Ritebreaker Ascending

LOCATION: ASHVALE – THE SEER'S HOLD

The candles in Aelira Varn's chamber burned too low, as if afraid of her.

She sat cross-legged in the center of the sanctum floor, robes damp with sweat, her hair... unbound, and eyes red from sleepless nights. The glyph that tracked Lucan Malryk still glowed faintly beneath her skin—hidden just above her collarbone.

A sin-glyph. Illegal. Condemned. Etched with her own blood.

She hadn't spoken of it, no not to the Inquisitors. Not even to herself.

Because if she did, if she spoke the truth out loud— it would mean admitting she hadn't saved but betrayed him and watched him bleed.

She had called it duty. Faith. A necessary evil.

But the glyph didn't lie.

Every flicker of it said: "You knew."

Every pulse of it whispered: "You chose."

Each time she tried to sleep, it pulsed. Each time Lucan moved, it shimmered and each time it made her heart stutter.

Aelira's fingers trembled as she scrawled another encrypted glyph-letter onto a spell-treated letter. She didn't sign it. She never did.

She only wrote:

"He's moving east. I don't know why I'm still helping him. I think it's guilt. I think it's more."

"They're watching me. I think they know. I'll send what I can. If I disappear, tell him—"

The glyph burned shut before she could finish. She slumped back against the wall, pulse ragged.

In the hallway outside, an Inquisitor passed by, pausing a moment too long.

She didn't move. Didn't breathe.

The glyph in her skin pulsed again.

Lucan was alive.

And gods help her—she still loved him.

---

LOCATION: THE EDGE OF THE SHATTERED WASTES — HOLLOW CREED

Lucan didn't trust Rivenna Drae.

Not with her voidsteel. Not with her silences. Not even with the way her eyes lingered on his like she was studying him. No, judging him.

They walked together beneath along a terrain littered with bones from a battle no one remembered. With every step, Lucan expected her to vanish but she didn't.

"Why did you save me?" he asked finally.

Rivenna didn't answer immediately. She took her time as usual then —

"You weren't finished,"

Lican: "That's it?"

She stopped walking and turned to face him, "No. But it's the part I'm willing to say."

Lucan's jaw tightened. He almost groaned out in frustration but didn't dare it. Instead he simply said, "And what is the rest?"

Rivenna's lips curled but it wasn't a smile.

"You want the truth, Apostate?" she said. "I saw you break the rite. I saw the gods flinch. And for a moment, I believed the fire might finally burn them."

Then Silence, no words and then a bit softer than usual she said, "You're either a herald… or a mistake."

Lucan glanced at her and said slowly, almost stuttering, "So which am I to you?"

Rivenna didn't flinch, she smirked like she was enjoying the back and forth and dropped her voice to a whisper.

"I haven't decided yet."

She belonged to a forgotten sect: The Hollow Creed. A sect of Warriors forsaken by the gods, or whatever Halix says the gods of Ashvale said. Strong and firm but not many in number. At least not barely enough to take on the Creed of Chains, Ashvale's military and Rivenna, she wasn't offering Lucan salvation, not even a promise of survival but something else, something colder, sharper, something long lost.

Freedom.

"You can burn the temple…" she said as her eyes locked to his, "...or become the flame that builds a new one."

She turned then, not waiting for a response, and gestured for him to follow.

"We're here."

Lucan narrowed his eyes. The terrain had changed—less ruin, more design, no longer in that small like cathedral or whatever it was.

Figures stood ahead, some masked, some silent, some cloaked in black and silver, others wielding their steel but all looked like they would kill him in a heartbeat.

At the center of it all stood someone else, not Rivenna but the one she bowed to.

"Lucan Malryk," the figure said. "Welcome to the Hollow Creed."

"You're the leader?" Lucan asked almost with a cracked voice but tight with suspicion.

The figure stepped forward and the low torchlight caught a scar at the edge of his jaw.

"I am Verrick Thorne," he said. "And I am the measure of your worth."

Lucan didn't flinch but glanced around and understood what was going on so he exhaled and said calmly, "Measure me, then."

Verrick tilted his head, amused. "Oh, I intend to. But first—I need to know what you see when you look at me."

