Revyn exited the hole where the Godclever was impaled into the ground, after searching the room for anything else but he found nothing. He began climbing the staircase once more, each step up the stairs had sent a slow echo through the dead stone. As he reached the upper level, the air shifted, feeling still and cold, like a held breath when something dangerous was near. A high wind moved through shattered windows, whispering nonsense and syllables in a language that might have once been divine but now cursed.
And there, at the edge of a broken balcony that seemed to overlooking the world, stood a girl.
She didn't move a muscle.
She looked carved from moonlight and ruin with her skin pale, hair silver, eyes like frozen rivers. She wore a faded dress that might have once been beautiful, it was tattered at the hem. She stood barefoot. Completely silent. Staring at him with no recognition, and yet…
"Lanien?" he breathed.
'Wait, how do i know that name?' Kael thought immediately.
The girl blinked slowly, as if her thoughts were centuries away. Then, she nodded.
"You're later than you should've been," she said, and her voice felt like it had just scratched at something buried deep in his memory. The system messages suddenly rang in his head.
{Ding!}{Ding!}{Ding!}{Ding!}{Ding!}
[ENTITY DETECTED – 'LANIEN']
[Classification: UNBOUND ECHO]
[Hostility: NONE]
[Note: Memory Link – DEGRADED]
[Recommendation: Passive observation. Do not interfere.]
"You knew me?" Revyn asked, stepping cautiously forward. The Godcleaver hummed faintly on his hip, but he did not draw it.
Lanien tilted her head, eyes narrowing with something close to pity.
"You were always the one who wandered too far. And yet, you always came back. Until the Veil took you."
He felt a sudden chill ripple through his bones.
"I don't remember any of that."
"You wouldn't," she said. "Not yet."
Revyn studied her carefully. There were no footprints in the dust behind her, no shadow on the balcony floor. And yet she was no illusion. The System didn't classify her as hostile. That was rare.
"I saw you," he said hesitantly. "In the vision. In the chapel, when I touched the godling fragment."
Her smile flickered. "Then it's beginning. The memories are waking up. That's good. You'll need them when the hunger returns."
He clenched his fist. "The hunger never left."
Lanien stepped toward him, stopping just a few feet away. Her presence bent the air. Something about her felt wrong , it was as if looking into a reflection that didn't quite match.
"Tell me, Revyn," she said softly. "Do you still dream of flame trees? Of a sister who sang to them?"
He froze. The name danced at the edge of his tongue. Mira. He hadn't spoken it since the beginning.
"How do you know that? Who's Mira?"
Lanien's smile vanished. "Because I was there. In the time before the tower. Before the gods died screaming. Before you made the Pact."
A whisper could be heard suddenly. "She remembers you. Even if you don't remember yourself."
The whisper crawled out of the stones. From the cracks in the tower. From his sword. He didn't know. But she heard it too.
"I'm losing time," Lanien whispered. "This form is slipping. You need to go."
"Go where?"
She pointed downward, toward the far edge of the balcony. Through the misty horizon, a spiral of shattered platforms descended into the clouds like a staircase of broken bones.
"There's a path," she said. "The Wailing Expanse waits. If you reach the lake, you'll see the truth."
{Ding!}{Ding!}{Ding!}{Ding!}
[SYSTEM OBJECTIVE UPDATED – DESCEND TO THE BLACK LAKE]
[Estimated Descent: 12 Levels]
[Terrain Hazard: Extreme]
[Safe Zone Detected: None]
"I can't just leave," Revyn said. "You knew me. I need answers."
She stepped back, flickering faintly, as though her body were smoke pretending to be flesh.
"You'll find them," she said. "Just not from me. Not yet."
{Ding!}{Ding!}
[ENTITY LANIEN – DESTABILIZING]
[Estimated Time Until Dissolution: 00:02:41]
"Will I see you again?" he asked.
Lanien's eyes softened. "When you forget who you are again, I'll be the thread left behind."
Then, like mist under sunlight, she vanished — and the System fell silent.
Revyn stood alone again.
Below, the wind howled through the spiral descent. Shapes moved in the fog. Some large. Some waiting. Some... watching.
He turned toward the path.
And stepped forward.
{Ding!}{Ding!}{Ding!}{Ding!}
[SYSTEM NOTICE: DESCENT INITIATED]
[Path: Bone Spiral → Black Lake]
[Warning: Entity Signature Detected – "Pursuer of the Forgotten"]
[Distance: Closing]