The sky above Coker was silent.
Not still. Not calm. Just… silent.
It looked like night, but not the kind the world remembered. No stars. No moon. Just a swirling canvas of dark blue and bruised purple, like the sky itself had been wounded. Far above, something moved—slow and massive—like the shadow of a god drifting through clouds.
Coker stood at the edge of a broken field. Grass grew in spirals. Rocks floated in mid-air. The world wasn't right here.
Lilin stood behind him, quiet, watching him like he might vanish.
He looked at his hand. The glow was gone, for now. But the mark on his chest pulsed softly.
"I remember this place," he said. "But I've never been here."
"You have," Lilin whispered. "In another life."
---
They walked slowly through the field.
Every step felt heavier. Not physically—but inside. Like each step pulled up something from the past he didn't want to remember. Faces. Screams. The sound of metal on bone. A name, once chanted by thousands, now whispered only by ghosts.
Devourer.
He tried to shake it off, but the name clung to him like a second skin.
Lilin walked ahead now, leading him to a place where the air felt wrong—thicker, like walking through old breath.
They reached it.
A crater.
Deep and wide. Burned black at the edges. The center still smoldered.
"This is where you died," she said.
Coker stared. "I died?"
She nodded. "Once. A long time ago. Right here. You stood between the world and the thing beyond it. And you lost."
He stepped forward. The ground crackled under his boots. The wind didn't blow here. The silence was deeper than the sky's.
"How?"
"You gave yourself up. All of you. Not just power. Not just memory. You… erased yourself."
Coker closed his eyes. "Then why am I back?"
Lilin looked down. "Because the world couldn't hold your absence."
---
A memory hit him—hard.
He was kneeling. Blood everywhere. His hand holding a blade of pure darkness. People crying behind him. A great shadow rising in front. Something with eyes that never blinked.
He remembered saying: *"I'll be the cage."*
Then nothing.
His eyes opened. His hands were shaking.
He turned to Lilin. "What was I?"
She didn't answer right away.
Then she said, quietly, "You were the seal. You were the thing that kept the world from breaking."
He laughed bitterly. "Then I failed."
"No," she said. "You succeeded. Too well. You made the world forget. Even you forgot. That was the price."
---
Suddenly, the sky cracked.
A sound like a thousand bones snapping.
Coker looked up.
A single white line split across the heavens, and light poured through it—not golden, not divine, but silver and endless.
Something was falling.
Not a star.
A person.
They hit the ground hard—dust exploding, earth cracking.
Coker ran toward them. The soldiers behind him shouted, drawing weapons.
But Lilin raised her hand. "Wait."
From the crater, a figure stood.
Not tall. Not threatening.
It was a girl.
Maybe twelve.
Barefoot. Hair like ink. Skin gray as ash. Eyes glowing with silver fire.
She looked straight at Coker.
"Found you," she said.
---
"Who are you?" he asked.
The girl tilted her head. "I'm the Echo."
"The what?"
"The part of you that never wanted to die."
Coker frowned. "That doesn't make sense."
"Nothing does, anymore. Because *you* broke the rules."
Lilin stepped forward, protective. "She's a fragment."
The girl grinned. "I'm more than that. I'm what got left behind when he erased himself."
Coker stared. "You're… me?"
She nodded. "Just the part that screamed *no* when you said *goodbye.* The stubborn part. The angry part. The one that wanted revenge."
"Revenge for what?"
"For being the only one who remembered."
---
Suddenly, the ground shook.
The wind screamed again.
And the trees at the edge of the broken field *knelt.*
Not bent. Not cracked.
Knelt.
Coker turned.
A figure stepped through the trees.
Tall. Covered in black robes. No face. Just a golden crown floating above the hood, glowing faintly.
The Echo went silent.
Even Lilin took a step back.
"What is that?" Coker asked.
The girl answered. "The Keeper."
The figure spoke with no mouth. Just sound, ancient and distant.
**"Devourer. You walk again."**
Coker straightened. "I'm not him."
The Keeper raised a hand. A book appeared in its palm. The pages turned without wind.
**"Your name is written in the ending. You cannot escape it."**
"I'm not looking to escape," Coker said. "I just want to know who I am."
The Keeper paused.
Then said: **"Then remember."**
---
Everything went white.
Coker blinked.
He was no longer in the field.
He stood in a throne room. Black walls. A ceiling made of stars. Thousands knelt below him, chanting his name.
He was older. Stronger. A god among mortals.
But his face was tired.
He remembered this place.
The Last Hall.
The place where the Devourer passed judgment.
He watched himself speak to the crowd:
*"This world is built on forgetting. I will make it remember."*
Then, fire.
Not from outside.
From *himself.*
The vision burned away.
---
He was back.
In the field.
Breathing hard. Knees weak.
The Echo girl knelt beside him.
"I saw it," he whispered. "All of it."
She nodded. "Now you understand."
"No," he said. "Now I *feel it.*"
He stood.
Faced the Keeper.
"I won't run."
The Keeper bowed slightly.
**"Then the world will break around you."**
The figure vanished in a flash of gold.
Only silence remained.
---
The soldiers around Coker began to murmur.
Some dropped to one knee.
Others looked shaken.
He turned to Lilin.
"What now?"
She looked up at the sky. "Now the other gods will come."
Coker's hands clenched.
"Let them."
---
That night, he dreamed again.
But this time, he didn't see fire or war.
He saw himself.
Alone.
In the field.
Bleeding.
Smiling.
Saying:
*"If I die again, let it be as myself."*
When he woke, he was crying.
But it didn't feel weak.
It felt *right.*
---
Far away, Mina stood in front of the village gate.
Her eyes were darker now.
Sharper.
She carried a small blade at her side.
The wind blew through her hair.
She looked toward the distant hills.
"He's getting closer," she whispered.
The old baker woman behind her nodded. "And everything else is, too."
Mina smiled faintly.
"Then I'll be ready."
The stars above blinked once.
Then fell silent.