The descent began with silence.
Not the kind one finds in a quiet cave, but the suffocating, unnatural silence where even your heartbeat sounds like an insult.
Kael followed Tavien through the forgotten sewer arteries of Arc Spire—passageways older than the Empire, hidden beneath layers of mana-drenched ruin. The deeper they went, the less the city resembled civilization. Stone turned to sigil-etched obsidian. Lights no longer flickered. Mana grew thick, syrupy, pressing against their skin like an ancient breath.
Tavien stopped before a rusted archway sealed by twin glyphs.
"This is it," he whispered. "The Hollow Vault. Door to the remnants of the Requiem Order."
Kael could feel it before he saw it.
A pull.
Like a blood-deep vibration.
Like his soul remembered the echo of a chord that hadn't been played in centuries.
"System," Kael muttered. "Status?"
---
> [STATUS: UNSTABLE SYNCHRONICITY]
Mana Field: Active
Proximity Alert: Requiem Relic within 0.3 miles
WARNING: Vault access will trigger Legacy Protocols. Irreversible.]
---
"Irreversible?" Kael asked aloud.
Tavien shrugged. "I mean, what's life without a little doom?"
He placed his hand on the glyphs. The symbols responded instantly, spinning inward, clicking like the tumblers of a metaphysical lock.
The door groaned open, releasing a gasp of cold air and a sound like a thousand whispers retreating down a tunnel.
They stepped into darkness.
---
Inside the Hollow Vault…
The space was vast—an underground cathedral carved into obsidian and stained with starlight. Floating crystal lanterns drifted like lost souls above shattered pews. Twelve grand statues lined the walls, each depicting cloaked figures with musical instruments for weapons—harps like bows, violins like blades, flutes with jagged edges.
Kael stopped before one: a woman with an obsidian cello, eyes blindfolded with chains of silver.
An inscription below read:
> "Aelira Veyr, Warden of the Final Chord."
Kael's breath caught. "Veyr?"
Tavien glanced over. "An ancestor. You're walking in her wake now. She was the last to wield the Deep Canticle."
Suddenly, the ground sang.
Not melodically, but like pressure screaming through stone. The statues trembled.
Then the Guardians awakened.
Twelve spectral figures detached from the statues, instruments glowing, notes dripping like blood from phantom strings.
---
> [SYSTEM ALERT: LEGACY TRIAL INITIATED]
Trial of the Requiem Echo: Pass or Perish
Objective: Withstand three phases of harmonic assault
— Phase I: Tempo Suppression
— Phase II: Memory Invocation
— Phase III: Bloodsong Awakening
REWARD: Access to Core Canticle Relic
Penalty: System Shutdown. Soul Compression. Total Death.
---
Kael stepped forward. "Begin."
The guardians played.
---
PHASE I: TEMPO SUPPRESSION
A wave of silence burst from the guardians like an anti-note, bending gravity around Kael's form. His limbs went heavy. Time slowed.
> [DEBUFF APPLIED: SOUNDWALKER GRAVITY WELL]
[System Tip: Use counter-tempo rhythm casting.]
Kael focused. He remembered the rhythmic breathing from earlier—combat born from Echoforge. He snapped his fingers once. Mana pulsed. Twice. It synced.
He twisted mana into a rotating sequence, countering the Guardian's tempo.
> [New Skill: RHYTHMIC RESISTANCE (Rank C) Unlocked!]
— Allows user to counter gravity-based tempo fields with calibrated mana pulses.
With a roar, Kael broke the gravity lock and surged forward, blade humming with chaotic chords. He struck the nearest Guardian—its form fractured into harmonic dust.
---
PHASE II: MEMORY INVOCATION
Suddenly, the cathedral vanished.
Kael stood in a burning village. Screams filled the air. Ash fell like snow.
"Mother?" he whispered.
A voice behind him said, "You left me, Kael. We all did."
He turned.
A woman stood wrapped in song—her eyes mirrors of his own, tears falling from the corners. She held a broken flute and blood on her hands.
"This is what your bloodline bought. Glory… at the price of us all."
---
> [System Note: Phase II is an Illusory Memory Shell. Reject emotional resonance.]
Kael knelt.
His mother had died in the Choir Purge. He knew that. But the guilt clung like a melody.
"I remember," he said. "But I am not ruled by echoes."
He clapped his hands together—loud, jarring.
> [Skill Used: Dissonant Break]
[Illusion Shattered.]
---
PHASE III: BLOODSONG AWAKENING
Only one Guardian remained.
The largest.
It stepped forward, cradling the Deep Canticle—an instrument forged of bone and crystal, shaped like both a harp and a spear.
"You are not worthy," it thundered. "You are fractured. Broken."
Kael raised his blade.
"Good. Then let's see how the broken sound when they scream."
The final clash began.
The Guardian played chords that tore through space, warping the very floor into impossible geometries. Kael countered with rapid Merge Casting—blending his Echo Blade with system-born notes.
---
> [NEW COMBINATION UNLOCKED: CRESCENDO SLASH]
— Deals cumulative harmonic damage in rising tempo.
[Merge Casting Achieved!]
— SoundCollapse + Choir Fracture = REND SONATA
---
Kael hurled a RenD Sonata at the Guardian's chest. The spectral form cracked, twisted, and detonated in harmonic shards.
The Deep Canticle floated into the air and spun slowly… then sank into Kael's chest like liquid light.
---
> [TRIAL COMPLETE]
[CORE RELIC: DEEP CANTICLE BOUND]
SYSTEM UPGRADE COMMENCING…
— New Class: Ascendant Echoborn (Initiate)
— Unlocking Advanced Skills…
— Mana Thread Weaving Enabled
— Realityfold Tier I Active
---
Kael collapsed to one knee, panting.
Tavien ran up, stunned. "You… you did it."
Kael stood, hair blowing as the mana storm around him began to calm.
"I didn't just do it," he said. "I became it."
---
High above, on the citadel…
The crimson woman whispered, "He's taken the Canticle."
The emperor stepped from the shadows for the first time.
"Then the Requiem returns," he said. "And so must the Chains."