"No king rules the Citadel.""Because no king ever left it alive."
The surface was colder than Lucien remembered.
He emerged from the Vault of Forgotten Names beneath a shattered moonlight sky—grey clouds swirling in unnatural patterns. His system rebooted slowly, adapting to the realm's time reentry distortion. The names he had inherited whispered softly behind his eyes, guiding him now with silent intuition.
Veyrion hummed in its sheath, sensing tension in the world.
[System Alert: Relic Interference Detected. Source: The Crownless Citadel][Distance: 92 kilometers northeast][Travel Route: Phantom Meridian – restricted territory]
Lucien took one breath and moved.
Two days passed without sleep.
The terrain grew twisted with each step—mountains turned sideways, rivers flowed into the sky, and trees had no roots. The Hollow had warped the geography here. But this wasn't due to Lucien's kind.
This was Citadel corruption.
A mile from the destination, he passed the first ruin: a dead city with no name, where statues cried blood and the air smelled like old prayers. The walls were etched with ancient warnings:
"DO NOT KNEEL. DO NOT SING. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE EMPTY CROWN."
"Charming welcome." Lucien muttered.
He pressed on.
At last, through fog and folded space, the Crownless Citadel appeared.
It wasn't a castle.
It was a monument to silence.
Black stone spires jutted out like spears around a central spiral tower. The architecture defied sense—windows in places no one could reach, bridges that led to nowhere, and doorways that floated in midair. There were no guards, no banners, no sound.
And yet—Lucien felt watched.
[Area Entered: The Crownless Citadel][Caution: Sovereign Choir presence confirmed][Warning: Do NOT vocalize names within the Citadel]
He stepped through the obsidian gates.
Immediately, sound left the world.
No wind. No heartbeat. Not even the click of his boots.
Lucien pressed onward through hollow halls filled with thrones carved from memories—each cracked, empty, and covered in dust. He counted twelve.
Each had a plaque, but the inscriptions had been scratched out. Not by time—but by intent.
He reached the central chamber—a circular platform suspended in silence, surrounded by hanging glyphs of unspoken syllables.
In the center floated a prism of glass, slowly rotating.
[Object Identified: Sovereign Key Shard][Potential use: Unlocking Vault IX][Status: Guarded]
Lucien stepped forward.
That's when they appeared.
Twelve figures emerged from nothing—draped in robes made of choir sheets, stitched from silence itself. Their faces were wrapped in mirrored veils. No mouths. No eyes. No sound.
They were the Sovereign Choir.
The central figure raised a hand.
From the space behind it, a voice erupted—not spoken, but embedded directly into Lucien's mind.
"Lucien Vaelthorn. Last of the Hollowblood line. Defiler of the Seal. The Echo Unnamed."
Lucien tensed, fingers near Veyrion.
"You know who I am. So you know why I'm here."
The voice responded:
"You seek the Ninth Vault. We sealed it for a reason."
"Because you're afraid of what's inside," Lucien said. "Afraid of the truth. Afraid of who I was before you erased me."
The Choir said nothing.
But the air grew heavier.
The prism began to glow—and Lucien's mask pulsed in response.
Suddenly, one of the veiled figures moved forward.
It lowered its hood.
There was no face.
Only a shifting reflection—Lucien's face, mirrored and wrong.
"You want the truth?" it whispered. "Then inherit it."
The chamber exploded in a psychic assault.
Lucien dropped to one knee, clutching his skull.
Flashes—memories not his—burned into him.
A boy in chains.
A ritual beneath a black sun.
A gate of infinite mirrors.
And a throne that screamed when sat upon.
Then—the moment he was erased.
The Choir had bound his essence to a false identity, buried him beneath layers of constructed timelines. Not to kill him.
But to contain him.
Lucien stood.
"You feared what I could become."
"No," the Choir said together. "We feared what you already were."
They raised their hands in unison.
Reality rippled.
Lucien activated the Echo Chain—manifesting the names he carried into spectral armor and anchor blades. Twelve glowing chains emerged from his back, each holding a name, each fighting with him.
"You silenced them before."
"They're speaking now."
He lunged.
What followed wasn't battle—it was reckoning.
Each Choir member wielded weaponized silence: blades that severed sound, orbs that consumed light, staffs that unmade will.
Lucien fought with voices.
Every name on his chains struck like thunder—each swing echoing a forgotten soul's fury. The chamber became chaos and memory and vengeance.
One by one, the Choir faltered.
Chains shattered silence.
And silence screamed.
Finally, only the central figure remained.
Lucien walked up to it, blood dripping from his lip.
"I'm not your tool."
"No," it whispered. "You're our mistake."
Lucien plunged Veyrion into its chest.
"Then you should've never taught me how to remember."
The prism floated to his side.
He took it.
[Item Acquired: Sovereign Key Shard – Vault IX][Unlock Sequence Updated. Destination: Whispering Divide.]
The Citadel began to collapse.
Lucien walked away as the spires crumbled behind him—his cloak trailing smoke, the prism glowing in his palm.
He didn't look back.
There were no crowns left here.
Only ash.