Some knowledge is buried for a reason. But when it calls your name, ignorance becomes treason.
After passing the Trial of Glass, Kael's magic becomes unstable — stronger, but unpredictable. Something within him is awakening, pulling him toward the oldest part of Aurorium: the buried library wing, sealed for centuries and forgotten by most.
Kael awoke drenched in sweat. Symbols burned in his dreams: spirals of fire, stars bleeding from the sky, a black door behind a waterfall of silver.
His room was filled with residual energy. Books floated. His blade hummed.
Lia was the first to notice.
"You've been muttering in your sleep," she said. "Something about... Chrono-Seals?"
Kael blinked. He didn't remember speaking.
Riven entered with a rare look of concern. "Your aura's warped. I traced it—something's pulling it downward."
"Downward where?"
"To the sub-levels. The Forgotten Archive."
The trio snuck into the grand library after midnight. At its center stood a statue of Archsage Elarion, pointing downward.
Riven cast a silent unlocking glyph on the floor beneath the statue. Stone shifted. An ancient staircase spiraled down, sealed with dust and light-devouring silence.
Down there, the air hummed with memory.
Thousands of books lined blackwood shelves.
Some whispered as Kael passed.
Others changed titles when touched.
At the center was a door of obsidian, covered in seven locks made of different elements — time, blood, flame, song, thought, shadow, and bone.
One lock — the flame — burned open as Kael approached.
"Only a Vaelorian could pass this," Riven muttered. "This is... old imperial blood magic."
Kael placed his hand on the door.
The other locks shivered, and one more — time — clicked open.
The door creaked, groaned, then opened.
Inside was a chamber shaped like a star, filled with floating tomes and shifting constellations. In the center hovered a book bound in red-gold steel, chained to a pedestal.
Kael approached the book.
It opened on its own.
Pages turned. Words wrote themselves in silver ink as he watched.
"To the heir of the Flame That Was Lost:
You read this because you are meant to remember. Not all gods are divine. Some were made. Others were broken."
Kael flipped to another page.
It showed a map of the world, but not as it was now — with three extra continents, and a second moon long since vanished.
Lia gasped. "This is… this is pre-Collapse!"
"No," said Riven quietly. "This is before the gods even came."
The book trembled, and a single golden page peeled upward and dissolved into flame.
Kael fell into it.
He was no longer in the archive.
He was standing in a throne room made of obsidian and starlight, facing twelve beings wrapped in divine light — and one figure in chains.
A woman — radiant and sorrowful — looked directly at him.
"You are the ember we left behind," she said. "We are the Forgotten Twelve. We created the gods. And then… they erased us."
"You were made to restore the truth. But truth will destroy you unless you grow stronger."
"When you next bleed, call my name: Seralyth."
Everything shattered into ash.
Kael dropped to his knees, gasping.
The book's chains cracked. A single silver feather floated down from the air and embedded itself in his ring.
[🔔 You have acquired: Feather of the Lost Flame – Passive: +30% memory resistance. Active: Summon fragment of Seralyth's will. One use.]
Lia steadied him.
"What did you see?"
Kael looked at her, stunned.
"There were beings older than gods. And we've all been lied to."
Later, alone in the dorm tower, Kael opened a page he tore from the book. It was a family tree — one that ended in his name.
Kael Vaelorian, 109th Flame-Born, Bearer of the Final Echo.
He noticed something else. A second name, next to his.
Aelira Vaelorian – status: UNKNOWN.
A sister?
Or a twin?
And beneath the page… a symbol scratched in hastily:
∇ — The sigil of the Council of Ashes.
In a prison deep beneath the capital, a chained man covered in brands whispered:
"He's opened the first seal. The Epoch stirs."
A figure in white robes replied, "And what will you do, False King?"
The prisoner smiled. His eyes glowed silver.
"I will wake the gods… and kill them again."