The road away from Vaelgard felt longer than it should have. Coker walked in silence, the sky above still grey, the wind dry against his face. He didn't look back, not once. He knew if he did, he might change his mind. And he couldn't afford that.
The mark on his chest pulsed beneath his shirt. Slow and steady. Like a second heartbeat.
---
He passed through empty fields, where crops once grew. The war from years ago had turned much of the land barren. Trees were twisted, blackened. Even the birds avoided them.
Coker walked until the sun dipped low. He didn't stop.
Only when the stars came out did he rest beneath a broken tree. He lit a small fire and unwrapped the cloth around the stone he carried.
The same stone from the shrine. Cold. Silent.
But now it shimmered faintly in his hands.
"Why me?" he whispered to it.
No answer.
But the mark on his chest grew warm.
---
In the capital city of Orelis, a council of robed elders sat in a high tower. They argued in whispers, eyes wide with fear.
"He survived the awakening?"
"Yes. And the seal on the Forgotten Mountain… it's cracking."
A woman stood slowly. "We buried that truth for a reason. If he remembers who he was…"
An older man slammed his hand on the table. "He can't be allowed to awaken fully."
"But what if he's different this time?"
"Then he's more dangerous than ever."
They lit black candles and began to chant.
Far below them, in the dungeons, a chained man opened one golden eye.
"He walks again," he whispered. "Good."
---
Back in the forest, Coker's dream returned.
He stood atop a mountain of bones.
Lightning cracked the sky. A thousand voices screamed his name. But none called him "Coker."
The name was something older. Something lost.
In the dream, he looked down. His hands were soaked in light… and blood.
A girl stood before him. Her eyes were full of tears.
"Why didn't you save me?"
He tried to answer, but no sound came.
He reached out—
And woke.
---
Morning mist hung thick as he approached a ruined temple deep in the woods. The stone walls were half-eaten by vines, but something about the place felt… familiar.
As he stepped inside, the ground shook.
A voice—ancient and low—echoed from within.
"You should not be here."
Coker held his ground. "I don't care."
"You carry the mark."
"I didn't ask for it."
"And yet, it found you."
A figure stepped from the shadows.
It wore no face. Just a mask made of gold and bone.
"Do you wish to know who you were?"
Coker hesitated. "Yes."
The figure raised a hand. Energy crackled in the air. The walls began to shimmer, revealing images:
A boy born of war. A blade forged in sorrow. A love lost to time.
"You were called the Devourer," the figure said. "Not because you destroyed… but because you remembered what others forgot."
"I don't understand."
"You will. In time. But first… you must survive."
The ground split.
From the hole rose a creature—part shadow, part fire. Eyes burning red.
Coker stepped back, fists raised. "What is that?"
"Your past," the masked figure said. "Face it, or be consumed."
---
The battle was fast.
The creature moved like smoke, struck like thunder.
Coker dodged, rolled, grabbed a fallen spear. But it wasn't enough.
Until the mark on his chest burned.
And he remembered—just for a second—how to fight.
A word slipped from his lips.
A word in a language he didn't know.
The spear lit up.
And with a roar, he drove it through the heart of the beast.
It screamed, then shattered into dust.
Coker fell to his knees, gasping.
The masked figure stepped forward. "You've taken the first step. Now, the world will hunt you."
"Why?"
"Because you are the last echo of something they fear."
The temple began to collapse.
Coker ran, jumping through falling stones, escaping just as it crumbled behind him.
He stood in the forest again, breath shaking.
And far away, on a distant island, a bell rang.
A girl with wings of light turned her head.
"It's started," she whispered.
And the world, once asleep, began to wake.