Chapter 4: “Shadow of the Forgotten”

The deeper Leo went, the quieter the dungeon became.

No echoes. No creatures. Just the weight of ancient silence pressing against the stone like a held breath.

This area isn't on the pattern map.

He hovered low to the ground, his incorporeal body slipping between fractured tiles and long-dead torches. The cave walls were different here—no moss, no mana blooms. Just runes. Faded, worn, but deliberate.

They looked nothing like the language used in system interfaces.

Leo reached out and brushed a tendril of shadow across one of them.

[Unknown Script Detected: Primordial Binding Glyphs.][Decoding… Incomplete. 37% corruption.]

"Show partial translation."

['Here lies… the Fifth… Silence was mercy… do not wake…']

His core pulsed with sudden heat.

Fifth Born…?

A hiss echoed from deeper inside.

Leo went still.

The temperature dropped. His vision flickered. Something about this place hated being watched.

[Warning: Field anomaly detected.][Passive Skills reduced: -50% efficiency.]

He pressed forward anyway, passing beneath a broken archway carved from black crystal.

What he found inside was not a room.

It was a tomb.

At the center, slumped over in a throne of stone, sat a figure.

Hollow. Wrapped in long-decayed robes. Horns curved back from a crumbling skull. And yet, despite the rot, Leo felt the unmistakable pull of divine mana. The same warmth he felt when Elara spoke.

This one was… like me.

"System. Scan entity."

[Error: Entity status corrupted.][Name: ———][Class: Child of Elara (Fifth Born)][Vitality: ??? | Status: Dormant/Unknown][Warning: Soul Residue Detected.]

Soul residue? They're dead… but not gone.

The air rippled. Shadows twitched. Then—A voice.

"...You're early."

Leo jerked back, immediately activating Phantom Grasp—a dozen spectral hands coiled from the ground around the corpse.

But it didn't move.

The voice came again. Female. Hollow. Fractured.

"Not supposed to wake yet. Not until twelve stand above the world."

Leo hovered in silence, analyzing every breath, every twitch of the room.

"You're the Fifth Born?"

No answer. Just the faint sound of bones cracking as the corpse turned its skull toward him.

The empty sockets looked through him.

"The system lies. The world lies. Even she… lies."

Leo frowned.

"Elara?"

"She called us children. Then threw us into hell. I was faithful."

Leo's form flared with instinctual power. Shadows curled like smoke around his core.

"She gave us life. She gave us a chance."

The figure laughed. A dry, bitter sound like breaking glass.

"And what will you be, Fourth Born, when this world breaks you? Will you still call her 'mother?'"

Leo didn't respond.

He simply watched.

Then walked closer.

I need data. Memory. Anything.

He reached out.

The moment his shadow touched the Fifth's throne—pain.

A flood of images tore into his mind—

A battlefield. Ashes. Blood. Screams.The Fifth, laughing as cities burned. Their horns drenched in gold and flame.Then… betrayal. A sword through the chest. Twelve shadows turning away.Alone. Forgotten. Buried.

[Memory Fragment Absorbed.][Title Gained: Witness of the Betrayed.][Effect: Unknown.]

Leo staggered back, his form flickering.

The Fifth had been powerful. Insanely so. But twisted. Not broken by the dungeon—but by purpose.

She was faithful… and it killed her.

The voice returned, softer this time.

"There is no 'right' path. No hero's road. Only survival. Only power."

Leo steadied himself.

"Good."

"What?"

"That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

He turned to leave.

But not before whispering:

"Sleep well, Fifth. I'll see what broke you. And I'll walk through it smiling."

The air behind him stirred once more.

A whisper.

"Then maybe… you'll survive longer than I did."

🔹 Later – Nesting Chamber 🔹

Leo returned to his territory—a ledge he'd carved into the stone wall above a predator nest. From here, he could observe, feed on ambient mana, and rest.

His mind churned with what he'd learned.

So the Fifth went rogue. Lost herself. Or maybe… she saw something I haven't yet.

The System pinged quietly.

[Memory Fragment stored.][Evolution Paths Expanding.][New Trait Detected: Mental Resilience.]

Leo focused.

"System. Am I… like her?"

[You are not predetermined.]

"That's not a no."

No answer came.

He leaned back into the shadows.

Alone.

But not weak.