Lucan glanced him up and down. "A gatekeeper. A threat. A man who thinks riddles are power."

Verrick smiled. "And you… you're a spark walking into the pyre, hoping not to burn."

Lucan smirked but before he could ask more, the ground beneath his feet rippled. Weapons summoned and Wards surged.

Rivenna didn't warn him, she didn't need to.

"If you want in," the figure growled, "prove that your fire isn't borrowed."

Lucan exhaled once, slow and deep and heard it again in his head but this time he saw the screen too.

[Combat Protocol: Engaging...]

[WARNING: Sin Levels fluctuating — Stability at 43%]

[T̶e̴s̸t̶ ̶I̷n̷c̴o̶m̶i̸n̵g̷]

Lucan cracked his neck, and stepped forward.

"Let's see if your Creed's worth dying for."

---

Minutes later, blood dripped from his knuckles as his opponent lay down on the floor, not dead, juT broken but breathing.

The leader of the Creed tilted his head and said with a smirk, "Not clean. Not controlled. But cruel. Efficient... but True."

He nodded once more and with a hand raised like a final signal he says two words which would change everything, "He stays."

Rivenna didn't clap nor did she smile but something sharp and unreadable flickered in her gaze as she turned away.

"Come," she said. "There's more."

---

LOCATION: THE FORGOTTEN SHRINE – BENEATH ASHVALE

Somewhere deeper than the catacombs, where no prayers reached and even time dared not linger—something moved.

A statue cracked and an eye opened. Not mortal, no not human but a god and his voice as he says,

"…Malryk…"

The sound echoed loudly although none would hear it, but the shrine shookas if the shrine itself recognized him.

[Divine Echo Detected — Subject: Lucan Malryk] [Sanctum Breach Recorded. Sin Path Alignment: Distorted. Memory Link: Found.]

As the shrine shook, the god that once warned them not to sacrifice the boy stirred.

---

LOCATION: HOLLOW CREED — NIGHTFALL

Lucan stood at near a desecrated statue and a screen flickered on as the system buzzed, twitching and glitching.

[S̷i̶n̸b̷o̶u̴n̴d̸ S̵y̵s̶t̸e̴m̴ A̵l̸e̴r̸t̶: D̷e̶i̸t̶y̷-̷C̸l̶a̵s̵s̸ E̴n̶t̶i̸t̸y̶ ̵i̶s̶ O̷b̵s̸e̵r̶v̶i̶n̶g̴]

[⚠ W̷a̶r̷n̴i̶n̸g̶: Surveillance exceeds S̶y̸s̴t̸e̶m̴ T̸h̸r̷e̷s̶h̷o̶l̴d̵]

[Sin Reservoir: U̵n̵s̶t̴a̷b̶l̴e̴ – Levels F̷l̴u̶c̸t̶u̴a̸t̷i̸n̷g̴…]

[Alignment Drift Detected: C̶o̵r̴e̴ Identity at 6̷7̷% Consistency]

[New Sin Path U̶n̷l̸o̷c̶k̶e̷d̷: ???]

[Designation: R̶i̷t̸e̶b̶r̸e̷a̸k̷e̸r̵ — Status: U̶n̸c̶o̴n̴f̸i̵r̸m̶e̷d̸]

[Note: Memory Seals F̵r̵a̶c̸t̷u̶r̴e̸d̷ — Emotional Residue: H̷I̸G̶H̸]

[System Recommends: Emergency C̶a̸l̷i̷b̶r̵a̴t̴i̶o̶n̵ — Risk: Existential I̶n̵s̶t̸a̷b̷i̴l̵i̵t̴y̷]

[P̶r̴o̷c̶e̷e̸d̶ w̵i̷t̴h̶ P̶a̸t̷h̷ A̶c̴t̵i̴v̶a̸t̷i̵o̶n̶? Y/N]

Lucan exhaled and after a moments thought, he nodded and watched as the screen clicked Y.

Unseen, perched in the hollow of a broken statue a few meters from where Lucan stood, Rivenna Drae watched him too.

And for the first time in years, she didn't know whether she'd kill him… or follow him into fire.