The corridor beyond the fallen colossus was narrow and silent, carved not with tools but with fingers of fire. Its walls glowed faintly with buried script—ancient mantras encoded into bone-dust and ash. At the very end stood a door.
Nine massive locks fastened across it, formed from the ribs of an extinct divine beast. Each one pulsed with its own rhythm—as if they were alive, breathing slowly.
Luv stepped closer, his golden eyes narrowing.
"This isn't just a seal. It's a… warning."
"No," Astha replied, brushing soot from his cloak.
"It's a coffin… and a vault."
Naira placed her palm against one lock. A shock of burning light ran through her veins, but she didn't flinch.
"Behind this," she whispered, "is something even the gods feared to kill. So they erased its name instead."
"What was it?" Luv asked.
"A devourer of will."
---
Astha reached into his robe and pulled out a small broken artifact he had taken from the Vault of Forgotten Echoes.
A piece of an old mirror shard, the frame shaped like a blooming lotus, etched in red bronze.
"This came from here," he muttered. "It reacted when Asatya died."
He pressed the shard into a slot beneath the center lock.
The locks began to tremble.
One by one, they cracked, split, and dissolved into embers. Faint whispers leaked out—echoes of screams, invocations, and a single laugh, deep and serpentine.
The door unlatched.
And opened.
---
[The Nameless Room]
The chamber beyond was vast—and cold. No fire, no lava. Just stone… and silence.
At its center floated a massive orb, made of coiled mantra scripts and flesh-like cloth, like bandages over a corpse that pulsed ever so slightly. Chains of silver light wrapped it in a slow orbit. Around it, a thousand paper talismans hovered, burning without heat.
"Where's the prisoner?" Luv asked.
"That is the prisoner," Astha said grimly.
"Or what's left of it."
Suddenly—
"I smell divinity," a voice echoed.
"Fresh."
The talismans ignited. One by one, eyes opened on the cloth-like mass. Dozens. Then hundreds. All turning toward the intruders.
And the orb spoke again.
"Who dares enter the burial of the Unforgotten?"
---
[The Unforgotten Speaks]
The entity uncoiled—revealing a humanoid torso beneath the orb, draped in rotten white cloth, face covered in broken metal mask-plates. Its voice was calm, low, and layered with thousands of overlapping tones.
"I am Iksara, once a herald of wisdom, now a secret the gods could not burn."
"You hold weapons of war… and memory." Its gaze shifted to Astha. "You are the Child of Smoke, the Ash-Walker. You carry the chain of guilt."
Smritidhaara reacted immediately—flaring up with fire and wrapping around Astha's arm like a serpent preparing to strike.
"You will unchain me."
"Why should I?" Astha asked.
"Because you and I… were both erased."
---
"Release me," it said, "and I shall reveal to you the Divine Blueprint—the design of existence the gods never let mortals see."
"Refuse…" it tilted its head, "and I will take what I need from your bones."
Astha stood still.
Luv's hand hovered near his lightning dagger.
Naira began weaving a mantra shield.
"Do we free it?" Luv asked.
"Or destroy it?"
"Neither," Astha said, stepping forward.
"We test it."
He pointed Vaayutal toward the creature.
"If you want freedom—earn it."
---
Iksara lunged. Its cloths unraveled mid-air, forming blades of forgotten prayer. The chains surrounding it whipped out, blocking Naira's spells. Luv clashed head-on, using thunder-bursts to deflect the spinning scripts.
Astha leapt into the air, Vaayutal glowing red, his robe flaring open to reveal mantra inscriptions woven into its threads. He roared:
"Smritidhaara—Release: Vikara Mode!"
The flaming chain unwrapped, igniting mid-air, transforming into a triple-bladed sickle. He hurled it.
SLASH!
It tore through one of Iksara's eyes. It didn't scream—it laughed.
"Yes. YES. You remember pain. That's the first key."
Astha's blade and chain combo began glowing in unison, forming a sigil that circled the entity. Luv charged a lightning spear, while Naira stabilized a reality-bending mantra field.
"Bind it!" Astha shouted.
They struck in unison—
BOOM.
Chains of fire, thunder, and memory locked Iksara in place. It didn't resist.
It smiled.
"Then our pact is forged."
"I will show you the first piece of the gods' greatest lie."