The Vault of Endings stood where the skies wept lightning and the ground never stopped trembling—buried deep within a dead continent known only as the Hollow Expanse. No vegetation. No animals. No sound except the endless rumble beneath their feet.
Kael, Sera, and Lira stood before the black stone monolith that marked the entrance. It wasn't carved. It had simply always existed like it had been waiting.
Lira stared at her scanner, frustrated. "This place shouldn't be here. It's not on any leyline charts. It's… off the grid."
Sera's fingers twitched near her blade. "Feels like a graveyard."
Kael said nothing. He just walked forward.
As he did, the ground beneath them split open cleanly, with surgical precision forming a perfect staircase descending into pitch-black depth.
The Vault had heard him.
And it had opened its mouth.
Inside the Vault
No torches. No lights. Just smooth, endless obsidian walls, faintly glowing with pulsing runes that responded to Kael's heartbeat.
As they descended, something stirred in the dark.
Whispers.
Not words, but memories. Emotions.
Fear. Power. Duty. Regret.
Finally, they reached the heart of the Vault, a chamber that defied physics. Floating stone pillars circled them, rotating in perfect silence. In the center, atop a narrow pedestal that seemed to rise from nothing, stood a staff.
Not a weapon of gold or jewel-encrusted ornament.
It was black, long and slender, shifting as though made of fluid metal. Ancient glyphs pulsed along its length, and at the top: a silver ring hovered above the tip, rotating slowly in defiance of gravity.
The moment Kael stepped forward, the air thickened. His feet left the ground. Lightning danced along his arms. His veins lit up like constellations.
"That's it," he said softly. "That's mine."
Sera narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure you can control it?"
Kael didn't answer.
He reached out.
The moment his fingers touched the staff—reality fractured.
The Trial
Kael found himself in a void.
Not empty—just… infinite.
Before him stood himself. Or rather, a version of him: cloaked in regal black, eyes glowing with cosmic energy. This was not Kael of the present. This was Kael'Zorath, the one who wielded the staff before the Cycle fell.
"You seek to reclaim what you sealed," the echo said.
Kael nodded. "To stop what's coming."
"Then prove your soul can still carry it."
The trial began.
Lightning roared. Gravity inverted. Kael fought not with weapons, but will. He clashed with his former self, every blow testing his resolve, his pain, his guilt.
He was thrown. Crushed. Electrocuted. Taunted by the echo of the man he used to be.
But he never backed down.
"I'm not him anymore," Kael growled, battered but standing. "But I won't run from who I was. Not again."
The echo smiled, and for the first time, bowed his head.
"Then rise, Balance Incarnate. Your burden awaits."
Back in the Vault
The staff flew into Kael's hand with a crack of thunder that shook the Vault to its foundation.
The glyphs along its body ignited—white, silver, and violet. The ring spun faster. The air bowed around him.
Sera took a step back, shielding her eyes. "What the hell…"
Kael stood tall, cloak fluttering in windless silence, staff pulsing like a heartbeat in his palm.
Lira stared, stunned. "Your readings just… broke my scanner."
Kael turned toward them, eyes calm, voice steady.
"I remember now. What I was. What I lost. And what's coming."
"The Choir… isn't the only threat."