The forest turned red with the blood of the fallen.
Five bodies lay crumpled among the roots of ancient trees, severed limbs and scorched wounds steaming in the night air. The silence that followed was broken only by the faint hum of Vorruk, Raen's saber, still thirsty from battle.
"That's the last of them," Raen muttered, flicking the blood from the jet-black blade. "Skyborne's hounds are getting bolder."
A few paces behind him, Eyla Veiryn hovered slightly above the ground, her phoenix flame coiling like wings around her shoulders. Her gaze swept the forest with a predator's calm.
"Too bold," she said. "And too well-informed. Someone's tracking you."
Raen sheathed Vorruk slowly, eyes narrowing. "Or something."
The moment the words left his lips, the Myriad Void Cauldron's rune on his back flared with heat. A cold wind passed through him—not physical, but spiritual—like fingers brushing across his soul.
"Unknown presence detected. Residual soul echo… below ground."
Raen froze.
"There's another presence nearby. Below us."
Eyla raised a brow. "A survivor?"
Raen didn't answer. His gaze was fixed on the faint swirl of frost and dust drifting up from between the trees, where broken rocks formed a half-buried stairwell.
"Only one way to find out."
The Descent into Ice
The hidden stairwell spiraled downward into darkness.
The walls were carved with ancient ice runes, glowing faintly with frozen light. As Raen and Eyla descended, the temperature plummeted. Frost bloomed across Raen's sleeves despite his flame-forged War Veins.
"This place… it wasn't part of the Emberlight Sect," Eyla whispered. "This was built by something older."
Raen nodded grimly. He felt it too — a resonance, like the cauldron was pulling him forward.
At the base of the stairs, they reached a sealed archway. Embedded in its surface was a crystalline lotus, pulsing with spirit light.
Raen raised his hand. The cauldron rune on his chest flashed—
—and the lotus opened like a blooming flower.
The doors parted with a low hiss.
---
The Hidden Vault
The chamber beyond was vast, lit by the pale glow of an icewell in the center.
In it floated a coffin of translucent sky-ice, encased in layers of runes and preservation formations. Inside lay a girl—her form suspended in eternal stasis, wrapped in flowing silver robes.
But unlike Eyla's fiery rebirth… this girl was still frozen. Unmoving.
Raen stepped forward cautiously.
"Another ice casket… but this one's different."
Eyla frowned. "She isn't breathing. But… she's not dead either. Her soul is… flickering."
Raen knelt beside the casket, placing his hand on its surface.
The cauldron flared to life.
[Detected: Sealed Soul Body – Purity: 87%]
[Bloodline Affinity: UNKNOWN – Ancestry Untraceable]
[Condition: Frozen Stasis – Soul Fragment Active]
[Warning: Conscious echo attempting communication]
Suddenly, a pulse of spiritual energy shot from the coffin into Raen's mind.
---
Inside the Soul Echo
Raen found himself in a void of stars—faint, cold, and empty.
Before him stood a transparent image of the girl. Her hair drifted like stardust, and her voice was a whisper in the void.
"You… carry the cauldron."
Raen narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"
"My name… is forgotten. My time… erased. But my soul remains. Bound by ice. By curse. By betrayal."
Images flashed through the void — towers of crystal, empires in flame, and a figure cloaked in moonlight walking into oblivion.
"Will you… break the seal?"
Raen clenched his fists. "I don't even know what you are."
"I am the last thread of a shattered bloodline. One that once defied fate… just like you."
A pause.
"Free me… and I will follow."
The echo collapsed. Raen staggered back in the physical world.
"She's… aware," he breathed. "But sealed in a soul-lock."
Eyla tilted her head. "A full soul seal? That's forbidden. Only high-level sects or divine clans use that technique."
"Exactly," Raen said grimly. "Which means whoever locked her here… didn't want her to wake up."
---
Breaking the Seal
The cauldron flared within him.
Raen extended both hands. Spiritual light poured from his fingertips, forming a crimson alchemy array beneath the casket. Eyla stepped back as pressure filled the chamber.
"You're really going to unseal her?"
"She's part of something big," Raen said. "Bigger than us. I can feel it."
He pulled out three Blood Vein Pills, crushed them into mist, and offered them to the array. The cauldron surged. Runic chains cracked.
KRAAAAK.
The ice cracked.
With one final pulse of spirit flame, the coffin shattered.
The girl's body collapsed into Raen's arms—cold, but breathing.
Her eyes fluttered open, faint blue like frozen sky.
"Who… am I?" she whispered.
Raen looked down at her.
"We'll figure that out. Together."
---
Back in the Soul Garden
Hours later, the girl now rested within Raen's Soul Garden, her spirit stabilizing under the cauldron's protection.
[New Soul Signature Added: ??? – Temporarily Designated as "Frost Echo"]
[Soul Garden Expansion: +1 Ice Aura Node Unlocked]
[Potential Trait Detected: Soulfreezing Domain – Locked]
Eyla stood at his side, arms crossed. "You keep collecting strays."
Raen snorted. "You're one of them."
She smiled faintly.
"Fair."
Raen knelt beside the girl, now resting peacefully beneath a new spirit tree formed from her own essence—its bark blue as frostglass, its leaves shaped like tiny sigils.
"Whoever sealed her wasn't trying to protect her," he muttered. "They were trying to hide her."
"From what?" Eyla asked.
"The same thing the heavens are hiding from us all."
Raen stood.
His saber whispered to him.
Enemies were coming. Stronger. Smarter.
"Let them come," he said. "I've already walked too far to turn back.