The chamber trembled.
From the walls, Echoborn poured out — shadow-wrapped husks of once-living warriors, now bound to eternal silence. No faces. No voices. Only hunger.
Aurelia drew her staff, frost swirling at her fingertips. "They don't bleed. They remember."
> Rael raised Whisperfang.
The blade pulsed, and the sigil on his wrist burned.
> "Good," he whispered. "Let them remember me."
---
They came fast.
The first leapt from the shadows, claws like bone scythes, shrieking with no mouth.
Rael moved like thunder—raw, instinctual.
CLANG. Whisperfang met the creature mid-air, the impact sending an echo through the stones. The blade hissed as if drinking, crimson veins lighting up along its edge.
> "I remember this…"
The voice came from the blade itself, deep and cold.
"Blood. The shape of fear."
Rael gritted his teeth. "Shut up and fight."
---
Another Echoborn lunged from the left. Rael spun low, carving a vicious arc through its torso. No blood spilled—only black mist and memory.
> Behind him, Aurelia raised her hands. "Fractured Halo."
A halo of frost exploded around her, freezing three Echoborn mid-charge, their limbs crystallizing before shattering.
> "There's too many!" she warned.
Rael didn't stop. He pressed forward, toward the heart of the chamber, where a massive figure loomed—
An armored Echoborn Knight. Taller than any human. Its armor fused into its skin.
Its hands held a broken lance and a book chained shut.
> It raised its weapon—and the glyphs on the chamber ceiling ignited.
> Whisperfang laughed. "Ah. A Warden."
"I remember killing your kind."
---
The Warden charged.
The chamber shook with every step it took. Its book flared with divine script—words that bind, older than gods.
Rael moved fast, ducking under a swing that cracked the altar.
Then he struck.
Whisperfang met the Warden's armor with a deafening clash—sending sparks and shadows flying. But the blade didn't bounce. It bit. And the armor screamed.
> "What are you?" the Warden growled—not with lips, but through the voice of the room.
Rael's eyes flared crimson.
> "The mistake the gods buried."
"The one they'll regret forgetting."
---
With a roar, Rael buried Whisperfang into the Warden's chest.
The armor split. The book burned. The Echoborn screamed—and shattered like black glass.
Silence returned.
Only Rael stood in the center, sword in hand, breath slow and steady.
The glyphs above dimmed.
The tomb had been conquered.
---
Aurelia lowered her arms, breathless. "You… weren't like this before."
Rael looked at his sword. It pulsed once more.
> "The seal is cracking," it said in his head.
"Piece by piece, you'll remember… what they stole."
---
Then, as Rael turned to leave the chamber—he saw it.
Etched into the altar where the sword had rested…
> "The First Throne Lies in Blood."
"The path begins at Velkaris."
---
Rael's grip tightened.
> "Then that's where we start," he said.
And the shadows followed him into the world above.