Chapter 20: The Sanctuary and the Sins
There are ruins older than time, and sins buried deeper than death.
Kael stood before the Eclipse Sanctuary—a massive structure half-buried under obsidian mountains. Its doors were carved with star-maps that shifted with every breath he took. At the center, an eye made of black gold stared directly at him.
He touched the door.
It didn't open.
Instead, the ground beneath him crumbled.
---
He fell into darkness.
But unlike before, the fall wasn't endless. He landed gently… on black water.
Above, the sky twisted into a red spiral. Around him, fragments of his past floated—visions of battles, of loneliness, of the night his village burned.
> "These are your sins," a voice said.
He turned.
There she was again—the girl. Her bare feet didn't sink. Her white dress remained dry, even in this unreal realm.
> "This is the Sanctuary. And you're not ready."
Kael clenched his fist.
> "Then why bring me here?"
> "Because even if you don't want to remember… your blood does."
She raised a hand.
And Kael was dragged into a memory.
---
A thousand years ago.
He stood as a different person.
Same body. Same eyes. But not the same soul.
He wore armor of eclipse flame, standing at the edge of a battlefield drenched in twilight. Behind him stood The Crimson Princess—the same girl—covered in blood, smiling.
> "You promised," she whispered.
"Burn the world… so we can rebuild it."
He raised his sword.
Mountains crumbled. Stars fell.
And the world began to bleed.
---
Kael screamed as he snapped back to the present.
The black water rippled with his rage.
The memory had shaken something loose. Something buried.
> "No… That wasn't me—"
"Was it?"
The girl stared at him, her eyes now glowing gold-red.
> "You were him. You are him."
> "You left me to burn."
Lightning cracked above them—crimson lightning—the same that devoured cities in his dreams.
> "The Eclipse Heart is not a key," she said.
"It's a weapon. And you're its soul."
Kael backed away.
But the girl stepped forward—and placed a kiss on his forehead.
> "Wake up, Sovereign."
"They've found you."
---
Kael's eyes burst open.
He was no longer in the water realm.
He was inside the Eclipse Sanctuary—its walls humming, the crystal heart at its center slowly waking.
Outside… The Seekers were back.
And this time, they brought a god with them.
---
✅ End of Chapter 20