Beneath the Wyrm Synod's spiraled domain,
far below the Harrowed Realm's core,
chained in nine layers of oblivion and buried time—
he stirred.
Not a god.
Not a beast.
Not even a man anymore.
But a memory sealed in flesh.
A being who once fought beside Kael Vanthelmir.
And whose betrayal tore open the first tear in the Celestial Accord.
---
The chamber was sealed with laws—not runes.
Written in bloodless language, carved by the Synod's own fear.
No time flowed here.
No dream escaped.
And yet…
A breath echoed.
Not drawn from lungs.
But willed into being.
Chains snapped.
One by one.
And in the void of the vault, two eyes opened.
Burning silver.
Flickering with recognition.
And resentment.
---
⟢ Meanwhile
Kael stood before the broken threshold of the Hollow Spiral.
A ruin built at the edge of the Harrowed Sea, where twisted gravity rose in pillars and stars floated like drowned bones.
He felt the tremor.
Not in earth.
Not in spirit.
In fate.
Something old had risen.
> "Who?" he whispered.
The wind did not answer.
But his blood did.
It burned.
And it remembered.
---
Far above, within the Synod's star-court, the masked Sovereign gazed upon the stirring vault.
> "It wakes," he said.
> "The Betrayer?"
> "The First. The only one he ever trusted. The only one who broke him clean."
> "And if he meets Kael again?"
The masked Sovereign's tone remained flat.
> "Then one of them dies forever."
---
⟢ Within the Vault
The man—if he could still be called that—stood at last.
Chains dangled from his arms like ornaments.
Hair like razored night.
A body built from carved oaths and severed promises.
And in his chest—no heart.
Only a void where Kael once placed his faith.
He whispered a name:
> "Kael…"
Then stepped forward.
---
Each step he took rewrote the silence.
The vault shattered behind him, and the Harrowed Realm groaned in welcome.
Because the Synod had unleashed not a prisoner.
But a question.
One even Kael had no answer for.
> "What happens when the one you once died for… walks toward you with fire in his hand?"
---
Kael paused mid-step.
A cold wind brushed his cheek.
A voice—not external, but internal—spoke.
> He walks again.
Kael's eyes narrowed.
> "Then I'll face him."
> "Even if it breaks you again?"
Kael clenched his fist.
> "Especially then."