Chapter 5: Echoes in the Ashvault
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Chapter 5: Echoes in the Ashvault
The doors of the Ashvault Ruins groaned open like the throat of a long-dead beast. Dust billowed into the morning light, catching the silhouettes of three young cultivators as they stepped into the ancient dark Kael, Nysera, and Tyros. Behind them, the wind howled through Hollow Spire, as if the mountain itself sensed the disturbance.
The first chamber was wide and circular, carved from obsidian and adorned with faded runes etched in concentric spirals. Broken relics lay scattered across the floor: shattered masks, rusted gauntlets, and fragments of statues whose faces had been defaced. At the center of the room stood a dais, above which hovered a metallic eye-shaped relic, pulsing with weak crimson light.
Kael stared at it. His Oculith tingled, reacting faintly beneath his eye like a twitching muscle. The presence of a fellow relic stirred something deeper something from the second seal he'd only begun to understand.
"So this is where the Sightbearers of the past came to fall," Nysera whispered, her voice a careful blend of reverence and defiance. Her mirrored clone lingered behind her, its posture alert and slightly distorted, as if warped by her rising mental strain.
"No," Tyros corrected, stepping forward with his usual arrogance. "This is where the unworthy failed. We are not them."
Kael exchanged a glance with Nysera but said nothing. The oppressive weight of history pressed in around them, thick as ash and memory.
As they approached the dais, the air thickened. Kael's steps grew heavier. His heart beat harder.
> [Oculith Response Detected: Second Seal Influence Expanded.]
[Warning: You are entering a zone shaped by Dojutsu residue. Caution advised.]
The system's presence now rang louder in his skull no longer a whisper, but a voice edged with warning. Each word carried weight. Each pulse from his Oculith came with a whisper of pain.
Nysera stepped forward, her fingers trembling as she extended her hand toward the relic. Her mirror clone flickered its image briefly splitting into two before snapping back. The drain on her psyche was starting to show.
"You're pushing too hard," Kael warned.
"I know," she said. "But I want answers."
The moment her fingertips grazed the surface, a pulse of energy radiated through the chamber.
Runes ignited.
Walls shimmered.
The chamber shifted.
A second room unfolded beyond the illusion one far older, sealed in time.
Inside, thirteen pedestals formed a circle around a broken throne. Each pedestal bore a different symbol: wings, flames, chains, a serpent, a mask, a cracked bell, and more. At the center, something lay covered in black cloth.
Kael's breath caught. His Oculith pulsed, not in pain, but recognition.
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"Don't touch anything," he said, eyes fixed on the symbols.
Tyros ignored him and reached for the pedestal bearing the serpent mark. The moment he made contact, a surge of violet energy coiled around his arm like a living flame.
He screamed. Not in pain his voice cracked with pressure.
His body convulsed. Scales flickered over his skin. His draconic bloodline surged, reacting violently to the ancient power.
"Pull him back!" Kael barked.
Nysera and her clone leapt forward. Together, they dragged Tyros away, breaking the link. He collapsed, gasping. Steam rolled from his shoulders. His eyes were glowing gold, slit like a predator's.
"What did you see?" Kael asked.
Tyros looked up. "A city in the sky. A gate of fangs. A name… Senn'Avek. It spoke to me."
Kael's mouth went dry.
He turned to the black cloth and pulled it away.
A crystalline sphere lay beneath housing an artificial eye. Identical in structure to his own Oculith, but darker. Ancient. Dormant. Watching.
> [System Notice: Prototype Oculith—Designation: Voidbound Archive.]
[Access Denied: User Clearance Inadequate.]
[Resonance Level: 14%. Seal Interference Detected.]
[Foreign Oculith Echo Present—Shadow of Archive.]
Nysera's mirrored clone staggered suddenly, clutching its head. A spiderweb of cracks spread across its shoulder.
"Backlash," she whispered, holding her temple. "Clone integrity failing."
"Withdraw it," Kael said. "You're near your limit."
"Not yet," she whispered, and her clone surged back to a defensive stance, defiant even as it bled shadow.
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That night, they camped near the outer vault. Tensions simmered. The ruins shifted in their sleep.
Kael sharpened his dagger while Nysera meditated, her mirrored image flickering in and out like a broken candle.
"You're at your edge," he said softly.
"I know," she replied. "If I don't master Seal Two, the clone will eat what's left of my mind."
Kael's jaw tightened. She wasn't exaggerating. He'd felt it too the whispers, the memory rot, the dreams that weren't his.
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The next morning, the ruin shifted again.
A staircase spiraled downward, leading into a trial chamber etched with spiraling sigils and obsidian glyphs.
At its center stood a Mirrorsteel Guardian, forged of bone and reflection, with a cracked, glowing Oculith embedded in its chest. Its voice reverberated through the stone:
"Sightbearers. Trial initiated. Combat synchronization required. Seal Stability will be assessed."
It moved before they could blink.
Tyros unleashed Flamebone Cleave, his forearms glowing with molten veins. Fire met mirror but the guardian adapted. It absorbed the energy and hurled it back, amplified.
Kael stepped in, Spiral Steps guiding his motion. He twisted under the beam, responding with an Ash Spiral counter strike. Each move strained his lungs. The seal flared behind his eye.
Nysera activated Clone Overdraw, summoning a double with two blades instead of one.
> [Warning: Clone Stability at 43%. Neural Feedback rising.]
Her real body staggered but her clone struck true, carving mirrored runes into the guardian's hip.
Kael flared his Oculith.
> [Second Seal Authority Projection: "Sight Fracture" Initiated.]
For three seconds, time stuttered. The guardian's movements slowed. Kael moved, dodged, and struck with perfect clarity but then his vision snapped back violently.
> [Backlash Incurred: 9% Neural Drain. Motor Delay: 1.2 seconds.]
Kael collapsed.
Tyros caught him mid-fall, hurling a burst of flame to buy them time. But even he grunted his inner flame now flickering weakly.
"Blood boiling," Tyros muttered. "I can't use another technique. My heart might rupture."
Kael forced himself up. "One last strike together."
Nysera's clone flared with unstable light.
The three of them launched their final assault:
Tyros burned in a spiraling draconic rhythm
Kael activated Ash Spiral Blade: Four Point Disruption
Nysera channeled her final psychic command into her clone: Mirror Rend
The Guardian cracked.
Its core shattered, Oculith leaking black mist as it crumbled.
> [Trial Complete. System Update: Voidbound Archive Stabilized 16%]
[Seal Growth: Kael – 43%. Nysera – 39%. Tyros – 22%.]
[Oculith Drawback Reminder: Users with < 4 Seals remain vulnerable to permanent neural damage, talent burn, memory leakage.]
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As they limped out of the arena, Kael noticed a wall glyph flickering behind the throne—barely visible.
It read:
"The First Sight fractured the sky. The Thirteenth will consume it."
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