The cave descended like a throat swallowing the stars. Cold air flowed from its mouth—stale and metallic—carrying whispers that never quite reached my ears but brushed the edge of thought like the trailing ends of forgotten dreams.
Lira walked beside me, one hand clenched around the flickering shard of moonlight I'd conjured, the other close to the dagger I gave her. The girl had changed since I found her. She wasn't trembling anymore. Just… watching. Listening.
"Why would they build something so deep beneath the forest?" she asked, her voice small, but steady.
"Because what they worshipped didn't belong under the sky," I murmured. "Or maybe… they didn't want it to escape."
The spiral-carved walls narrowed, until we had to move single-file. The air was getting colder. Thinner. I could see my breath now. With each step, the spirals grew more… alive. They pulsed faintly, sometimes flickering with colors I couldn't name. Some of them looked fresh.
'Someone has been down here recently.'
And then the path widened.
The chamber it opened into wasn't natural. It was too smooth. Too perfect. The ceiling was domed and impossibly high, painted in faded pigments that shimmered with reflected light. Lunar phases were carved above us—circles, crescents, and full moons—but every moon bore a spiral scar, etched in with something that had melted the stone.
At the center stood a monolithic altar. Crescent-shaped, impaled by a vertical blade of obsidian-like metal. Around its base, four spiral pillars hummed with low resonance. The altar pulsed with light—like a heartbeat out of sync with time.
[System Notice: Residual Echo Detected – Moonbound Archive Fragment (Stable)]Synchronization with Soul Signature: 94% Match.Risk Level: Controlled.Activate Archive Fragment?
I didn't hesitate. "Yes."
Light burst from the altar—not bright, but cold, silver-blue. It surged through my vision, wrapped around my chest, and pulled—
I fell into memory.
No… not memory.
A past that didn't belong to me—but one that recognized me.
A voice.
A woman's voice. Ageless. Calm.
"Let the moons be witness."
She stood at the altar—Seluriel. The Moonbound Flame. Radiant. Pale-haired. Eyes like starfire. She wasn't chained. Not yet.
Around her stood others—cloaked figures, faces hidden. One held a tome. Another, a blade. They were chanting, though the words were twisted, layered like echoes fighting each other.
Then the betrayal.
"Forgive us, Flamebearer. You were too bright."
The blade plunged into her back.
But she didn't fall.
She turned… and burned.
Her flames turned the betrayers to ash. But too late. The altar drank her blood. The spirals consumed the heat.
She whispered something. Her last words.
And was gone.
The vision snapped. I collapsed to one knee, gasping. My chest felt like it had been branded.
[Memory Restored: 1/3 – The Flame Was Bound][New Quest: Claim the Shattered Flame][System Trait Evolved – Passive Trace Acquired: Moon-Soul Resonance I]
Lira caught me before I hit the stone.
"Isaac… what did you see?"
I looked up at the altar.
"She wasn't a god. She was a sacrifice."
Lira's lips trembled. "Seluriel…"
"How do you know that name?" I asked sharply.
She swallowed. "The wretches in my village used to whisper it in their sleep. The Spiral-Bound taught us to fear her. They said if we ever saw the moon smile, it meant she was watching… and angry."
I stood up slowly. Something was shifting in the chamber.
The altar's pulse had changed. It throbbed now—hard, angry, awake.
And behind us, the path we'd come through was filling with sound.
Footsteps.
Clinking armor.
Spirals glowing in the dark.
"Hide," I ordered.
Lira slipped behind one of the stone pillars.
I stood still, drawing Sigil Brand from my back. Its etched surface shimmered with faint light. The crescent runes along its edge burned softly—resonating with the altar.
A figure emerged from the shadows.
Tall. Masked. Cloaked in robes etched with gold and ash.
But unlike the cultists before… this one radiated power.
[System Alert: Spiral Custodian – Rank: Elite]Threat Level: HighSuggested Response: Engage only with full readiness. Unknown variables present.
The mask tilted.
"You touched her memory," he rasped. "That was not yours to see."
"I made it mine," I said.
He raised a staff. Spirals blazed behind him.
And then—
Others followed.
Not just cultists. But spiral beasts. Hulking, four-armed shadows with runes carved into their flesh. Twisted guardians of the inner sanctum.
'Too many.'
I stepped back.
But the altar behind me began to glow. Not red.
White.
The same glow as the moon.
And a voice—not mine—whispered across the chamber.
"You walked through grave and fire. If you would bear my flame… then burn them."
Sigil Brand lit with silver-blue fire.
I felt it pulse into my veins.
Lira screamed something behind me, but I couldn't hear it anymore. Only the heartbeat of the flame.
And the rise of battle.