Chapter 38 – Voices of the Lost

The moment Kael stepped into the chamber, the silence pressed down on him like a weight.

It wasn't the silence of emptiness. It was the silence of memory, of pain, of the unspoken. The walls were smooth obsidian, circular in structure, engraved with faint runes that pulsed with dim blue light. The floor beneath his boots was patterned with geometric symbols, all converging toward a circular dais at the center. Floating above it was a fractured orb, its light flickering erratically like a dying star.

Kael's breath caught in his throat. It wasn't just any orb.

It was a Resonance Core—a relic from before the Collapse, a device said to preserve memory echoes of those who had once wielded power enough to scar the sky. They were banned by most factions for being too dangerous to the mind. But Kael needed answers—desperately.

Behind him, Eris stopped at the threshold.

"You sure about this?" she asked quietly. Her hand hovered near her blade, and her mismatched eyes—one violet, one grey—shimmered in the chamber's pale light.

Kael didn't look back. "I have to be. We lost too many in that last encounter. That thing knew me. And I want to know why."

He took a step forward.

The moment his foot touched the edge of the dais, the fractured orb pulsed violently—and then silence shattered.

A thousand whispers rose at once.

Not loud. Not coherent. Just fragments.

"Nullborn…"

"The Godless flame…"

"Broken Code…"

"Shouldn't have survived…"

Kael's knees buckled slightly as the voices surged through his mind. They weren't just sounds. They were memories. Thoughts. Agonies. Hopes. Regrets. He bit down on the pain and stepped into the full circle, letting the Resonance Core's light wash over him.

The chamber changed.

Not physically.

Mentally.

Suddenly, Kael was no longer standing in that room—but suspended in a black void filled with shards of light. Figures appeared, blurring in and out of focus. Men. Women. Creatures not of any recognizable species. All of them distorted—echoes of former selves, drawn from the Resonance Core.

And then one voice rose above the others.

Clear. Cold. Familiar.

"You shouldn't exist."

Kael turned slowly—and saw a reflection of himself. But twisted.

The doppelgänger's skin was pale grey, eyes burning with inverted white flame. Its Ascension mark glowed black rather than gold. And unlike Kael's composed, determined posture, this figure crackled with raw instability.

"You were the failure," it said. "The one they cast out."

Kael clenched his fists. "Who are you?"

The echo tilted its head. "A remnant. A fragment. A shadow of what could have been—before He altered the threads."

Kael narrowed his eyes. "He?"

The doppelgänger's smile widened. "You'll know him soon enough. But not today. Today, you listen. Because the path you're walking is the same one I did. And it led to ruin."

The shards of light around them started spinning faster, forming a spiraling vortex. Screams echoed from within—names Kael didn't recognize, yet felt in his bones.

"Do you know why you're different?" the echo asked. "Why the Code fears you?"

Kael said nothing.

The echo extended its hand, and a tendril of light wrapped around Kael's wrist. A searing sensation flared through him, and images surged into his mind—

A tower, floating above a shattered sea.

A child, kneeling before a throne of bone.

A god, screaming as he was torn apart by something unseen.

And then…a gate. Endless. Whispering his name.

Kael staggered back, gasping. "What… what is that?!"

The echo stepped closer, its voice quieter now. "It's what comes next. Unless you break the chain."

"What chain?" Kael barked.

The echo raised a finger, pointing directly at Kael's chest.

"The Ascension Code."

Everything went white.

Kael collapsed back into reality, falling to one knee. The Resonance Core was flickering wildly now, on the verge of shattering. Eris rushed to him, grabbing his shoulder.

"Kael—talk to me. What happened?!"

He looked up, sweat beading on his brow. "It showed me something. A version of me… but wrong. Twisted. And he knew things I didn't."

Eris tensed. "Was it a trap?"

"No," Kael said slowly, rising to his feet. "It was a warning."

He looked back at the fractured orb.

"I'm not the first."

They regrouped an hour later in one of the lower chambers of the fallen temple. The rest of the Ashen Creed's scouting team had returned from sweeping the perimeter—six of them total, all bruised but alive.

"Another dead zone two clicks north," Riven reported. His fur-lined cloak fluttered behind him as he removed his half-mask. "Mana doesn't flow right there. Almost like the region's been… drained."

"That makes three this week," said Lys, her silver gauntlet crackling faintly as she checked a datapad. "It's spreading faster. And whatever did it, it's not natural."

Kael sat at the center of the table, hands steepled, eyes distant.

He finally spoke. "They're not dead zones. They're scars."

The others fell silent.

Eris crossed her arms. "Scars?"

Kael nodded. "From battles. Old ones. Ones the Code doesn't want remembered."

He tapped the table, and a small projection shimmered into view—a map of the surrounding regions. He traced a line between the three dead zones.

"They're forming a pattern. A spiral."

The moment the image completed, Lys let out a sharp breath. "That's a Rune Spiral."

Riven frowned. "Impossible. That magic's been extinct since the Collapse."

Kael looked around the table.

"Nothing's extinct in this world. Just buried."

He stood. "And if we don't find the center of that spiral, we'll be the next thing buried."

Two days later

The expedition into the heart of the spiral wasn't silent.

Whispers haunted them at every step. Not from their minds, but from the land itself. The wind carried faint voices. The trees bent in unnatural angles, as if recoiling from something long forgotten. Even the beasts of the forest—normally violent and territorial—had vanished.

Kael, Eris, and five others moved in formation, weapons ready, senses alert.

"We're getting close," Lys said. Her device beeped erratically. "Mana's distorting hard."

Suddenly, the air trembled.

A low, guttural screech tore through the sky.

Riven looked up—then shouted, "Contact! Above!"

The clouds split.

Descending with black, leathery wings and burning gold eyes was a creature unlike anything Kael had seen before. Its body was a fusion of organic and machine—runic plates grafted into flesh, cables trailing like veins. It landed with a thunderous impact, and its head tilted slowly toward Kael.

Its voice was deep. Mechanical. But not emotionless.

"You carry the Mark of the Broken One."

Kael stepped forward, power flaring faintly beneath his skin. "You know me."

"I remember you," the creature said. "Or perhaps… the one before you."

Eris raised her blade. "Is it hostile?"

Kael didn't move. "No. Not yet."

The creature's gaze sharpened. "I am the last Sentinel of the Spiral. My duty was to keep the gate sealed."

"Gate to what?" Kael asked.

The Sentinel spread its arms. "To the core. The place where the Ascension Code fractured. The origin of the Null."

Kael's blood ran cold.

"Let us pass."

The Sentinel tilted its head. "Will you bear the weight of what lies beyond?"

Kael's voice was firm. "If it means finding the truth—yes."

Silence.

Then the Sentinel knelt, driving its blade into the ground. The earth rumbled—and split open, revealing a staircase descending into darkness.

"Then walk the path of the lost, Broken One. And pray your will is stronger than your past."

End of Chapter 38