"There are truths that do not liberate. They enslave. But still, we must know them."—Inscription on the Vault's Threshold
As the Door of Red Glass opens, Kael steps into the Vault of Unwritten Truths—a place buried so deep beneath Nocthera that even time fractures at the threshold.
Inside, the world twists.
Walls bleed script. Staircases ascend sideways. Candles weep ink, casting shadows shaped like forgotten kings.
Kael walks alone.
The Ocular Lens strains to focus. His godflame flickers, uneasy.
Then, he sees them:
Living memories, drifting like spirits—echoes of events that never happened, but should have.
Dead gods, whispering their last thoughts, trying to remember who they were before belief gave them shape.
Kael himself, aged, broken, crowned in fire—a potential future, sealed in one of the Vault's echo-chambers.
This is not a vault of books or artifacts.
This is a prison for forbidden timelines.
As Kael ventures deeper, he is halted by the Watcher—a construct of light and time, neither alive nor dead. Its face is blank glass reflecting Kael's regrets.
The Watcher challenges him:
"To enter the Heart of the Vault, you must sacrifice a truth you believe. What will you unlearn?"
Kael is forced to relive a core memory: his mother's death, the flames, the soldiers. But in this vision, she whispers before dying:
"Kael… we chose this. We made a pact."
Confused, Kael stumbles. This truth is not known to him.
He makes the choice: to unlearn his certainty that his mother was innocent, that she was simply a victim.
As he releases this truth, the Watcher allows him through.
"Only those willing to lose the past may shape the future."
Kael enters a circular chamber, empty except for a pedestal of obsidian, atop which floats a single parchment sealed in gold and blood.
It is labeled:
"The Divine Edict of Silence – Proscribed by the Concord of Heaven"
Kael touches it. Fire leaps into his veins.
He is thrust into a memory not his own—but one that lives within the world.
In this memory:
He stands beside the seven original gods, just before the forging of divine order.
They are not creators—but usurpers, seizing power from primordial forces: Titans, Flames, and the Void.
The Nameless One was not born in rebellion—he was one of them, a god who refused the Edict, who wanted mortals to know the truth of their enslavement.
The Edict of Silence was created to erase this knowledge—to bind reality in a lie.
The gods feared mortals discovering that their prayers gave the gods shape and power—that belief was a currency they were being taxed for.
Kael awakens, body shaking, mind ablaze.
He knows now: divine power is theft. A parasitic pact dressed as salvation.
As he stumbles from the Vault, the glyph on his chest changes. It splits into seven shards—each glowing with a different hue.
Selari, Aren, and Druska find him collapsed at the threshold. Kael speaks in tongues not his own, whispering fragments of the forgotten truth.
Aetheros appears, panic in his eyes.
"You read the Edict? You survived it?"
Kael only replies:
"We are not born beneath the gods. We are born above them. And they fear that we might remember."
The Vault begins to shake.
From the distance, a spear of white fire pierces the sky—a divine judgment aimed at Nocthera itself.
The gods now know that Kael has read the Edict.