The wind changed before the screams began.
Kael stood at the shrine's edge, his fingers pressed against the warm, rune-scarred stone. The Divine Domain throbbed beneath his feet like a second heartbeat—ancient, patient, aware.
Then it flared.
[Divine Domain Alert: External threat detected]➤ Incoming entity: Hollow Choir➤ Status: Hostile. Necrotic frequency. Anti-faith resonance.➤ Sanctuary integrity at risk.
Kael narrowed his eyes.
Behind him, the children began to stir. Elira emerged from the inner ring with a drawn blade, shadows already gathering around her like waiting wolves.
"They're here," she said. "I can feel it—something is singing."
And she was right.
It wasn't music in the human sense. It was wrong.
A weeping dirge bleeding from the air itself.The kind of sound you couldn't hear, only remember.The kind of sound that dug into your bones and whispered that you were already dead.
Kael stepped into the open, cloak trailing behind him like shadowfire.
The first figures emerged from the misted valley slope.
Pale-robed. Hooded. Masks carved from infant skulls, mouths agape in silent hymns.
The Hollow Choir had come.
They didn't speak. They didn't rush.
They simply walked—like mourners at a funeral that had already happened.
And as they crossed into the Shrine's outer boundary, the air twisted.
[Warning: Necrotic field entering Sanctuary Ring]➤ Passive domain aura "Memorybind" is being unraveled.➤ Structural Faith Integrity: 89%… 83%… 77%…
Kael reached toward the stone and let his will surge through the Shrine.
[Activating Domain Skill: Echoflame Ward]➤ Shrine defense awakened. Bound Emotion: Grief➤ Effect: Converts incoming unholy aura into purging shadowfire➤ Cooldown: 4 hours
Flames burst from the shrine like geysers of darkness.Not hot. Not wild.
These were flames born of memory.Of every moment the children had lost and wept for.And the shrine remembered.
The nearest Choir acolytes ignited without a sound, consumed in reverse-fire—turning to ash before they could scream.
But more came.
Dozens. Hundreds.
Singing.
And with them came something else.
A massive figure—twelve feet tall, draped in bone-forged robes, with a face carved from gravestone obsidian.Its hands were strings. Veins of soul-thread connected it to every Choir member still alive.
[New Entity Detected: Hollow Harmonizer – Rank: Transcendent Puppet]➤ Special Trait: "Sorrow Sync" – Buffs Choir while alive➤ Weakness: Emotional Overload➤ Threat Rating: Cataclysmic if sync not severed within 5 minutes
Kael's vision sharpened.
He raised a hand—and his divine crystal flared.
[Active Skill Unlocked: Soul Severance]➤ Sever links between enemy soul-tethered units within a 30-meter cone➤ Damage scales with user's Emotional Resonance stat➤ Uses: 1/1➤ Cooldown: 12 hours
"Cut the song," Kael whispered—and released it.
A jagged wave of purple-black light ripped through the battlefield, and the threads snapped like silk struck by lightning.
The choir collapsed mid-step.
The Harmonizer shrieked—a sound like a cathedral collapsing—and stumbled, staggered, stunned.
But before Kael could press forward, pain stabbed into his back.
Not magical.
Steel.
He turned.
Rell.
The boy stood behind him, eyes wild, blade red, lips trembling. "You're… not our god," he hissed. "You're a mistake. You're—"
Kael didn't strike him.
He simply grabbed Rell's hand.
And looked.
[Soul Thread Accessed: Rell Saren]➤ Corrupted memory fragment found…➤ Initiating Memorybind Override…
FLASHBACK
A boy stands on a pyre.His mother below, hands tied, eyes burned out.
A priest in white.Words: "He failed to save her. So we sanctify his soul instead."
The fire climbs.The boy screams.But it is not pain that breaks him—it is the silence.
No one stopped it.
Not even the gods.
Kael released his grip.
Rell dropped the blade, knees buckling. "She didn't scream," he whispered. "She just… looked at me."
Kael said nothing for a moment. Then knelt beside him.
"You hate me," he said quietly. "Because I remind you of them."
Rell didn't answer.
"But I am not them. I didn't burn your world. I only picked up the ashes."
He stood. "Now decide, Rell. Burn with them… or stand and build something that remembers."
[System Update: Soul Fracture Stabilized]➤ Trait Acquired: Warden of the Lost Flame➤ Rell Saren has been bound as a Lesser Flamebearer➤ Loyalty: 52% → 94%
Rell looked up slowly. His eyes were no longer hollow.
"I'll build," he said.
The Harmonizer roared, shattering the brief moment.
It surged forward, arms of bone lashing outward.
Elira met it mid-charge, blade flashing, divine shadows leaping from her feet. Two cultists fell beside her—young, terrified, brave.
Kael stepped into the core of the battlefield and called upon the Shrine again.
But this time, the shrine answered on its own.
[Divine Domain Level Up: Tier 1 Complete]➤ New Feature: Heartflame Pulse➤ Effect: Send out a resonance burst that ignites suppressed memories in all followers, granting temporary stat surge and emotional resistance➤ Uses: 2 per day
Kael clenched his fist. The shrine pulsed like a living thing.
And every child, every cultist, every soul in his faith line—
—remembered why they lived.
Flames erupted from their bodies—not fire, but essence.
One girl, barely twelve, threw herself into the Harmonizer's ribs, detonating a wave of grief-forged energy.
Another boy caught a masked Choir priest and split his mask open with a scream of his father's name.
Even Elira cried out—not a war cry.
A name.
And then—
Kael leapt, divine flame cloaking his body, blade of shadow forming in his hand.
One clean cut.
The Harmonizer fell.
Silence.
Ash rained over the Sanctuary Ring.
Burned robes. Shattered masks.
Kael stood alone in the center, cloak torn, skin steaming.
[System Notice: Divine Shrine Successfully Defended]➤ Cult Loyalty: 94% → 100%➤ Trait Unlocked: "Zeal of the Scorched" – Followers gain enhanced resistance to divine fear➤ Shrine Level: Tier 1 (Maxed)➤ Next upgrade requires Divine Core or Sacred Relic
He looked to the horizon.
No more enemies.
Not tonight.
But far away—on the spires of bone rising above the Dead Marches—
The Bone Crown Sovereign stared into her scrying mirror.
And frowned.
"He severed the Choir."
Her high priestess trembled. "Shall I prepare the black gate, my queen?"
"No," the Sovereign said slowly. "He's no longer prey."
She turned toward a wall of chained skulls.
"He's a rival."