"A throne without a name is not empty.It's waiting."
The vault door opened with no sound.
It didn't slide or swing. It peeled, layer by layer—each one unraveling like liquid stone, revealing the hollow space within. Cold mist rushed outward like breath from something asleep too long.
Lucien stepped across the threshold.
[Vault IX Entered: The Nameless Throne][Realm Status: Unbound][Warning: All system safety restrictions temporarily disabled]
His Echo Chains hummed.
They were uncomfortable here.
This space wasn't hostile. It was worse.
It was familiar.
The first chamber was vast—an amphitheater built in reverse, spiraling downward. Stone arches bent in impossible angles, and statues of nameless monarchs lined the walls, their faces veiled in eroded gold.
Every step Lucien took echoed with a dozen voices—not words, but fragments of laughter, regret, worship, and betrayal.
At the bottom: a black throne suspended above a pit of swirling white mist. Floating just above it: a mirror shaped like a broken circle.
He approached.
As he neared, something changed in the air. Gravity twisted. The truth thickened.
Then:
[System Suppressed – Vault IX Enforces Narrative Law][Memory Loop Initialized]
Lucien blinked—and the world shattered.
Flash.
He stood in a cathedral of light.
He wore royal armor.
Crowds chanted his name. Their faces were blurred, but their devotion was clear.
"All hail the Hollow King!"
His heart pounded—not with pride, but dread.
He stepped toward the throne—but the seat was already occupied.
By himself.
Another Lucien sat upon it, smiling calmly, hand resting on the hilt of Veyrion—but this version's eyes were hollow, devoid of all light.
"You abandoned us," the throne-Lucien said.
"I didn't know," the real Lucien replied. "I never—"
"That's the problem," the other snapped. "You forgot. You let them rewrite you."
The throne began to rise.
"Take your seat," the echo growled.
Lucien resisted.
Flash.
Another vision.
A burning sky. A battlefield of gods and monsters.
Lucien—no, the Hollow King—stood atop a mountain of corpses. At his feet: his companions. The Twelve Echoes. Their faces twisted in betrayal.
Veyrion pulsed, soaked in their blood.
"You sacrificed them," a voice whispered.
"No," Lucien said. "They chose—"
"You let them die for a throne that should never have existed."
"I never wanted it."
"But you took it anyway."
Flash.
Darkness. Total void.
The Nameless Throne pulsed before him again. This time, it was alive—beating like a heart, screaming like a soul.
The other Lucien appeared once more.
"There is no escaping this."
"Then I'll face it," Lucien said.
He stepped forward.
One foot on the floating platform.
The throne screamed—not in pain, but in welcome.
Lucien sat.
The moment he did, reality fractured.
[INTERNAL CORE REACTIVATION INITIATED][Designation Confirmed: Lucien Vaelthorn – Hollow King Inheritor][Trait Unlocked: Sovereign Null][Skill Acquired: Echo Entropy – Rewrite Local Reality]
His vision cleared.
He was still seated—but the Vault was now rebuilt.
The statues bowed.
The mist below had become light—pure and white and endless.
And floating before him now was the full Mirror Crown—a broken circlet reforged with lines of starlight and hollow iron.
[Crown Fragment Restored: 1/3]
"Only one?" Lucien whispered.
The throne answered with a heartbeat beneath him.
"The rest lie beyond the Divide."
He stood, the crown fragment embedding into his Soulframe.
Around him, the Vault began to tremble.
The statues crumbled again. The arches bent inward. The light turned wrong.
[Vault Collapse Imminent – Exit Immediately]
Lucien summoned Veyrion and carved open a tear in space.
The Hollow answered him now, with respect.
He stepped through the tear—and emerged not in the same place he entered, but on a jagged cliff under a violet sky. The Vault was gone behind him.
His system returned with a low chime.
[Title Updated: Echo of the Crownless][Next Destination: The Graven Shore][Enemies Alerted: The Chanter Lords have detected your throne resonance]
Lucien looked up toward the stars.
They were no longer in the same positions as before.
Something had changed.
Something had awoken.
He whispered to the night:
"I remember now."
The Hollow stirred.
And the world trembled in answer.