The Chains Beneath

The wind outside the Academy was still.

Even the crows, who often perched on the rusted bell tower, had vanished—as if the silence beneath the ground had reached them too.

Down below, far beneath the shattered training field, Riven followed the ancient Librarian through a spiral stairwell carved from obsidian. Each step resonated with a weight that wasn't entirely physical. There was power here. Old, buried power.

Lira walked between them, small hands glowing faintly with rune-sparks she didn't seem to notice anymore. Her gaze was fixed forward, but her mind—Riven could tell—was drifting through something she hadn't yet spoken of.

The stairwell finally opened into a vast underground corridor. Its walls pulsed with living script, flowing from end to end in rivers of light that slithered like serpents before fading into the darkness.

"This place wasn't built," the Librarian murmured, voice soft like pages turning. "It was remembered."

Riven frowned. "Remembered?"

The Librarian didn't respond. Instead, she led them to an ancient archway—one sealed shut by a complex locking system of gears, glyphs, and embedded crystals.

She placed her hand on it. "Input: Master Key—Librarian Class."

The gate shuddered and clicked.

[System Alert: Accessing Obsidian Vault – Clearance Verified]

With a grinding echo, the door opened.

A cold breath swept over them—dry, sterile, and yet... echoing with whispers of a time when systems weren't just tools but beings of their own.

The chamber within was unlike anything Riven had seen before.

Tall pillars of black stone lined the room, and within each one floated a chained figure—half-formed, featureless beings that radiated dormant energy. The air shimmered around them as if reality here was thinner.

"What... are they?" he whispered.

"Ghosts," the Librarian replied. "Not of people. Of classes. Roles. Paths that once existed... and were forcibly erased."

Lira stopped in front of one. Her hand reached out instinctively.

"Don't—" Riven started, but the Librarian held up a hand.

"She won't be harmed," she said. "In fact... they might recognize her."

As Lira's fingers brushed the stone, the room trembled.

[Hidden Protocol Unlocked: Forgotten Class Detected – Classification: Unarchived Saint][Warning: Cross-Syncing with Anomalous Class – Necromantic Trace Signature Present]

A blinding light burst from the pillar.

Riven shielded his eyes, but through the glare he saw the chained class stir. Its bindings pulsed, and its form flickered—one moment saintlike, radiant wings spanning wide... the next, skeletal and cloaked in bone armor.

The entity spoke without sound, and yet the words echoed in all their minds.

"Child of Dual Light. Bearer of Chaos. You are the spark."

The chains shattered.

Lira collapsed.

Riven caught her just before she hit the floor.

Her skin was warm—too warm. Her body pulsed with conflicting auras, one side glowing with silver light, the other with a cold, dark mist.

The Librarian knelt beside them. "She has begun the Merging."

Riven clenched his jaw. "What does that mean?"

"She's awakening both classes simultaneously. The Saint and the Necromancer... two paths that were never meant to coexist. One brings restoration, the other corruption. It will tear her apart unless she finds a center."

Riven looked down at his sister—at the girl who didn't ask for this.

And yet, some part of her seemed... ready.

"What can I do?" he asked.

The Librarian stared at him for a long time. "Protect her. Not from enemies. But from the world. The Codex. And eventually... from herself."

The weight of that settled deep in his bones.

Just then, a pulse rang through the vault—low, steady, and distant. Like a war drum in another world.

The Librarian turned toward the far wall. "Someone's opened the Deep Gate."

"Deep Gate?" Riven echoed.

"A door that shouldn't be opened. Ever."

From the ground above, a new sound echoed—screams.

Riven stood. "We need to go."

Lira stirred. Her eyes opened—and this time, they weren't the soft amber he remembered. One glowed with holy light. The other shimmered black like obsidian flame.

"I saw them," she whispered. "The ones buried under time. They're waking up."

Aboveground – Academy Grounds

The once majestic entrance to Dawnbringer Academy was now a battlefield.

Black flames crawled up the stone walls as monstrous shadows emerged from crimson rifts that tore across the sky. The Reaver may have fallen, but its death had called something worse.

The Sleepless Ones had arrived.

Humanoid in shape, but wrong in every other way, they moved like shattered reflections—limbs twisting where they shouldn't, mouths whispering in tongues that hurt to hear.

They didn't roar. They didn't scream.

They just advanced.

The professors who remained fought desperately—casting layered shields, elemental arrays, and command spells that tried to hold the line.

"Where's the Headmaster?" one shouted.

"Gone to delay the breach!" someone else cried. "They've broken the seal under Sector Seven!"

A crack of thunder shook the air as Spellblade Eran leapt into the fray, cleaving one of the abominations in half with a weapon that pulsed white-hot.

"Hold position!" he yelled. "They're not limitless!"

But even as he said it, the sky split open further.

And a new form stepped out.

It was a man—or at least it had once been. His face was partially burned, his robes layered with cursed sigils, and his eyes... hollow black pits filled with writhing threads.

He raised a hand.

And the dead began to rise.

Belowground Again

Lira stood now, trembling but steady.

"I can stop him," she said.

"No," Riven snapped. "You just unlocked something ancient and almost got shredded by it. You're not going out there."

"I have to," she whispered. "They're looking for me. If I don't face them, they'll keep coming. They'll destroy everything."

"She's right," the Librarian said. "This is no longer a test. It's a message. The enemy is showing their hand. If we don't respond... the Academy falls."

Riven gritted his teeth. He hated it. Hated how his sister had to shoulder this.

But he also saw it in her gaze. Not fear.

Resolve.

"Alright," he said. "But I'm going with you."

Lira smiled faintly. "We'll end this together."

[System Sync Initiated – Chaosborne Twin Protocol Active][Dual Signature Detected – Linking Skill Trees][New Passive: Twin's Oath – Shared Buff: +20% Magic Resilience | +15% Spirit Sync]

As the last of the vault's light faded, Riven and Lira walked toward the exit—one with a hand on his blade, the other with light and shadow dancing at her fingertips.

Whatever lay ahead, they'd face it as they always had.

Together.