The earth spoke in pulses.
Every few steps into the canyon, Kael felt it — a low hum underfoot, vibrating up through his bones. Not loud. Not sharp. Just steady.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Like a heart that had been buried too long.
The Tomb of Veinlord Arx was somewhere beneath them.
Carved deep into the rock at the edge of the old world — a scar left over from the Collapse. No maps led here. No cities were built near it. No settlements survived around it for long.
Even the Spiral didn't tread lightly near it.
That's why Lira brought Kael.
⸻
"It's not marked on the Spiral charts," Kael said, adjusting the satchel over his shoulder. "Why?"
Lira stopped and looked down at the faint cracks in the stone path. "Because they didn't build it. Arx wasn't Spiral. He wasn't anything. He was… before."
"Before what?"
"Before the Veinlords bowed to rulebooks. Before the Origins split into nine. Before the Spiral told us how to breathe."
Kael tilted his head. "And now we're walking into his grave."
She smirked faintly. "No. We're walking into his legacy."
⸻
The path wound downward into a hollow ravine where sunlight barely touched the stone. Vein-glyphs covered the walls — old, not carved, but grown. Fused into the canyon like moss that had learned to burn.
Kael reached out and brushed one with his fingertips.
It pulsed.
And his Soulvein twitched.
"You feel it?" Lira asked.
He nodded. "Feels… familiar."
"They say Arx had a Void variant," she said. "Not like yours. Wilder. Hungrier. His Soulvein didn't evolve — it consumed."
Kael's mouth was dry. "Did he die here?"
"No," Lira said, stepping ahead. "He chose to disappear. This tomb isn't a coffin. It's a vault."
⸻
The entrance came into view like the mouth of a giant, yawning from centuries of silence. Twin pillars made from obsidian-veined bone framed the gate. No doors. No seals. Just shadow.
Kael's breath caught.
He could hear something.
Not a voice.
A rhythm.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
It matched his heart.
He stepped forward, and the shadows inside pulled apart like curtains.
The tomb welcomed him.
⸻
Inside was nothing like he expected.
No coffins. No remains. No statues.
Just a vast, circular chamber carved with concentric rings of Soulweaver script and Veinlord markings. Runes pulsed on the walls, casting slow-moving shadows across the floor.
In the center floated a black shard.
Roughly the size of a heart.
Suspended in still air by nothing.
Kael stepped toward it.
Lira grabbed his arm. "That's a Seed."
Kael froze.
"An Ancient Seed," she clarified. "Before classification. Before containment. It might not even have a name."
He stared at it.
The shard pulsed.
And his Soulvein answered.
⸻
His vision blurred.
Suddenly, Kael stood in another place.
Same chamber.
But alive.
Veins of molten power coursed through the walls. Fire and Void collided midair. Figures in battle armor clashed, hurling Soul Mode Art after Art.
And at the center…
A man stood.
Towering.
His body glowed with pure glyphlight, his left arm coated in Void, right arm in Flame. His eyes burned like stars seen from underwater.
He wasn't human anymore.
He was more.
"Arx," Kael whispered.
The man turned toward him.
And smiled.
"You came late."
⸻
Kael gasped as he returned to himself, stumbling backward.
Lira caught him. "You saw something."
"Arx."
"You made contact."
He looked back at the shard.
"It's alive."
⸻
Then another voice filled the tomb.
"You're wrong. It's waking."
Kael turned.
A figure stepped from the far corridor — dressed in layered cloth and Soul-armor, face half-covered, but the mark on their neck was unmistakable.
A Void Sigil.
But inverted.
The figure stepped closer. Pulled the mask down.
Revealing a girl. Maybe sixteen. Pale eyes. Silver-black hair. A faint glow leaking from the corners of her mouth.
Kael felt his Void Vein react instantly.
Like looking into a mirror. But warped.
"Name's Ryn," she said. "And you've got no right being here."
⸻
Kael squared his stance. "You're Void?"
She raised an eyebrow. "No. I'm what happens when the Spiral lets Void evolve."
Lira stepped forward, wary. "You're Spiral?"
"Was."
Ryn tapped her temple. "They trained me. Measured me. Shaped me. Then they locked me away when I stopped following orders."
Kael's voice was low. "Why are you here?"
"Because Arx called me," she said. "Same way he called you. Difference is, I answered years ago."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "Then why didn't the Seed bond to you?"
Ryn's smile dropped.
"It did," she said.
Then she lifted her hand.
And the Seed shattered.
⸻
Power exploded across the tomb.
Kael was thrown into the wall, the air ripped from his lungs. Lira landed hard beside him, rolling into cover.
The Seed broke into fragments midair — shards of black and violet flame that swirled around Ryn, forming a spiral of symbols that glowed with shifting Origin colors.
Kael struggled to stand.
"You bonded with it?" he choked.
Ryn's voice was cold. "No. I became it."
She held out her hand.
The shadows obeyed.
Vein energy coiled around her like a second skin.
Kael activated Thread Raze immediately.
Lines of light etched across his arms.
And the fight began.
⸻
Ryn struck first.
Fast.
Void-surge condensed into a blade of spiraling flame. She slashed low — Kael blocked with an upward pulse, deflecting it just barely.
Lira joined with a Veinstep maneuver, blinking behind her to land a precision glyph strike.
Ryn spun, grabbed Lira mid-motion, and hurled her across the chamber like she weighed nothing.
Kael darted in, flaring Threadsense to anticipate her counter.
Too late.
Ryn was already inside his guard.
A palm strike to the chest sent Kael flying.
Pain bloomed across his ribs.
But he rose.
Eyes glowing.
"Stop holding back," Ryn said.
Kael answered with a roar.
⸻
They clashed in the center of the tomb — Void against Void.
Kael called on every fragment of Thread Raze he could manage, chaining glyph pulses and movement threads together into a shifting storm of attacks.
He landed three solid hits — enough to stagger her.
But Ryn didn't fall.
She smiled.
"You're close," she said. "But your fracture's incomplete."
Kael growled. "Then break me."
She did.
⸻
With one focused strike, Ryn drove a pulse of pure Spiral-Void into his chest.
It didn't tear his body.
It tore his thread.
Kael dropped.
Eyes wide.
World spinning.
Ryn knelt over him.
"You'll thank me," she said.
Then everything went black.
⸻
He awoke hours later.
Alone.
Lira gone.
Ryn gone.
The Seed fragments… gone.
But something remained.
A single symbol, carved into the floor beside him — a perfect spiral with nine points around it.
Kael stood slowly.
His body still ached.
But inside…
Something had changed.
Not just power.
Alignment.
Void and Spiral no longer wrestled in his chest.
They danced.
⸻
And somewhere deep in the tomb, where no light touched, a voice whispered:
"You are no longer becoming. You are begun."