Ashes and Echoes
Chapter 33– Ashes and Echoes
Part 2: The Road That Forgets You
The fire had burned for twelve hours.
It didn't matter that the cathedral had stood for a century. Sanctified stone meant nothing when soaked in null-oil and truth.
By morning, there were no flames—only smoke, black and thick, coiling above the city like a curse with no mouth to name it.
The Church quarter was sealed off. Guards stood around the wreckage, not to investigate—but to not be seen leaving.
People watched from alleys, from windows, from behind shuttered stalls. No one spoke loudly. No one mentioned the name they'd heard whispered by drunks, beggars, and terrified priests alike.
"Kael."
But Kael was already gone.
He stood alone on a jagged ridge five miles outside the city, boots crunching against ash-covered stone, the horizon bruised in early daylight.
He didn't look back at the cathedral. He didn't have to.
He'd already memorized the shape of its collapse. The screams. The silence. The smell.
All of it had been catalogued—stored in the part of his memory where the world had once taught him mercy.
Now it was gone.
[System Notification]
✔ Church Stronghold Destroyed
✔ Shadow Mark +10
✔ Class Rank: Adept
✔ System Shop: Unlocked
[Racial Awakening Progress: 1 / 2 Conditions Met]
➤ Remaining Trigger: Destruction of a Second Church Stronghold
"Power requires price. Identity requires purpose. Shadow waits for no god."
Kael exhaled slowly.
He sat near a shallow, broken shrine at the edge of an abandoned supply post. Old travelers had once used it to bless their shoes before crossing the stone road. Now, it was just a place where wind whispered to no one.
The mirror hanging on the back wall was cracked, its metal edges rusted.
Kael stood before it and opened the System Shop for the first time.
[System Shop – Tier 1 Access Granted]
➤ Currency: Shadow Marks (6)
Available Items:
Cloak of Folded Echoes (3 SP)
Whisperfang Blueprint (2 SP)
Sigil Upgrade Slot (5 SP)
Echo Bottle (1 SP)
Veil of Echoed Flesh (1 SP)
He tapped the last one.
[Artifact Acquired: Veil of Echoed Flesh]
Cost: 1 SP
Effect: Allows full facial and body disguise. Toggleable. Aura remains unchanged to high-perception enemies.
"The hunted must never wear the hunter's face."
Kael didn't hesitate.
Too many people had seen his face in Almaarad.
Guild records. Witnesses. Clerks. Survivors.
He didn't believe in mercy, but he believed in loose ends.
And Kael was now a loose end.
The transformation was quick—but not shallow.
His jaw narrowed slightly. His cheekbones dulled. The line of his shoulders adjusted. His height didn't change, but his posture shifted—just enough to look more like a tired wanderer than a hunter.
His eyes dulled from sharp violet to pale storm-grey. His skin deepened to a dusty bronze, like a man burned by time rather than fire.
When it was finished, he looked into the mirror.
No one would call this face handsome.
But no one would remember it either.
Perfect.
Alias Locked: Ashern
System Identity Mask Active
Kael—no, Ashern now—took one last breath as that name burned away like paper in his mind.
No more records.
No more recognition.
He turned from the mirror and walked into the morning.
The road to Ziraka was dry and narrow, winding between rocky ridges and dead trees. The sun was high by the time he saw the outer watchtower rising from the edge of the canyon wall.
Ziraka wasn't a city that welcomed travelers. It tolerated them.
But Ashern wasn't here to be welcomed.
He was here to listen.
The guards at the southern gate looked him over once and waved him through. No questions. No papers.
The artifact had done its job.
No one saw a threat.
Just another mercenary passing through on the way to a job that wouldn't matter.
Behind him, in the far distance, Almaarad's cathedral continued to smolder.
Ash fell like snow. Truth scattered with it.
The Church had begun whispering the name "Kael" across city borders.
But the man they hunted?
Didn't exist anymore.