It should've been over.
The gate closed. The Codex declared. The information was in his possession.
For a moment, Aelric thought it was finished.
But power never comes without a price. Not in Myrian. And never in what lies below it.
For something to have been tasked with guarding the Codex.
A last watcher.
A warped remnant of flesh, bone, and fury.
And so it was it awoke.
It arrived on the wind.
Not a howl.
Not a screech.
But a tremorous growl, rising out of space beyond the closed gate. When Aelric spun around, the passageway he'd just been walking down rippled like disturbed water. The air folded in on itself.
Then it appeared.
A monster spawned of recollection and decay—
twisted like nightmares sculpted and sewn with forgotten gods.
Its skin was ash-grey and cracked like dried stone; its spine was lined with divine glyphs inside out. Molten coin eyes blazed at Aelric beneath a bone-plate helmet. One arm was merged into a blade, the other into a giant clawed paw of charred claws. It salivated fire as it stepped forward, hunch-shouldered and muttering.
"Nullborn," it whispered
"Unworthy. Unwritten. Die."
Aelric stumbled backwards, his heart pounding against his chest.
The Codex throbbed in his brain.
"Corrupted Warden: Echobound Class. Insufficient memory. Code: Shade of the Hollow
"Engage or perish."
"I have no idea how to fight," Aelric whispered back, pulling the blunted training blade out of his coat. It resembled a twig beside what faced him.
You will.
The creature attacked.
The first thing learned was pain.
The monster attacked with unnatural speed, its fire-tempered claw moving horizontally. Aelric dived, tumbling clumsily as a wall next to him shattered in burning pieces.
The heat scorched his face. Dust clogged his lungs. He couldn't see.
The voice of the Codex revived.
"Mimicry potential identified. Activate Echo Sync."
"What does it mean!" he cried out, dodging behind a pillar of shattered stone.
"Look deeper. Into it—rather than at the beast."
Aelric steeled himself. For a moment, he locked gazes through the clouds of smoke. Not its claws. Not its fury. It's memory.
And what he saw
was agony.
The animal was not born but was created.
Once human. Or at least like it.
A guardian forged in ages past, corrupted by a lost Dominion ritual and abandoned to decay. Power was sustained by it for centuries through the ambient resonance of the Eclipse Codex.
It was not merely guarding the relic. It was the relic.
Or at least… part of it. It viewed Aelric to be a thief. And it would rip him in two to deny him access to discovering what was hidden in the innermost page of the Codex.
Aelric stood.
Hands trembling.
Blade shaking.
But something shifted behind his eyes.
A glyph.
It hovered, violet and gold, in his vision. Not in the air—but in his mind.
"Skill Unlocked: Mimic."Accessing compatible pattern…
[Mimic: Ember Claw]—A temporary replication of the target's core ability: fire-aspected kinetic strike.
His hand burned.
Not with pain. With purpose.
He looked down and saw that the dull training blade had begun to melt, reformed by the Codex's will.
His fingers stretched into a claw of blackened obsidian and flame.
A match to the beast's weapon.
The creature paused.
Recognised the reflection.
Snarled.
And charged again.
But this time—
Aelric didn't run.
Their clash sounded like the scream of a volcano—metal and magic, flesh and flame. The beast lunged with its corrupted blade-arm, but Aelric ducked low and slashed up, his new Ember Claw raking across the creature's underbelly.
It howled as the mimic flame surged through its core.
For a heartbeat, Aelric saw its memories again.
Children. A tower. A gate sealed shut. A king in shadow.
Then it smashed a fist into his chest, sending him skidding across the floor.
Blood filled his mouth.
He stood again anyway.
He was going to die here. He knew it.
But something inside him—something the Codex had not written—rose like a second soul.
He leapt. Not as a warrior.
But as something older.
He slashed the creature's chest again, cutting the glyphs that had bound it.
"You were more than this," he whispered. "I see you. I remember you."
For a moment, the beast hesitated.
And in that hesitation, Aelric plunged the Ember Claw into its neck.
Flame erupted.
Not red—but void-black fire, tinged with memory.
The beast let out one final groan.
Not of rage.
But of relief.
Then it collapsed, disintegrating into dust and fading echo.
And Aelric—
Aelric absorbed it.
Codex Update:Target memory integrated.First Kill Registered.Core stabilised.
Skill Retained: Mimic – Ember Claw (Limited Use)You may now replicate other abilities upon contact or observation.Slot: 1 of 3 active echoes.
He fell to his knees.
His palm still burned, the claw receding.
He could feel its soul inside him, not in a twisted way. Not parasitic.
But like a candle added to his flame.
It was part of him now.
It's pain.
It's power.
It will.
He had killed.
But not in rage.
Not for power.
In defence.
In remembrance.
The Codex spoke softly in his mind now.
"You are not the first Sovereign to kill.But you may be the first to grieve."
Aelric wiped the soot from his face.
He rose.
No longer just a Nullborn.
Not yet a Sovereign.
But something in between.
A shadow of a king yet to rise.