Circle’s Blade
She struck like a whisper through flame.
Kailen's twin daggers shimmered with frost-edged glyphs, each one fine-tuned to counter movement, disrupt casting, and kill—not maim, not wound, but end.
Jace barely raised his glaive in time.
The clang echoed through the corridor, sparks hissing as glyph against glyph collided. His arms trembled from the force—she was faster than anything he'd faced. Cleaner. Colder.
> Warning: Battle Rating Disparity Detected
– Jace: Tier 4, Level 38
– Violet: Tier 4, Level 41
– Kailen Veir: Tier 6, Level 52
Outcome Probability: Survival – Low. Victory – N/A.
"Split!" Jace shouted.
Violet vanished in a flicker of shadow, flanking hard left as Jace dropped into a defensive stance. His Codex flared—summoning Soulbrand onto Kailen mid-dash.
The effect was instant.
Her armor shimmered with glyph instability. Tiny fractures appeared near her shoulders as the flame marker dug into her glyph flow. She winced—but didn't slow.
Instead, she turned her full focus on Jace.
"You're the problem," she murmured.
And vanished.
---
Violet intercepted just in time, clashing blade-to-blade in midair.
Their glyphs collided in a shower of sparks, but Kailen adapted instantly, switching her blade forms to Ice Chain Reversal and wrapping Violet's wrist. With a single twist, she flung her across the corridor—into a wall.
> Violet – HP Drop: 34% → 16%
Status: Codex Disruption – Temporary (4s)
"Violet!" Jace charged.
He activated Inkstep, chaining two jumps across glyph-laced walls—closing the distance in seconds.
His glaive slashed in a perfect arc—Soul Burn ignited, memory fire trailing—
Kailen ducked.
Countered.
Kicked him in the ribs.
He felt bone crack as he slammed against the floor.
---
She stood over him now, not gloating—measuring.
"You've unlocked the Bloodbound Seal," she said, voice calm. "You've accessed the Vault Keys."
Jace spat blood. "What's it to you?"
She raised her blade.
"It means you're already too dangerous."
---
Then something shifted.
The Vault reacted.
Again.
A deep glyph chime echoed through the corridor.
> Alert: Vault Guardian Override
– Condition: Hostile Combatant Interfering with Legacy Path
– Response: Bonded Flame Protocol Engaged
– Manifesting: Guardian Assist – Emberform Projection
From the floor beneath Jace's body, the glyphs exploded upward—forming a fiery specter of flame and shadow. A projection shaped by his bloodline and Violet's bond. Not alive… but angry.
Kailen's eyes narrowed. "Unauthorized construct—"
Too late.
The Emberform struck her full-on, exploding in a wave of scorched glyphlight.
She flew back—skidding, armor cracked.
> Kailen – HP Drop: 100% → 74%
Status: Burn Debuff / Glyph Delay: 2.8s
---
Jace stood, swaying.
"Guess the Vault thinks I'm worth something."
Kailen didn't reply immediately. Her gaze flicked between the two of them—Jace bleeding, Violet rising slowly behind him.
Then she said something strange.
"You were never supposed to survive the Tomb Trial."
"What?" Jace's eyes narrowed.
"They rigged it. Your selection. The entrance. Your tomb… wasn't on any approved list."
He stepped forward. "Then why didn't I die?"
She raised her blades again.
"Because something older than the Circle wanted you alive."
"Truth in Blood"
Kailen's blades lowered—just slightly.
The moment was fragile.
Tension shimmered in the glyph-charged air, like a violin string pulled taut between violence and reason.
Jace didn't lower his glaive.
"You said something older wanted me alive. What does that mean?"
Kailen's face twitched. Not confusion—conflict.
"I don't know," she admitted. "Only that your Codex signature doesn't match any in the Circle's archive. Your Vault pathway—your blood—it's not from the current system. It predates us."
Violet stepped up beside Jace, clutching her side where the wall had cracked two of her ribs. "So why kill him?"
"I was ordered to," Kailen said. "Eliminate the Vault anomaly before Lock 6 opens. That was the mission."
"And now?" Jace asked.
She didn't answer.
Her Codex flared again—ice-blue symbols struggling against new glyph interference in the walls.
---
> Vault Interjection: Lock 6 Pre-Activation Detected
– Requirement: Bloodline Catalyst
– Sync Source: Incomplete
– Secondary Trigger: Bonded Flame Loyalty (Confirmed)
Status: Inhibitor Present – Glyph Execution Suppressed
The Vault was speaking again.
But this time... to all three of them.
Kailen gasped as glyphs carved into the stone around her—names, roles, choices. She backed away instinctively.
"This isn't a trial anymore," Violet murmured. "The Vault sees her as a threat to us. Not just the system."
"Because she's interfering with the awakening," Jace said.
The Vault wasn't a passive ruin.
It was a living forge.
And right now, it was treating Kailen like a virus.
---
Suddenly, a ripple of pain surged through Jace's arm.
He staggered, dropping to one knee. His palm was glowing—glyphs burning outward from his wrist to fingertips. Violet knelt beside him immediately, worry plain on her face.
"What's happening?"
"Something's… activating."
> Bloodbound Codex – Lineage Memory Releasing
– Unlocked: Ancestral Fragment: Soul Weapon Seed
– Manifestation: Pending
– Trait Detected: Combat Synchronization Threshold Exceeded
Condition Met: Claim Weapon of the Bloodscribe
The glyphs condensed into a sphere of light in his hand.
