Chapter 44

The Vault's gate groaned shut behind him.

Kye stood alone now, surrounded by walls older than any map, older than any memory still intact above ground. The stone underfoot wasn't stone—it was etched obsidian, smooth and warm to the touch. Faint golden veins pulsed beneath it, like the heartbeat of something massive slumbering beneath.

Ahead, Kaelion waited in the center of the vast chamber.

And beside him—

The figure in the shadows did not move.

Kye's boots echoed softly as he stepped forward, each footfall swallowed by the silence.

The moment he crossed a circle engraved into the floor, Kaelion spoke.

"You came."

Kye didn't stop walking. "You said I would."

"I was hoping you wouldn't," Kaelion replied. "Then I wouldn't have to watch you fall."

Kye stopped a few paces away. "I'm not here to fall."

Kaelion smiled faintly. "We'll see."

He turned toward the figure beside him, gesturing.

"Kye… meet the one who waited."

The shadows around the figure receded like mist. Slowly. Reluctantly.

And what stood there wasn't what Kye expected.

It wasn't a monster.

It wasn't an elder.

It was a man.

Young. Maybe just a few years older than Kye. Barefoot. Dressed in a tattered robe that looked like it had once belonged to a Council archivist, though the fabric was faded and scorched at the hem. His hair was pure white, not from age but from absence—like all color had been drained from him over centuries.

His eyes…

They weren't empty.

They were *full*.

Of *everything*.

Kye felt it instantly—an overwhelming pressure, like he was standing before someone who had lived a hundred lifetimes in silence, and remembered every second.

The man looked up at him. Didn't speak.

Kaelion finally broke the silence. "He was the first version of us."

Kye blinked.

"What?"

"He existed before the split," Kaelion explained. "Before they turned us into pieces."

"That's not possible."

Kaelion nodded at the man. "He remembers what *we* forgot. All of it. The pain. The promise. The power. He was sealed here at the very moment they shattered us. Left to rot, like some cursed fragment of a failed experiment."

Kye stepped closer.

The man didn't flinch.

He didn't even seem *alive*, not in the way normal people were.

But he watched.

And his stare dug deep into Kye's chest like a needle seeking a nerve.

Kye whispered, "Why are you still here?"

The man finally spoke.

His voice was dry—cracked and unused—but steady.

"Because I made a vow."

Kye's throat tightened. "To who?"

The man's lips moved slowly.

"To *me.*"

He stepped forward. Not aggressive. Just deliberate.

"I am what remains when everything else is taken. I am the vow without a witness. The truth they couldn't kill."

Kye turned to Kaelion. "You want to merge with me… but what about him?"

Kaelion's voice was quiet.

"I don't think he *can* be merged."

"He's the memory that broke the world," the man said. "And I carry it still."

Renna's voice echoed faintly behind the gate. Kye could barely make it out—muffled through stone.

He ignored it.

Kaelion stepped closer, now only a meter away from him.

"This is it. You wanted the truth? It's not a glowing sword. Not a final battle. It's not even *me.* It's *him.*"

The man—who had no name—watched Kye silently.

"You want to understand what was lost?" he asked.

Kye nodded.

"Then come here."

Kye hesitated.

But then, slowly, he stepped forward.

And the moment his foot touched the innermost circle of the floor—

**It began.**

His head throbbed.

The air warped.

The chamber around him **melted**—not physically, but mentally.

Like falling into a memory he never made.

Suddenly—

He was standing in a throne room.

Tall windows.

Sunlight.

People.

Thousands.

Cheers echoing off marble.

At the center—

**Himself.**

But older.

Wearing black robes trimmed in crimson.

Sword at his hip.

Crown in his hand.

Smiling at Sena.

**Not this version of her. The *real* one.** Alive. Radiant. Laughing.

They stood before a crowd that worshipped them.

Kye's heart twisted.

Because he *felt it.*

This was *his* memory.

One they'd buried.

He blinked—

—and the scene changed.

Darkness now.

Screaming.

Stone breaking.

Flames.

Sena—dead.

His hands—covered in blood.

People running.

And *himself*, again—older, bleeding, furious—

**Making a promise to destroy the Council.**

Not for power.

Not for vengeance.

But for *truth.*

For *her.*

He gasped and stumbled back—

And the Vault snapped back into place.

The vision faded.

Kaelion caught him before he hit the floor.

Kye clutched his chest, breathing hard.

The man stood over them both.

"Now you remember," he said.

Kye looked up, dizzy. Shaken.

"Yes."

Kaelion released him.

"I'm not here to kill you, Kye," he said. "I'm here to give you a *choice.* Take your throne. Reclaim what was stolen. Become whole."

Kye sat there for a long moment.

Then looked up.

"And if I refuse?"

The man finally moved again.

Not toward Kye.

But toward the **gate** behind the throne—one that hadn't been there before.

He placed a hand on it.

And it *cracked.*

A deep rumble shook the Vault.

Stone dust fell from the ceiling.

Kaelion's eyes widened.

The man turned back.

"If you refuse… *they* will choose for you."

And then—

The gate split open.

And something stepped through.

Tall.

Metallic.

Eyes burning with violet fire.

An ancient war machine.

Awakened from myth.