Chapter 9: The Abyssal Archive

The entrance to the Abyssal Archive loomed before them—a massive, ancient doorway, its surface carved with glowing runes, shifting and twisting like something alive.

Kael swallowed hard, his breath still uneven from the fight. The Gatekeeper's shattered remains littered the ground behind them, but his victory came at a price.

[Fracture Progression: 17%]

Seventeen.

Kael could feel it now—the creeping instability in his mind, the strange echoes of things that weren't his memories.

"One step closer to ruin, Sovereign."

He clenched his fists. Not yet.

Lysara, still holding her injured side, studied the entrance. "That thing was guarding something important."

Nyssa nodded, her amber eyes flickering with interest. "The Archive isn't just a library. It's a prison. A place where knowledge was locked away for a reason."

Raith smirked, flipping a dagger between his fingers. "I bet whatever's inside is going to be real friendly."

Kael exhaled, then stepped forward. "Let's not keep it waiting."

He pressed his palm against the doorway.

The runes flared, the ancient stone trembling beneath his touch.

And then—the doors swung open.

Into the Forgotten Depths

The air inside the Archive was wrong.

Cold. Still.

A vast chamber stretched before them, its walls lined with towering bookshelves, filled with tomes covered in dust and age.

But the books weren't the only thing here.

In the center of the chamber, a figure sat on a throne of shattered stone.

Kael's blood ran cold.

The man was half-decayed, his flesh cracked and fractured, as if his body had been eroded by time itself. His eyes glowed with eerie blue light, and his lips curled into something that wasn't quite a smile.

He spoke.

"…Another one?"

Kael's heart pounded.

The man on the throne knew him.

Or worse—he had been like him.

The First Sovereign

The decayed man tilted his head, studying Kael like a predator watching prey.

"I've seen your kind before," he said, voice like a dying ember. "So many of you, walking this path. And yet…"

His fingers twitched, the fractures in his skin glowing.

"You all break the same way."

Kael's grip on his dagger tightened.

Lysara stepped closer, her runeblade half-drawn. "Who are you?"

The man chuckled—a dry, hollow sound. "Once, I was Varos, the First Sovereign."

Kael's breath stilled.

First Sovereign.

A previous Fractured Sovereign.

He wasn't the first.

He never had been.

A Warning from the Past

Varos leaned forward, the glow in his eyes flickering. "Tell me, Sovereign… how many fractures have you endured?"

Kael hesitated. "…Seventeen."

Varos's expression twisted. "Then you don't have much time left."

The words hit like a hammer to the chest.

Kael's mind raced. "What do you mean?"

Varos raised a decayed hand, the fractures on his skin spreading like cracks in glass.

"Every Sovereign before you… every single one of us… was consumed."

Kael stiffened.

Nyssa frowned. "Consumed by what?"

Varos's lips pulled into something that was not a smile.

"The system."

The room felt colder.

Kael's system pinged.

[Warning: System Instability Detected.]

Varos exhaled. "You think you control it, don't you? You believe the power it gives is yours."

His eyes burned.

"You couldn't be more wrong."

Kael's pulse pounded.

Varos's fingers clenched into the stone of his throne. "The system is a parasite. A hunger that cannot be satisfied. It doesn't just take from you."

His voice dropped to a whisper.

"It is turning you into something else."

Kael froze.

Lysara's expression darkened. "You're saying it… changes him?"

Varos's laugh was bitter. "You still think you're human, Sovereign?"

Kael's blood ran cold.

Varos leaned forward, his decayed body creaking with the movement.

"Look at me. I was once a man. Now I am this."

His hand trembled, blue fractures crawling across his flesh.

"This is your future. Your fate." His voice dropped lower. "Unless you sever your connection to the system."

Kael's breath caught. "Sever it?"

Nyssa's eyes widened. "That's… impossible. The system is bound to him."

Varos tilted his head. "Is it?"

A silence stretched between them.

Then—Varos laughed softly.

"…I see. You're not ready to hear the truth yet."

Kael tensed.

Varos raised a single hand—and the air around them shattered.

A pulse of power erupted, and suddenly—

Kael was somewhere else.

The Memory of Ruin

Kael stood in a war-torn battlefield, the sky above him fractured like broken glass.

Ruins stretched across the horizon. Bodies littered the ground.

And at the center of it all—

A Sovereign stood alone.

But it wasn't Varos.

It was someone else.

Someone Kael recognized.

Himself.

Kael's heart slammed against his ribs. "What—"

The other Kael turned toward him.

But his eyes weren't human.

They were glowing fractures.

And when he spoke, his voice was not his own.

"One step closer to ruin, Sovereign."

The world shattered.

End of Chapter 9

Now Kael knows the terrifying truth—he isn't the first, and the system is changing him into something inhuman.

But what did he just see? And who was the fractured version of himself in the vision?