A god forgotten is a god unchained.
The Vault of Judgment is in chaos.
The figure rising from the depths isn't made of flesh — it is memory turned inside out. Its form flickers between smoke, broken script, and silhouettes of every person who has ever forgotten a name.
Thirteen eyes, all burning with black fire, turn toward Kael.
Nameless Fragment: "You carry memory. I carry its grave. Let's see which truth devours the other."
Lady Umbrey chants a banishment, but her words dissolve mid-air — she forgets the spell as she casts it. Her voice falters. Her eyes go blank. She forgets her own name.
Pyrael roars and hurls divine flame — the god-fragment eats the fire.
Kael stands in the epicenter, still tethered to Seralyth's mark, but it begins to pulse erratically. The Heart of Seralyth within him recognizes the fragment:
"This is not a god. It is the echo of an unmaking. RUN."
But Kael doesn't run.
He steps forward.
Kael lifts his hand — the mark of Seralyth explodes in silver light.
He sees:
Visions of Seralyth fighting the Nameless One during the War of Falling Skies.
The moment Seralyth sacrificed her name to seal the Nameless One inside the Forgotten Depths.
Velcarion's betrayal — leading the other god-kings to imprison her instead of the Nameless One.
Seralyth's Voice: "You must remember what no one else will. If you forget… he wins."
Kael speaks her name aloud.
SERALYTH.
The moment he does, the chamber shatters — every spell ward breaks, the Pillars stagger, and a blinding pillar of silver flame erupts from Kael's chest.
He now wields a partial godflame — the first since the Sundering.
The Nameless Fragment snarls.
"So she lives… in him."
The chamber becomes a war zone.
Kael conjures Memory Constructs: spectral copies of Aurorium heroes from the past.
He summons Lady Ayrene, the swordmaiden who defied dragons.
Arith, the Timeless Monk, who strikes across past and future.
Velcarion himself — a fragment of the man he once was.
Each memory clashes with the Fragment, anchoring it in a battlefield it cannot fully consume.
The Fragment counters by erasing time in small zones — rendering part of the fight unhappened. The constructs flicker.
Kael realizes something crucial:
The Fragment feeds off fear of forgetting.
He focuses instead on what he remembers:
His mother's song.
Lia's first smile at Aurorium.
The feel of Velcarion's ring heating against his skin.
The name Seralyth.
These memories become weapons.
He forges a new spell:
Mnemonic Blade — a sword made of remembered love, loss, and truth.
He drives it into the Fragment's core.
The Fragment howls — not in pain, but in recognition.
"You… are a vessel. Not her rebirth… her continuation."
It dissipates.
But not before whispering:
"Tell her I remember too."
Silence falls.
The Tribunal chamber is in ruin. Lady Umbrey remains comatose — a nameless husk. Two other Pillars are wounded.
Kael collapses.
Vorian Caelstrom is the first to approach.
"He didn't kill it," he says to the others. "He just woke it up."
Pyrael looks at Kael, fury in his eyes, but also fear.
"He has to be bound. Or next time, we all forget what stars are."
But Seer-Angel Maltheriel, eyes glowing with astral fire, disagrees.
"No. He must learn what he is. Or nothing we bind will matter."
Vorian nods.
"Send him back to Aurorium. Let him study. Let him train. Let him remember what we've buried."
Kael wakes days later in the Healing Dormitories under the care of Mistress Elien, a twilight healer and former dreamwalker.
She tells him softly:
"You have done what no soul has done in ten thousand years. You remembered a forgotten god… and lived."
Lia visits with tears in her eyes. Riven stands silent — but his hand clenches Kael's shoulder.
Kael says nothing. He dreams that night of Seralyth, standing alone in a burning field of memory, staring at the stars.
She whispers:
"You gave me shape. I will give you strength."