Jace stared.
It pulsed once.
Twice.
Then unfolded like blooming steel—spinning, shaping, forging itself.
---
A weapon formed.
Not a glaive.
Not a sword.
But something stranger.
A chainblade, etched with moving glyphs that spun like clockwork across the edge. One end was a curved blade; the other, a reinforced grip wrapped in crimson threading.
It beat with his heartbeat.
It knew him.
> Soul Weapon Acquired: Glyphreaver Chainblade
– Base Effect: Adapts to Codex combat state
– Passive: Damage scales with Bonded stat share
– Special: Glyph Recast – Once per battle, re-cast a glyph from memory instantly
Codex Integration: 78% → 81%
Kailen stared, her voice quiet.
"...You've claimed a soul weapon."
"No," Jace said, standing. The chainblade flicked to life, wrapping around his arm like a flame made of steel.
"I've claimed my weapon."
---
The ground rumbled beneath them.
Lock 6 glowed faintly at the end of the corridor.
But before they could reach it—
Kailen moved.
Not to strike.
To kneel.
"I revoke my mission," she said, placing her blades on the floor. "If I'm going to die… I want to understand why we were lied to."
Jace stared, surprised.
Then slowly nodded.
"Then come with us."
Violet narrowed her eyes but said nothing.
Kailen rose, hesitating. "You trust me?"
"No," Jace said. "But the Vault does. And that's enough—for now."
"Lock 6: The Betrayer's Truth"
The corridor toward Lock 6 was unlike any they'd passed.
No stone.
No glyphlight.
Just silence.
A thick, suffocating hush that pressed on their ears and curled down their spines like the hush before a scream. Each footstep echoed too loudly—like their presence here was a violation.
Kailen walked behind Jace and Violet now—silent, wary, and visibly shaken. Her blades remained sheathed. But her eyes never left the glyphwork etched into Jace's back.
"The glyphs on you," she said suddenly. "They shift. That's not supposed to happen."
"They're not supposed to do a lot of things," Jace muttered.
Ahead, Lock 6 awaited.
But this one didn't glow.
It bled.
---
A single circle etched into the floor.
The glyphs weren't humming or pulsing—they were weeping, streaks of crimson trailing from each curve like tears. In the center of the ring was a sealed memory crystal—transparent but roiling with darkness inside.
> Vault Lock 6 Challenge – Activated
– Trial Name: The Betrayer's Truth
– Requirement: Witness Ancestral Sin
– Trial of Memory: Forced Immersion
Warning: Psychological Collapse Possible
Note: Cannot be attempted alone.
Violet looked at Jace.
"You ready to see what your ancestor did to piss off the world?"
He exhaled slowly. "No. But we're out of time."
They stepped into the circle.
Kailen hesitated—but followed.
---
The world vanished.
Not in fire or wind or glyphs—but in sound. A thousand voices screaming into silence as the three of them dropped into a memory too ancient for even the Circle's scrolls.
---
They stood in a city of obsidian towers.
The sky was violet fire.
The ground was stone-carved glyphs as far as the eye could see.
And at the heart of it all—a throne of blood and ink.
Upon it sat a man who looked like Jace… but older, taller, with glyphs carved into his skin like tattoos. His eyes were weary. Kind.
This was Auren Vey.
The Scribe-King.
The creator of the first Codex.
He was speaking before a council of twelve.
"...I made the Codex to remember. To preserve what we were before the sky fell."
"You made it to rule," snarled a younger voice.
"You made it to rewrite fate."
Auren stood.
"No. I made it to protect what's left of humanity."
"And yet here you are—gifting glyphs to the broken, the tainted, and the bloodmarked."
"They're still people!" Auren shouted. "They deserve a chance."
"You've gone too far."
---
The memory fractured.
Jace gasped as pain lanced through his skull.
So did Violet.
Even Kailen fell to her knees.
The scene blurred, then reformed—this time in a war room, where Auren stood bleeding, surrounded by shattered Codices and bodies of former allies.
He looked directly at Jace.
"I tried."
The words weren't memory.
They were a message.
"I tried to protect them all. But I wasn't strong enough. So I made the Codex. Then they turned it into a weapon."
The scene shifted one final time.
---
A glowing vault.
Identical to the one Jace was in now.
Auren stood at its gates, sealing it shut—his body burning, glyphs twisting uncontrollably. He looked over his shoulder… and smiled.
"If someone like you finds this someday… maybe I wasn't wrong."
Then he vanished into flame.
---
> Trial Complete – Lock 6 Opened
– Inherited Title Fragment: "Remnant of the Scribe-King"
– Passive Unlocked: Glyph Memory Chain (Can imprint temporary glyph patterns onto allies)
– Bonus: +2 Stat Share from bonded partner
Codex Integration: 81% → 84%
The real world returned.
The chamber was open.
Jace stood slowly, tears drying on his face.
Violet grabbed his shoulder. "You okay?"
He nodded.
Kailen said nothing for a long time.
Then:
"He wasn't a monster."
"No," Jace said softly. "But they made him into one anyway."
---
Far above the Vault, the Circle Prime's glyph stones cracked.
The First Flame stood from his throne, his Codex boiling with rage.
"Lock 6 has been opened."
"Impossible."
"Prepare for a purge."