The mark on Je's palm pulsed again that night.
Not with light—
…but with sound.
It wasn't loud. It was a tremor inside his thoughts, like someone knocking from the inside of his skull.
> "Kha'reth… na'vael."
(The First Chain Weakens.)
Je shot up in bed. The world around him looked the same, but it wasn't. Shadows bent the wrong way. The air tasted like rust.
[Passive Ability Activated: Veythra's Whisper]
[Warning: Once heard, certain truths cannot be forgotten.]
The whisper came again, clearer now.
Not one voice—thousands, speaking in perfect unison.
> "The Gate is not locked—it is remembered shut."
Je's heart pounded. He didn't understand the meaning, but he knew the weight of it. It was the kind of truth that could kill.
And then… a map appeared before his eyes.
Not drawn in ink, but in veins of light, spiderwebbing across a black expanse. The final point pulsed like a dying star—its name smudged out by static.
[Hidden Quest Revealed: Approach the First Seal]
[Objective: Unknown]
[Reward: Classified]
[Penalty for Failure: Existential Erasure]
The whisper faded, replaced by something far worse—
silence.
Not the kind that's empty, but the kind that's waiting.
Je looked at his palm. The mark's runes shifted on their own, forming words in the old tongue he wished he couldn't read.
> "Every step you take is a nail in the coffin of a god."
And somewhere in the unseen dark, a chain broke.