The light pouring from the Hunter's body was blinding. Not heat, not flame something colder, deeper. Like memory made visible.
Kaelen staggered backward, arm raised to shield his eyes. The system interface shimmered erratically in his vision.
[ Oath strain reached 89% ]
[ Control status: Unstable ]
[ Warning: Core Entity not classified as standard Hunter-type ]
[ Classification updating… Warning: Recalibration failed. Error 004 Origin Entity Detected ]
Vos broke the silence, his voice tight. "What in Virelith's hollow spine did you bind?"
Kaelen didn't answer. His eyes were fixed on the fissure splitting the Hunter's torso. Beneath the ruptured flesh, something glowed. A sliver of glass? No it pulsed like a heart. Geometric lines, far too precise for anything natural, rotated slowly within it. Runes etched in symmetrical patterns shifted position with every breath.
And then it spoke..
Not in words, but in thought.
A ripple of presence bloomed in Kaelen's skull. Not pain, not quite. More like someone knocking on the walls of his soul.
You bear the Mark of the Oathforged. Why?
Kaelen gasped and stumbled again, bracing against the cave wall. The system was silent now like it didn't dare speak while this presence was active.
Vos was moving again, system pause expired. He didn't attack. Not yet.
"What is that thing?" Kaelen hissed.
Vos's voice was grim. "It's not a Hunter. Not anymore. That's a Seed-Fragment."
Kaelen stared at him. "A what?"
"The last remnants of the Architects. The ones who built the original Oathforged system."
Kaelen felt the air chill.
The voice returned.
We see your core. Half-awake. Bound by protocols broken long ago. Your vow is true. But the words you were given… were not.
Kaelen stepped forward, slowly. "You mean… Darian didn't betray me?"
Silence.
Then a softer pulse of thought.
You were betrayed. But not by him. Not alone.
Kaelen's grip tightened on his spear. "Then who?"
The core flared.
For a brief moment, Kaelen saw a memory not his own.
A throne of silver and dust.
A woman in black armor, her crown forged from broken oaths.
A man beside her, face obscured, placing a hand on Darian's shoulder whispering something.
Then pushing Kaelen into the void.
Kaelen reeled.
System text flickered erratically.
[ Unauthorized memory exposure detected ]
[ Memory Source: Architect Residual – Access Forbidden ]
[ Attempting to sever connection… Failed. Connection stabilized by Vowkeeper Mark ]
[ Entity Identified: Architect Seed, Class Zeta ]
[ Interface Stability: 34% and falling ]
Vos drew his blade now. "We need to destroy it. Before it spreads."
Kaelen turned on him. "It's giving me the truth."
"It's destabilizing the system. Do you know what that means?" Vos spat. "If that fragment survives, it'll rip the local weave apart. Everyone within five miles dies. Everyone."
Kaelen looked between him and the pulsing light.
You must choose, the entity pressed. Let me speak, and I will reveal the rot within your system. Or sever me and remain in the cage you were reborn into.
Kaelen's heart pounded. "Why me?"
Because you were meant to die. Yet you lived. You are a flaw in their order. A flaw they cannot control.
Vos was moving forward now, blade raised, despite the warning. His gauntlet glowed with suppression runes.
Kaelen stood between them.
"Don't."
Vos halted. "Kaelen if that thing speaks too long, it won't stop. It's not just truth it spreads. It's corruption. That's how the Architects built their systems. Through seeds. Through ideas."
Kaelen turned back to the core.
"…Show me more."
The system screamed.
[ Vowkeeper Override – Forbidden Knowledge Clause Activated ]
[ Penalty Incurred: System Stability Lockout for 6 hours ]
[ All active perks suspended ]
[ Passive recovery halted ]
[ Soul Integrity strain increased – 7% loss ]
Kaelen barely had time to brace as the fragment's full pulse hit him.
And then, A flood.
Images surged through his mind.
He saw Virelith before the collapse.
Not a shattered world but whole. Vast cities wrapped in floating rings. Orders of Vowkeepers maintaining balance. A single central system pure, unbroken, unweaponized.
Then a breach. A split in the system code. A rogue faction embedding control protocols. Turning vows into weapons. Making betrayal a system event.
He saw Darian. Younger. Desperate. Arguing with a masked council.
Kaelen watched himself the original body being marked for deletion, for refusing to submit his Oathforged core to central control.
Darian had tried to save him.
Had tried… and failed.
Because someone else, someone in the inner council, overrode the decision.
A name flashed in Kaelen's mind but not clearly. Redacted by the system, burned into black static.
And then
Silence.
The seed flickered. Its glow dimmed.
I am spent, it said. But the chains on your mind are weakening. Remember what you saw. The truth may yet kill you. But lies will kill everyone.
The fragment shattered.
Light spiraled into dust.
Kaelen collapsed to his knees.
Vos approached, slowly. Warily.
"You shouldn't have seen that."
Kaelen looked up at him. "Why?"
"Because now you're more dangerous than anyone else here. And someone's going to come for you."
Kaelen wiped blood from his nose. "Let them."
Vos shook his head. "You don't get it. The moment that Seed fragment activated, the central system logged your coordinates. There's a Black Oath inbound."
Kaelen frowned. "What's that?"
Vos's face was grim.
"An executioner."
And behind them, high in the sky, a shadow parted the clouds.
A black figure descended on wings of lightless energy, bearing the mark of the true system.
A being not bound by oaths.
But by command.