Chapter 22: The Vault Must Not Break

The Herald hovered above the Vault, his presence folding the very air around him. The world shimmered in protest, reality recoiling as if the plane of existence itself recognized him as an intruder.

Kael gritted his teeth, wind howling around him atop the battlements. From this distance, the figure was just a shadowed silhouette—but Kael felt him. Not just in his bones. In his memory.

> "I have come to collect the child," the Herald had said.

"Eira belongs to Him now."

Vireya joined him, her twin daggers pulsing with wardlight. "If that thing is the First Herald... then He's already watching."

Kael gave a grim nod. "Then we don't give Him what He wants."

---

Inside the Vault, the walls pulsed with violet glyphs—reacting instinctively to the Herald's presence. The entire fortress, once a haven of sealed knowledge and forbidden truths, now braced itself like a living beast preparing for war.

In the High Chamber, Arion activated the inner wards. The ground trembled as colossal anchor seals emerged from beneath the floor, spinning slowly with ancient script.

"Five seconds until the dome locks," Arion muttered, hands dancing across the hologlyph interface. "We can't let that Herald step foot inside."

From the far end of the hall, Eira sprinted in.

"Let me help," she said, breathless.

Arion turned, frowning. "It's not safe here."

Eira stepped forward. "It's never going to be safe again."

Her hands ignited with a soft light—not Rift energy, but something older. Smoother. A strange resonance filled the room.

Kael entered then, followed closely by Vireya.

"She's changing," Vireya said under her breath.

"She's becoming," Kael replie

They gathered around the war table. Kael drew a map in the air with a flick of his gauntlet—a projection of the Vault's structure, overlaid with breach points and internal seals.

"The Herald can't touch the core," he said. "If he does, the Devourer will mark it. It'll become part of his archive."

Arion looked to him. "What if he already has?"

Kael hesitated. "Then we take back what's ours."

Vireya smirked faintly. "I vote for stabbing."

"We can't kill him," Eira said softly, stepping closer. "He's not alive in the way we understand it. He's a fragment. A thought of the Devourer given shape."

Kael knelt beside her. "Then how do we stop a memory?"

She didn't answer at first.

Then, slowly, she placed her hand on the Vault floor. The stones rippled beneath her touch, revealing ancient glyphs hidden beneath centuries of layering.

> "We wake the Ruinweaver."

Kael's eyes widened.

"That's a myth," Arion whispered.

Eira looked up. "No. He's sealed in the Ninth Chamber, beneath the Vault. And he was the only one to ever wound the Devourer."

---

Beneath the Vault

The Ninth Chamber had been sealed for over a thousand years. Not by locks. But by will.

Kael descended first, Eira beside him, their path lit by the girl's aura. Vireya and Arion followed, weapons drawn, each step down echoing like thunder in a tomb.

At the base of the spiral descent, they reached it.

The Door.

It was not made of stone or metal, but something between time and matter. A translucent sheet of unreality, held in place by five keystones—each bearing a name.

> The Betrayer.

The Forgotten King.

The Last Flame.

The Child of Silence.

The Architect of Ends.

Kael stepped closer. "These aren't just titles. They're lives."

Eira approached one keystone—the one marked The Child of Silence.

Without hesitation, she placed her palm against it.

It melted into her skin.

The Door groaned, then vanished.

Behind it stood a single figure, suspended in a web of glowing chains. He was tall, skin silver like starlight, eyes closed. Scars crisscrossed his face, and an enormous blade rested vertically across his back.

> The Ruinweaver.

"Wake him," Kael said.

"I don't know how," Eira whispered.

But the Weaver's eyes opened on their own.

The Ruinweaver floated down, chains detaching from the ceiling as he touched the ground. He did not speak, but the Vault spoke for him.

Glyphs across the walls lit up with sudden fury.

> "The Herald has breached the outer dome."

> "Engagement protocol enabled."

Kael drew his blade. "We go now."

The storm above the Vault cracked open as the Herald descended.

He landed without a sound. The ground beneath him did not break—but shifted, warping like soft glass.

Kael met him at the edge of the platform. Behind him, the others took position—Vireya on the flanks, Arion guarding Eira, and the Ruinweaver silently unsheathing his blade.

The Herald raised a hand.

"I offer one mercy," he said. "Give me the girl. Spare your people."

Kael stepped forward. "She has a name. Eira. And she chooses her own fate."

A flicker of something—recognition? amusement?—crossed the Herald's otherwise featureless face.

"Very well."

Then the sky screamed.

Kael lunged, sword swinging, but the Herald shifted—not moving, but rewriting his position, appearing behind Kael with a single blink.

Vireya struck from the left. Arion unleashed a pulse of binding light. The Ruinweaver descended with a roar, his blade splitting the ground with each strike.

The Herald responded with no weapon.

Just memory.

Each blow he took, he reflected back as echoes. Vireya slashed his arm—only to feel her own wound open in the same place. Arion's light splintered—caught in a loop, turning back on him like a mirrored trap.

Kael fought with fury. But every strike was like striking himself.

Until Eira stepped forward.

She raised her hands.

And the sky bent.

The Vault pulsed beneath her feet, synchronizing with her heartbeat.

Glyphs ignited not just on the floor, but across the horizon.

Eira's voice rang like a bell in the chaos.

> "You are not His only echo!"

The Herald turned—just as a blast of pure memory-light slammed into him.

It wasn't a weapon.

It was her story.

He staggered.

The Ruinweaver surged forward and struck.

This time, the Herald bled.

The Herald stumbled back, eyes dimming.

Kael approached warily, weapon still raised.

The Herald coughed—if such beings could—and whispered one final thing:

> "He waits... beyond the Shattered Star. And when He comes, He will call her by the name she has forgotten."

Kael narrowed his eyes. "What name?"

The Herald's form began to dissolve, becoming mist and fractured light.

And as he vanished, a final word echoed into the minds of all present:

> "Azherah."

Eira froze.

And for the first time since they found her...

She remembered.

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