Chapter 7 – The Echo Below

The path led downward, veiled by frost and fog. His boots cracked old bones beneath the snow—deer, or perhaps not deer at all. The trail narrowed, swallowed by leaning trees with bark like scorched flesh.

The call grew louder.

Not in sound.

In pressure.

In weight.

It tugged behind his eyes like a hook buried in memory.

Eventually, the forest gave way to a ravine—mist-choked and rimmed in frost-warped stone. Nestled at the bottom, cradled by root and ruin, lay the remains of an old sanctum. Crumbled arches. Fallen statuary. Holy symbols worn to pale smears.

> [Environmental Note: Sanctum Ruins Detected – "Temple of the First Silence"]

[Warning: Residual sanctity detected | System efficiency reduced in high-holy zones]

Malric stared at the broken relics of divinity, teeth grinding.

The gods always left their bones behind.

He descended slowly, fingers brushing the hilt of Veilpiercer. Every step felt heavier—like the earth beneath remembered what had been done here. Penitents and blood. Prayers and screams. There was no true silence in places like this. Only echoes pretending.

He crossed the shattered threshold.

Statues lined the walls—figures once revered now hollow-eyed, with mouths open as if in eternal scream. In the flicker of his shadow, they seemed to move. Not visibly—but suggestively. A trick of the candlelight… or the system?

> [System Behavior: Anomalous]

[Cognitive Interference Detected – Source: Sanctified Ground]

At the far end of the ruin stood a rusted iron door. Bone runes still clung to its surface, flaking like dead scabs.

> [System Response: Fluctuating]

[Unknown Presence Detected – Identity Fragmented]

The system didn't guide him.

It reacted.

His hand hovered over the door. Cold. Bone-deep.

A heartbeat echoed.

Not his.

Then—

Laughter.

Soft. Female. Wrong.

> [Alert: Presence Detected | Unknown Entity – Classification: "Reverent Husk"]

[System Analysis: Incomplete | Host memories required for full identification.]

He pushed the door open.

The chamber beyond was circular. Candles floated midair, casting long, warped shadows on the cracked marble. The scent of sanctified oil still clung to the air, tainted by rot.

At its center stood a veiled figure in robes of grey and gold, stitched with bone-thread. Her head tilted at his entrance like a curious bird.

"You wear the hunger," she said.

Her voice was silk—and sand.

> [Entity: Reverent Husk – Broken vessel of Faithbound Sisterhood | Memory Fragment Linked: (2/3)]

[Warning: Cognition Detected – Mental duel may initiate if Devour Mind is used]

She turned slowly. No eyes—only pits. Still, she watched.

"You shouldn't be," she whispered. "Not yet."

"You know what I am," Malric said, voice like iron dragged through ash.

"I knew what you were," she replied. "You've become something worse."

A flick of her wrist.

The candles flared black.

The chamber screamed.

---

She moved like ash—fast, silent, corrupt. Power bled from her bones, twisting through the air in sickly ribbons. Her steps cracked stone. Light broke like glass around her.

Malric raised Veilpiercer. The blade trembled—not with fear, but hunger.

> [Skill Activated: Devour Mind – Initiate Mental Link]

Their eyes locked. The world shattered.

---

Soulscape.

A cathedral inverted. Stained-glass screams. Choirs torn open and stitched back wrong. Stone arches wept holy ichor, and the altar at the center bled memory.

Her mind was a tomb.

Each thought, a crypt.

He moved through it like a thief in sacred ruins, dragging light behind him that wasn't holy. Not anymore.

> [Devour Mind: Progress 31%...]

[Mental Resistance Detected | Memory Core Fragment Shielded]

Her voice echoed from nowhere. "We believed in peace. We died in silence. You turned both into weapons."

He pushed deeper.

Visions struck him:

A circle of sisters singing beneath a burning sun.

A knife plunged into a chalice of light.

Chains of faith snapping one link at a time.

> [Assimilation at 63% | Host defenses collapsing]

"You are the shadow beneath the hymn," she wept. "You are the final blasphemy."

"Yes," Malric said. "And I remember."

> [Assimilation at 92% | Skill Fragment Identified – "Sanctified Echo"]

[Core Thought Captured – "Faith is only silence made obedient."]

He reached the altar. Tore it open.

And the soul within screamed.

---

The world snapped back.

She staggered, bones trembling beneath failing sanctity. Veilpiercer struck once—twice.

Through the heart.

Through the soul.

Light bloomed—but no warmth followed.

She collapsed in silence.

> [Devour Complete – Faithbound Memory (3/3)]

[Skill Acquired: Sanctified Echo (Rank I)]

[Hunger: 19%]

[System Mutation Advancing – Phase Two Pending]

The system pulsed within him. No longer a tool. No longer a passenger. It was becoming something else—a co-author of his soul.

Outside, the mist recoiled.

Only frost remained.

In the east, a new tremor rippled through the bones of the world.

A presence.

A rival.

A challenge.

> [Target Suggested: Initiate Lirael of the Twinned Flame – Faithbound Executioner]

Malric exhaled, the air steaming from his mouth.

He didn't need to speak.

The system already knew.

He walked.