The shrine was cold, but not from the mountain winds.
It was the kind of cold that came from something buried deep beneath the stone. Something old. Something watching.
Kaelen stood still in the half-circle of flickering candles, his breath visible as frost in the air. The statues that lined the shrine's curved wall were humanoid, but every one of them wore a different mask. Bone. Iron. Veil. Voidglass.
They were not idols. They were warnings.
He could feel it in his chest the way the system pulsed in time with the shrine's silence. A harmonic tension. Like two wills watching each other through a mirror.
Lycia stood at the edge of the sanctum, arms crossed, eyes alert. She had drawn a half-circle around them in chalk, mixed with ash and dried blossom. A barrier of sorts, although even she didn't know what it would keep out.
Or what it might keep in.
Kaelen stepped forward.
The central pedestal waited, bare except for the spiral marking carved into its center. It pulsed faintly, responding to his presence.
System prompt:
Authority recognized
Path identified: Voidbound Vowkeeper
Oath threshold exceeded
Access granted to Sealed Subsystem: The Forgotten Vault
He placed his hand on the marking.
The stone was ice. His skin burned from the touch, but he did not let go.
The entire shrine trembled.
Not visibly, but within the soul. Like a ripple through memory. Kaelen's mind blurred for a moment, flashing with images not his own. Marching figures cloaked in chains. A sword held by a child. A mouth whispering to the stars.
Then silence again.
And a new interface unfurled before his eyes.
[Vault Awakening]
Entry 1 of 6
You have touched a remnant of Virelith's first era
The Oathforged System was never whole
Fragment Recovered: Broken Command Sigil
Function: Unknown
Side Effect: Passive memory resonance initiated
Warning: The Vault hungers. Choose with care.
Kaelen pulled his hand back. The pedestal's glow dimmed, but did not vanish.
He turned to Lycia.
"I unlocked something. A subsystem. Old. Dangerous."
She nodded once, clearly unnerved.
"Are you sure it's not a trap?"
"Of course it is. But it is one I need to understand."
He motioned for her to follow. They exited the shrine slowly, the mountain's wind rushing in as the door creaked open. Snow swirled in the air, caught in the fading rays of late afternoon.
Outside, the silence of the peaks greeted them again.
But something had shifted.
Kaelen felt it in his spine. The world was listening now. The Vault had left its mark.
As they descended toward the lower camps, Lycia finally broke the silence.
"What will you do with what you found?"
Kaelen answered without turning.
"Use it. Or it will use me."
They reached the edge of the cliff path that led back to the temple's base. Below, the scattered fires of the outer encampments blinked like distant stars. Dozens of travelers, pilgrims, and mercenaries camped there, many seeking shelter or access to the temple's trials.
But Kaelen did not intend to linger.
He turned to Lycia.
"We leave tonight."
She blinked. "So soon?"
He nodded.
"This place gave me what I came for. It is not safe to linger. The Watchers will come, or something worse."
A sound behind them made them both freeze.
A low rasp.
Kaelen turned.
From the shrine doorway, a figure emerged. Robed. Masked. Silent.
The same three-eyed mask from his memories. From the ruins where he had awakened.
Triune.
Another followed. Then another. Until six stood before the shrine's mouth, blocking its entrance. No words. No movement. Just presence.
Lycia drew her daggers. Her stance shifted. Light on her toes.
Kaelen stepped forward.
"You should not be here," he said. His voice carried in the wind.
One of the masked figures tilted its head.
"You should not be alive."
The voice came not from its mouth, but from behind Kaelen's eyes. A psychic resonance. The system reacted instantly, flaring a warning.
Mental intrusion detected
Deploying passive veil
Success probability: 74 percent
Triune Mindbinder class identified
Recommendation: Flee or disrupt channel immediately
Kaelen gritted his teeth. The presence inside his mind pushed harder, seeking something.
Then it stopped.
The lead figure took a step forward and removed its mask.
The face beneath was not human.
It was silver, seamless. Featureless. A construct.
Not alive, but aware.
"You carry a piece of the Vault," it said. "You will surrender it now."
Kaelen did not answer.
He turned, grabbed Lycia's arm, and leapt from the ledge.
They fell ten meters before his affinity activated. Air pressure condensed beneath his feet. He landed in a roll, cushioning Lycia with one arm as they hit the snow-covered slope.
Behind them, the cliff exploded in a pulse of violet light.
The Triune had attacked without hesitation.
Kaelen and Lycia scrambled into the trees below, weaving through frozen roots and hanging moss. The sound of pursuit was immediate steps too light, too precise.
Not hunters. Not warriors.
Infiltrators.
Kaelen whispered under his breath.
"System. Give me eyes."
The system responded.
Pulse Vision active
Nearby threats: 3
Trajectory: Converging
Estimated contact: 28 seconds
Skill Suggestion: Fragment Echo (Level 1)
Temporarily summon spectral imprint of recent self
Activation cost: Moderate. Corruption risk: minimal
He activated it.
A phantom shape of himself split from his body and darted off in a different direction. One of the shadows gave chase.
Two remained.
Kaelen ducked beneath a fallen log, dragging Lycia with him.
"Split?"
"No," she said, shaking her head. "They want you. I'm not the priority."
Kaelen did not like that, but she was right.
He rose from cover and called the Void.
The darkness answered.
A tendril of violet-black energy wrapped around his arm, solidifying into a jagged blade.
The first hunter arrived.
Fast. Blurred.
But not faster than Kaelen.
He ducked the blow and slashed across the mask. Sparks flew, and the thing staggered back. It did not bleed, but the damage was real. Its movements faltered.
Kaelen pressed the attack. A second slash. A third.
The hunter collapsed in a heap of limbs.
The second stepped out of the trees. It raised its hand.
Kaelen braced.
Nothing happened.
It tilted its head again.
"You are not bound as he was," it said, voice faint, disbelieving. "You are something else."
Kaelen didn't wait to find out more.
He charged.
But as he closed the distance, the hunter threw something.
A disc. Metal. Spinning.
The system screamed.
Incoming anomaly
Tracking failed
Object: Unmapped
Origin: Unknown
Threat rating: Lethal
Defensive options limited
Kaelen pivoted mid-step.
The disc curved, changing trajectory.
It was not aimed at him.
It was aimed at Lycia.
Kaelen shouted.
She turned just in time to see it.
And then it struck.
A burst of silver light engulfed her.
She dropped without a sound.
Kaelen reached her in seconds, heart thundering.
She was breathing. Alive. But unconscious. The system scanned her body and reported something Kaelen did not expect.
Status: Stasis field induced
External control possible
Tracer embedded
Recommendation: Remove target from zone or risk capture within 2 minutes
Kaelen scooped her up.
He ran.
The forest blurred around him. Branches slashed his arms. Ice burned his skin.
But he did not stop.
Behind him, the shrine began to collapse.
The Triune had what they came for.
Not the Vault fragment.
Not Kaelen.
They had tagged the only person he trusted.