"Truth is not what is remembered. It is what refuses to be forgotten."
The Gods Who Lied
Entry into the Vault
The skyflares breached the upper veil of the celestial barrier.
Stars screamed. Reality folded in protest.
And then—the Vault appeared.
A massive sphere orbiting a dead sun. Black-gold spires jutted like the fingers of forgotten titans. The air shimmered with seals etched in time, runes that pulsed with ancient, fading warmth—like a warning that had been ignored for millennia.
The silence was deafening, like the universe holding its breath.
Sam squinted. "This place wasn't built. It was remembered into being."
Grey, who had seen every kind of ruin, said nothing.
Matt stood at the prow, eyes burning with purpose. He could feel it—like echoes crawling under his skin. He wasn't just entering a structure. He was stepping into the memory of the gods.
"Then I'm here to make them forget it again."
Behind them, the fleet descended. Warborn cruisers fell like silver tears through cosmic ash.
---
Inside the Vault
No gravity. No sound. Just memories—echoes of prayers never answered.
The Warborn moved in disciplined formation, boots gliding across shifting glyphs that rewrote themselves with every step.
Mailane gripped her sword tightly.
"I feel eyes on us. Millions."
"They're watching from the past," Grey said. "Judging from beyond time."
Shrines floated around them—crude, exquisite, broken. They glowed with offerings made of bone, shattered halos, and starfire. Some whispered in dead tongues. One shrine split open as they passed, letting out a sobbing noise before sealing again.
Matt's heartbeat thundered. Each breath felt like pulling air through someone else's lungs.
A door pulsed ahead—its surface flickering like it didn't want to be seen.
Matt reached for it.
It opened itself.
---
Inside waited Silithar.
The God of Forgotten Truths
Silithar was not large.
He was human-sized. Clad in robes that flickered with galaxies. His face was blank. His eyes—empty voids, like inverted stars that consumed light instead of giving it.
He tilted his head, calmly watching Matt step forward.
"I know what you are."
"Then you know why I'm here."
"To end gods," Silithar said. "But you came too late. Truth has already been sown."
He lifted a hand.
And the Vault fractured.
Visions from the Vault
Visions slammed into Matt's mind like celestial thunder:
—The Celestial God, standing before a screaming world, sacrificing one realm to save another, and smiling as the ashes settled.
—The trial by the Imperial Paladins, orchestrated from the shadows. Matt was never meant to survive. He was meant to be forgotten.
—Amiya, kneeling in a hidden chamber, crying as she erased her own memories to protect Matt.
—And his own soul—dark and burning—not born of light, but forged in memory, vengeance, and endless repetition.
Matt screamed.
Ashlight and Voidflame surged outward. Shrines shattered. Sacred glyphs burned white, then black, then nothing.
Mailane caught him as he fell to his knees.
"What did you see?"
"Everything. And nothing I wanted."
---
Memoryforge
The Collapse of Memory
The Vault was no longer static.
It bent.
Shifted.
Reacted.
Silithar raised both hands. The shrines around them twisted, merging into a spiral of glass and shadow. Prayers howled as they unraveled.
"You saw the truth," the god whispered. "Now you will be forged by it."
Matt rose, still trembling.
Ashlight flickered around him, erratic and unstable. His fingers burned with memory.
"I'm not your pawn."
"No," Silithar said. "You're your own undoing."
But even Silithar hesitated.
He had seen mortals scream, seen them beg the forge for death. None had ever stood like this. Not even the Celestial God. And now, the Forge would either crown him... or destroy everything.
With a gesture, he cast Matt into the Memoryforge—a crucible where reality burns away and only who you truly are remains.
---
Inside the Forge
Matt fell through layers of dreamfire.
Each layer, a memory:
—His mother's scream as Nyuga burned. Her arms around him, torn away.
—Amiya's lullaby in the dark, broken by sobs she never let him hear.
—Thermuz laughing over corpses, blood steaming in the snow.
—And his own voice, whispering:
"Am I worth saving?"
He landed in a twisted version of Kelari.
The buildings melted.
Grey was dead on the steps.
Mailane turned to ash in his arms.
Sam knelt over his corpse, sobbing, whispering, "You said you'd come back."
He watched himself die—over and over.
Silithar's voice echoed through the flame:
"This is one future. This is one lie."
Then—a memory deeper than all others:
—His first death. A divine body, pierced by the Blade of Silence. His last words: "Let them forget me."
Now, reborn, Matt whispered:
"Let them remember everything."
Matt roared:
"Then what's real?"
"What you choose to believe."
Matt clenched his fist.
Void and Ashlight surged.
"Then I choose to be more."
He rewrote the fire.
He rebuilt Kelari.
He stood atop the flames, no longer afraid.
> [ERROR 5511-B: Identity Fragment Rewriting...]
> [Memory-Class Entity: "Matt Salurga" no longer matches original divinity log.]
> [Classification updated: VOIDHEART // Status: UNRECOGNIZABLE]
And the forge cracked.
Witnesses to Becoming
Outside the Forge, Sam and Grey watched from the platform.
"Can he survive that?" Sam asked, voice low.
Grey's gaze never left the storm of fire and memory. "No one survives the Forge. That's not the point."
A long silence passed.
"You burn away until only your truth remains. If he doesn't find it… he dies."
Then the fire burst upward.
---
Reforged
Outside, the Vault trembled.
Silithar stumbled. Light bled from his chest in fractal bursts.
"Impossible…"
Mailane raised her sword.
"He's not broken. He's reborn."
The forge exploded in ash and gold.
Matt stepped out.
Eyes burning. Cloak trailing fire. Symbols of Void and Flame orbiting behind him like twin halos forged by wrath. His Ashlight no longer flickered—it flowed like molten stars. His eyes showed two realities—past and present overlapping. His cloak? Now forged from memoryfire.
A Warborn soldier dropped to one knee, eyes wide with awe.
"That's no man…" he whispered. "That's something else."
Matt raised his hand.
"I am the memory you couldn't erase."
He stepped forward.
"And I'm not done."
Ashlight flared.
The Vault of Stars shook.
And far beneath the Vault's shattered seals, something ancient stirred—something older than truth. Watching. Waiting.
And for the first time in eternity, Silithar—the god of forgotten truths—stepped back.