I don't remember walking.
Just… moving.
Out of the Hall. Through the graveyard. Past the broken statues of gods no one prayed to anymore.
I didn't cry.
Not yet.
Keon's face still hung in my vision—smiling through the pain, pulling that thread like he knew it would cost him everything.
He didn't hesitate.
Not once.
And now I could feel it…
Ashes inside me.
Burning where his life used to be.
[Player: Trey – Catalyst Status: Active]
Catalyst Tree – Branch Locked: Soulbound Echo
Emotional Loss Registered.
Sync with the Dead Confirmed.
I sat near the edge of a shattered stone altar. Trinity was across from me, arms resting on her knees, the flame-mark on her forearm glowing dimly.
She hadn't said much since Keon died.
Neither had I.
But the silence between us wasn't empty.
It was shared.
"Do you feel it?" she finally asked.
I looked up.
"Feel what?"
She pointed to her chest. "The heat. The shift. Like we're… being rewritten from the inside out."
I nodded.
"My blood feels heavier," I said. "Like it remembers something I don't."
She looked away.
Then quietly said, "You're not the only one with something inside."
I frowned. "What do you mean?"
Trinity raised her hand.
For a moment, her fingers trembled.
Then, without touching anything, she snapped them—and fire erupted mid-air.
White-hot. Silent. Controlled.
But the flame didn't just burn—it shaped into a symbol.
One I hadn't seen before.
A broken circle with wings of flame and a lock in the center.
[Flame-Bearer Ability: Lockbrand Awakening Detected]
Role Mutation in Progress…
WARNING: Trinity's flame is no longer passive.
Potential Class: Gatekeeper.
"What's a Gatekeeper?" I asked.
She let the flame die. "No idea. But I think… I can seal things. Or people."
Seal? Like trap? Bind?
We didn't get the chance to explore it.
Because the sky cracked.
The color of the world changed again—red draining into gray, like the blood had dried out of the air.
Then came the whispers.
Not words.
Not even voices.
Just intent.
Hungry. Hollow. Ancient.
Trinity and I stood.
In the distance, we saw it.
A Reaper.
But not like the others.
This one had wings.
Tattered. Shadow-made. Spanning the sky like they were stitched from smoke and screams.
Its head was crowned with bones.
And it wasn't alone.
Spectrals. Hunters. Wardens.
They moved in formation.
Like a unit.
Like an army.
A message lit up across our vision:
[PHASE SHIFT DETECTED]
REAPERS ARE NO LONGER ACTING ALONE.
COMMANDER-CLASS ENTITY: APPROACHING.
Warning: Soul Sync detected. Trey is linked.
"Linked?!" I said, backing up.
Trinity stepped between me and the sky.
"You're connected to that thing?"
"I don't—" I started, but my Mark pulsed violently.
And then…
I heard it.
A voice.
But not like the Reapers' usual telepathy.
This voice came from beneath everything.
Like the foundation of death itself.
"Catalyst. You burn too bright."
"Come find me… before I take what's left."
Then silence.
Trinity grabbed my shoulder. "Did you hear that?"
I nodded.
Her hand trembled. "Trey. That wasn't a Reaper."
"…I know."
A final message appeared:
NEW ENTITY INTRODUCED: UNKNOWN
Title: THE ARCHITECT
Class: Non-Player. Non-Reaper. Non-God.
Alignment: UNDEFINED.
Objective: ???
The fire in my veins flared again.
The Mark surged hotter.
Trinity and I looked at each other.
The Game wasn't just killing us anymore.
It was studying us.
And something buried deep in the system…
Was waking up with us.