girl this fragment was the only one offering him more than the scraps the system fed him.
"I swear," he said, "by soul and silence, that I will follow the path of broken truth. That I will reach the mirror of betrayal. That I will survive long enough to choose myself... or destroy him."
The air pulsed.
Light snapped through the cave like lightning. The symbol burst into fire and vanished.
System text flowed before his eyes, faster than he could read.
[Oath Registered]
[Hidden Pathway Activated: The Forsworn Mirror]
[Warning: Path deviates from primary System control]
[Risk Level: Unknown]
[Watcher Bond Established: Entity - Unnamed]
[Watcher Skill Unlocked: Memory Thread - Access lost lives beyond current vessel]
The girl stood.
"You've taken the first step," she said. "Now the others will come for you."
"Who?"
"Those who hunt the Forsworn. The Echoguards. The Masklords. And, eventually, the Triune themselves."
Kaelen got to his feet. He felt something new inside him, a thread of warmth that curled near his spine. Not a skill. Not strength. But potential.
"Then I need to get stronger," he said.
She nodded once.
"You will. But strength in Virelith comes at a cost. Always."
She turned to go, but paused at the mouth of the cave.
"Oh. One more thing," she said.
"What?"
"You should know that Darian has already declared your soul devoured. He used your death to unify the Spireguard. Your family name has been stricken from the Great Codex. Your birth records burned. Your former comrades believe you went mad and betrayed the mission. They think you fell by your own hand."
Kaelen felt the world tilt. Rage surged up again, hot and pure.
He stepped forward, voice low.
"Then I'll show them what a real fall looks like."
The girl smiled.
"Good."
And then she vanished, not into shadow, not into light. She simply wasn't there anymore.
Kaelen stood alone in the cave.
The system flickered again.
[New Quest: Step Into the Oathbound Trials]
Objective: Reach the nearest Oathmarker and bind your first personal Vow
Status: Time-limited
Reward: System Stabilization, Skill Unlock
Failure: Loss of Path Access
Timer: 12 hours
Kaelen exhaled. No time to rest. No safety.
He stepped out into the dawn.
The sky above Virelith was cracked and bleeding sunlight through the clouds. Mana storms boiled on the horizon. Far in the distance, high upon the jagged cliffs of the Ashspire Range, a light flared.
An Oathmarker.
He turned toward it and ran.
Each step felt more like his own.
Each breath tasted less like fear.
He would reach it. He would bind his first vow. And then he would begin to remake himself, not as the man who fell, but as the one who rose.
He passed through the valley below, moving fast. The terrain shifted quickly — ruins half-buried in grass, bone trees marking old battlefields. Once, he saw a silver bird with two heads fly overhead and vanish into the clouds.
By the ninth hour, his body ached, and his vision dimmed. The system was stabilizing slowly, still locked below 60 percent. But he pushed on.
Finally, just before the twelfth hour, he found it.
The Oathmarker.
It stood like a jagged obelisk, tall and cruel, carved from black stone that shimmered with internal fire. Symbols danced across its surface, half-alive.
He approached it.
[Touch to bind]
He reached out and placed his hand on the stone.
Power surged into him.
He saw flashes, Kaelen Vire's past lives, a woman screaming his name in battle, Darian holding a broken sigil, a ring falling into fire.
[Bind a Vow]
A screen appeared before him.
Bind a Vow:
1. Vow of Survival: I will live through every trial Virelith throws at me.
2. Vow of Vengeance: I will destroy Darian, no matter the cost.
3. Vow of Remembrance: I will uncover every memory I have lost.
Kaelen's hand trembled.
He chose.
And the moment he did, the Oathmarker cracked in two.
Light poured from the sky. The ground trembled.
A voice echoed through the air — not the system's, not the Watcher's. Something deeper.
"You were not meant to survive. You have broken design. You will be corrected."
The forest around him began to twist. The trees leaned toward him. The ground peeled back.
And rising from the earth came something made of bone and shadow — a Hunter. A construct designed to eliminate oath-corrupted anomalies.
Kaelen backed away, summoning all the strength he could.
But the system whispered.
[Combat Protocols: Unlocked - Trial Mode]
[Skill Access Granted: Voidlash - Level 1]
The Hunter screeched.
Kaelen bared his teeth.
He would not fall again.
He launched forward, fist glowing with violet light.
And the battle began.