Chapter 112: Ash and Echoes (continued)

The Vault was not dead.

It breathed.

The moment Chen stepped across the threshold, the stale air came alive with motion. Glyphs lit across the walls, stuttering at first, then pulsing in time with his heartbeat. Soulflame shimmered along his arms, not in defense—but in recognition.

The chamber was vast, domed, and etched with layers upon layers of divine memory. Murals moved—actual movement—like living scenes replaying history. Flames consuming altars. Gods kneeling. And one figure above all:

Lysaria.

She stood not in triumph, but in chains. Not in exile, but in defiance. And behind her, a massive divine sphere—fractured, pulsing—hovered in the air. The Heart of Purity.

Lanmei staggered slightly as the energy hit her. "It's… not just power. It's grief."

"More than that," Ye Yue murmured, her fingers brushing the glyphs. "She gave everything to protect something. Someone."

The chamber's light dimmed, and a projection shimmered into life—Lysaria herself, cloaked in white and silver flame, her eyes distant but fierce.

"If you've reached this place… then the Courts have begun to fall."

"I was not exiled for weakness. I was banished because I refused to burn away what was still human in us."

"This Vault holds a choice. To wield it is to challenge the very foundation of divine order. You must be more than god. You must be love, defiance, chaos, and unity."

The image faded. Silence fell. Only the pulsing sphere remained, floating in the center of the Vault like a heart waiting for its next bearer.

Chen stepped forward.

As he reached out, his Soulflame reacted not with greed—but reverence. Threads of energy wrapped around the sphere, intertwining like lovers' hands.

The Heart opened.

White-gold fire flooded into him—not burning, but reshaping. Chen didn't scream. He remembered. Generations of truths. Lysaria's final stand. The divine pact she shattered. The mortal she loved. The rebellion she began in secret.

He gasped as he fell to one knee, power crackling around him in a silent roar.

His bonded rushed to his side, steadying him—hands on his chest, his back, his shoulders.

And when his eyes opened… they were no longer entirely his.

They glowed with the same ancient fire Lysaria once bore.