Echoes from a Realm Unnamed

Chapter 20

The battlefield was silent.

Ashes drifted like snow.

Mithros was gone.

But something still lingered in the air.

Zereth stood alone atop the cracked mount, his blade Kairos fading into nothingness. The wound on his chest had sealed, but his gaze was distant haunted.

The gods did not approach.

Even they felt it.

That this fight had stirred something ancient. Something forbidden.

The wind whispered.

> "It's happening again…"

Zereth closed his eyes.

And for the first time he remembered.

---

Years ago. Before the Realms were named.

A broken child stood before a golden gate, blood-soaked and barefoot. Divine corpses lay scattered behind him gods with no names, titans with no purpose.

A voice echoed from the gate.

> "What are you?"

The boy didn't answer.

> "You have no star. No throne. No realm. And yet… you walk above us."

He raised his hand and the gate split open. Not from power, but from recognition.

> "He carries no domain…" "But the realms remember his name."

---

Present.

Zereth opened his eyes. His expression unreadable.

> "Even now… they whisper," he muttered.

Behind him, the gods remained silent.

But far away

In the Throneless Realm, a chained sage stirred.

Eyes blind, mouth sealed with time but his thoughts screamed into the void:

> "He's waking up… Zereth Kaine walks the path again."

And far above, in the Celestial Archives, forbidden pages flipped on their own.

> "Seal: Order X-Null. Codename: The Sleeper."

---

The Sage Speaks

> "He was never meant to rise."

"Not again."

> "They buried his past beneath false legends. Gave him no title. No story."

"Because the truth would shatter what they built."

> "But the world forgot one thing…"

> "You cannot kill what walks between realms."

---

Zereth stood at the edge of the floating battlefield. His cape fluttered in the storm's dying wind.

He whispered softly only the wind heard:

> "Three names remain sealed…"

> "And when the last one is spoken… even the gods will beg to forget."