By IMERPUS RELUR
--
The sky did not open.
It simply stopped existing.
One moment, stars and light swirled above Auren's realm.
The next, there was only an eye.
Wide.
Silver.
Still.
The Sixth Watcher had fully awakened.
And with its opening… came the question.
---
All Remnari knelt.
Even Eléa could not lift her gaze.
Time itself held its breath.
Auren stood alone beneath the gaze that was not looking at him—but through him.
Then came the voice.
Not from above.
Not from within.
But from the space between memory and self.
---
> "God of Memory. Answer what none before you could."
"Would you remember… even if it destroys you?"
---
Divine Choice – Sixth Watcher Trial:
You are shown the Origin Memory—the root of all gods, sealed since the First Collapse.
To open it is to see the truth of how divinity began.
Why races suffer.
Why memory erodes.
Why gods were born hollow.
> To accept is to carry truth no god has dared to hold.
To refuse is to preserve yourself—but remain blind to the foundation.
---
Auren did not hesitate.
> "Show me."
The world shattered.
---
Memory Domain – The Divine Seed Before Name:
Auren floated in a void of pre-creation.
There was no light.
Only… a single note.
A sound.
The First Remembrance.
It was not a word. It was the feeling of being loved before one knew what love was.
It was from this note that everything divine had sprouted.
But as it sang—another sound followed.
A scream.
It was the scream of the first god who regretted creating.
That scream fractured reality.
Split the One into the Many.
And from that wound, gods were born—not to lead, but to forget.
Auren stood at the center of it.
The tear pulsed.
> "The truth is this," the Sixth Watcher whispered.
"You are not a god because you ascended.
You are a god because someone else collapsed… and left you the sorrow."
---
Auren's soul trembled.
But he did not look away.
> "Then let me remember for them too."
The tear closed.
The note and scream wove together into a crystal, hovering in Auren's palm.
---
Artifact Acquired:
The Unborn Harmony
> A relic of the First Sound—the only harmony known to both creation and destruction.
Grants the user the ability to bridge between life and memory, allowing him to sing a soul back from complete erasure.
---
Auren fell back into his realm.
Time resumed.
The Watcher's eye blinked once—
And vanished.
But before it left, it whispered something only Auren could hear:
> "One more step… and you will become what we Watch for."
---
Eléa ran to his side, breath catching.
> "What did it ask?"
Auren looked at her, eyes shining with something that was neither light nor tears.
> "Whether I could carry the memory of what came before gods…"
> "…and still remain one."