Darkness swallowed him.
No light. No sound.
Only the cold wind, spiraling downward, dragging Matt through a void deeper than death.
It wasn't a fall.
It was a descent.
Like being pulled into the soul of the world.
Whispers rode the air—fractured and cruel. Forgotten gods screamed in tongues never meant for mortal minds.
Then—
Impact.
Stone cracked beneath him like a corpse's spine. Dust bloomed outward.
He gasped—lungs burning. Blood on his lip. His entire body protested.
But bones held. Barely.
The Shadowsidian Blade pulsed beside him—alive. Its glow etched crimson lines across the stone.
A chamber.
No—a tomb.
But not for the dead.
For the erased.
Jagged glyphs scarred the obsidian walls. Murals stretched across them—winged titans falling, gods chained and howling into the void.
Under the sword's glow, the carvings shifted, like they remembered pain.
These weren't monuments.
They were warnings.
Matt rose. His breath fogged in the freezing air. Every inch of the room pressed down with the weight of forgotten judgment.
He stepped forward—
His foot brushed a rune.
It flared. Crimson.
The tomb didn't resist.
It welcomed him.
Whispers crawled into his mind—not voices, but presence:
"You've walked here before. You just forgot."
He turned to the wall.
A carving:
A figure, cloaked in gold. Blade raised. Crowned in flame.
The face—deliberately obscured.
At the far end—
A pedestal. Black stone, shaped like a serpent devouring itself.
Upon it: a mask.
Cracked obsidian, veined in light.
Pulsing—same as the blade.
It felt… aware.
He reached out.
> VOID SIGIL RESONANCE: DETECTED.
Cold fire surged through him.
He arched—
And screamed.
---
The Memory Flood
It hit like a blade to the skull.
A sky in flames. Gold-clad warriors. Legions screaming.
Matt stood atop shattered marble—blade raised—armies at his back.
Gods fell.
Time fractured.
Divine blood soaked the world.
Names thundered: Nitrine. Kalzeir. Vaelra.
Then—
Betrayal.
A blade pierced his spine.
He choked. Collapsed.
Behind him: Five figures. Celestial armor. Blank stares.
At their head—Monshin.
His voice: flat. Final.
"You were too human."
Matt bled. "We bled together! You swore before the flame—!"
Monshin raised his hand.
"And now I seal you by it."
Far off—a scream.
Amiya.
Light swallowed everything.
Then—
Silence.
---
Matt collapsed.
Smoke curled off his skin like burnt memory.
The chamber pulsed.
> VOID MILESTONE UNLOCKED: WHISPER RIFT
Something inside him shattered.
Something else—slithered in.
A voice. Infinite.
Familiar.
"Now you remember. Now you rise."
---
The Tomb Opens Wider
The ground quaked.
Stone folded inward.
A spiral stairway emerged, twisting into the abyss.
Matt moved forward, blade drawn.
Walls wept black fluid. Banners hung in tatters. Statues of fallen gods stared blind and broken.
His heartbeat was a war drum.
And from the dark—a voice:
Amiya.
"This tomb wasn't to hold your body. It was to hold your truth."
She shimmered ahead—barely tethered to the world.
"They feared the memory of you more than your blade."
He stepped closer. "Why now?"
"Because your soul cracked wide enough for me to find you."
Her form flickered violently.
"The mask was just the first seal. Below lies the sigil core. If you reach it—your memory won't return. It will unmake what they built in your place."
She touched his chest.
Ashlight flared beneath his ribs.
"Don't trust the next face you see."
And she vanished.
---
The Phantom Knight
A roar split the air.
Heat and shadow collided.
A figure emerged—hulking, warped.
Helmet fused to bone. One eye crimson. The other—human, crying black tears.
> TIER II: PHANTOM KNIGHT
Its greatblade dragged behind it, trailing sparks.
Its voice:
A hymn corrupted. A rasp in broken tongues.
"You were not supposed to wake. Not again."
Matt said nothing.
The Shadowsidian Blade ignited.
Red lightning crawled across its edge.
The chamber warped.
Combat runes activated. Seals cracked.
> VOID SYNC: 40%
> AURA BLEED: ACTIVE
> TIER MATCH: INCONCLUSIVE
The Knight charged.
Matt ducked—just in time. Its blade gouged the wall behind him, destroying ancient sigils.
His counter met air.
The Knight phased—half-real, flickering.
"You're still broken," it hissed. "Still half-real. Still bleeding from sins you won't face."
Matt narrowed his eyes.
"And you're stalling for someone."
The Knight hurled a wave of anti-magic fire.
The pedestal exploded behind Matt.
He grinned through blood.
"I don't need to remember everything—just enough to kill you."
And lunged.
---
The Fight
The chamber shattered beneath their war.
Every blow bent space.
Blood met blade.
Memory met flame.
Matt moved like a phantom remembering how to be alive.
The Knight's mask cracked.
Beneath it—
A familiar face.
"They made me from your sins," it wept. "They made me to replace you."
Matt drove the blade into its chest.
"Then they made you weak."
---
The Knight exploded into black static.
Silence returned.
No longer whispering—
The tomb chanted.
Stairs ignited.
A deeper vault revealed—marked by Nyuga's sigil.
Matt wiped the blood from his jaw.
"Not just a tomb…"
"A vault."
He stepped forward.
The Void did not follow.
It led.
And Matt followed his own past—
Deeper into the dark.