The three kneeling warriors didn't speak.
Their armor cracked and smoldered, steam rising from their backs like penitent offerings to a god they'd forsaken. The mark beneath my feet slowly dimmed, but I still felt it—burning beneath my ribs. A tether. A memory. A promise.
Seluriel's presence had not faded.
It had merely withdrawn, waiting.
Lira approached one of the kneeling Watchers with a mix of fear and reverence. "They… submitted."
"Not to me," I said quietly. "To her memory."
[System Notice: Spiral Obedience Pattern Severed – Sub-Directive Recognition Triggered]
Entities recognized partial soulbound resonance. Conversion state: Passive Recognition.
Behavioral Prediction: Subservience maintained unless provoked.
The warriors didn't rise. They simply remained bowed, like statues scorched into repentance.
And then—the wind changed.
It smelled of burned flesh, of wet stone, and something else. Old iron. Deeper rot.
Something beneath the temple stirred.
The sigil at my feet flickered again.
[System Objective: Proceed into the Spiral Crypts Beneath the Temple]
Warning: Spiritual Anomalies Detected – High Intensity Echo Zones Ahead
I turned toward the crumbled inner sanctum. The main stairwell had partially collapsed, but the blue flame of the Moonkindled Ring illuminated a spiral trail curling down into the dark. Carved steps, long forgotten. Bound with runes that still shimmered.
"It goes deeper," Lira whispered. "It always goes deeper."
"Then we follow it."
She hesitated, then nodded. Her grip tightened around her dagger as she fell in behind me.
We descended.
Step by step.
Each level grew colder—not in temperature, but in presence. As if something vast was watching from behind the walls, silent and sleepless.
Then the floor leveled out.
We emerged into a chamber carved from obsidian veined with silver spirals.
A domed tomb.
The walls were inscribed with murals—not painted, but scorched into the stone. They told a story:
A flame falling from the sky.
A woman of light defying a crown of spirals.
A world chained by belief.
A temple drowned in memory.
And at the center of the chamber stood a monolithic slab of black glass, cracked through its core. Upon it burned a single name, etched in celestial script:
Seluriel.
[System Notice: Spiral Crypt Heart Reached – Memory Threshold Achieved]
Memory Fragment Unlocked: Seluriel's Memory (4/5) – "The Chains of Faith"
My body locked in place as the memory surged.
FLASHBACK – Spiral Era, Cycle Unknown
Seluriel stood atop the same obsidian dais, her wings burned down to ash, her flame barely a flicker.
Dozens of spiral priests surrounded her—chanting, bleeding, sacrificing themselves to feed the binding circle.
"You would destroy yourselves to keep me chained," she whispered.
A single priest—his mask flawless, unmarred—stepped forward.
"You are not a god. You are a mistake."
"No," Seluriel replied. "I am a reminder."
She raised her hand, and with one final flare of moonfire—she shattered the chains.
The vision ended with a soundless scream.
I collapsed to one knee. My vision swam. My hands burned.
Lira caught me.
"What did you see?"
"Her last stand… before everything fell."
[Status Updated – Moonlight Affinity +1]
But before I could stand again—something pulsed beneath the slab.
A heartbeat.
Then… a whisper.
"You are not the first to carry her flame."
We turned.
From the far corner of the chamber, a figure emerged. Hooded. Cloaked in tattered priest-robes of the old spiral faith—but blackened and scorched.
Its face was hidden by a half-melted silver mask.
The voice was layered—human, but something else echoed beneath it. Something hollow.
"I watched her fall. I watched you rise. But flame cannot be carried without cost."
[System Alert: Spiral Custodian Encountered – Entity Classification: Bound Oracle (Unique)]
Lira stepped forward, trembling. "Who are you?"
The figure lowered its head slightly.
"I am the one left behind."
And behind him, runes began to glow.
A ritual. Still active. Still burning.
[System Warning: Spiral Residual Seal Reactivated – Combat Inevitable]
I took a breath and stepped forward.
"Then you'll watch one more thing today."
I raised my hand, and the spiral sigil flared to life once more.
"To be unbound."