The first light of dawn painted the world in bruised gold as Lucifer Valtros rode from the decaying gates of his ancestral estate. The wind bit against his cloak, and mist curled around the skeletal trees that flanked the path eastward. Behind him, Valtros Manor stood like a mausoleum to a dying name. Ahead, the road to the Sanctum of Ordeals beckoned like the mouth of a beast.
He rode alone.
By choice.
The council had offered him guards. Judas had insisted on coming. But Lucifer had refused them all. This journey wasn't a matter of politics or security.
It was a crucible.
Let them think him reckless. Let them whisper about pride and ghosts. None of it mattered. The truth burned inside him now, flickering hotter by the day.
The Protocol was active.
Even now, its presence itched beneath his skin. Glyphs would flicker at the edge of his vision. Phantom notifications hovered just out of focus. The world itself felt thinner, like the membrane between reality and something older had worn away.
He remembered flashes. Not full memories, but impressions.
A throne forged from a dying star. A war that split the firmament. A crown made of swords and sorrow.
But no names. No faces.
Only the overwhelming sense that he had been more than this once. And that whatever he had been, the gods had tried very hard to erase it.
---
By midday, the forests gave way to broken plains and scattered settlements. The land here bore the scars of a forgotten war—cracked roads, ruins overrun by ivy, and towers half-swallowed by time. Once, this region had thrived. Now it served as a reminder that the Empire was not eternal.
At a crossroads marked by a rusted signpost and the corpse of a long-dead wyvern, Lucifer dismounted to water his horse. As he crouched by the stream, the Protocol stirred again.
> [SYSTEM UPDATE DETECTED] [SEAL FRAGMENT: 1/12 LOCATED] [DISTANCE: 2.3 KM | STATUS: DORMANT]
His breath caught.
"Now?" he muttered.
No response. The interface pulsed once, then faded.
He closed his eyes, focusing on the sensation. A tug in his chest, faint but undeniable. Like gravity reorienting itself.
He had a choice: ignore it, continue to the Sanctum as planned—or follow the pull.
He adjusted his gauntlet and looked east.
Then he turned north.
---
The path led him into the hollow remains of a village. No name marked its entrance. No sound welcomed him but the wind.
Buildings leaned on broken spines. The well was dry. Burn marks scarred stone and wood alike.
And in the center of the square stood a tree.
Or what had once been one.
Now, it was petrified. Blackened. Its bark cracked with veins of glowing red, as if magma ran beneath its skin.
Lucifer approached slowly, hand on the hilt of his blade.
> [SEAL FRAGMENT IDENTIFIED] [INITIATE BONDING? Y/N]
He hesitated.
The Protocol's language made it sound simple. But every instinct in him screamed otherwise.
Still—this was why he had come. Not for glory. Not for favor.
For this.
He drew a shallow breath.
"Yes."
The world shifted.
---
A scream without sound tore through him.
Not pain—not exactly. But dissonance. Like two versions of himself trying to occupy the same space.
The tree exploded into ash, a shockwave flattening the air. Glyphs spiraled around him, symbols of a language he didn't know but somehow understood. One seared itself into the flesh of his forearm, glowing for a heartbeat before fading.
> [SEAL FRAGMENT 1/12 CLAIMED] [ABILITY UNLOCKED: ASHEN WAKE]
Then came the vision.
Not memory. Not dream.
A battlefield.
Skies shattered by fire. Gods screaming in their death throes. A man—him, but not him—wielding a blade made of the void.
And above it all, a throne floating in the stars. Empty.
Waiting.
He fell to one knee, gasping.
His hand clenched the soil.
He was shaking.
But he was smiling.
---
By dusk, Lucifer returned to the crossroads, eyes burning with clarity.
The Sanctum of Ordeals still lay ahead. The noble trials, the political theater, the games of blood and legacy.
Let them come.
Let them all come.
Because now, he carried more than a name.
He carried a piece of what the gods had tried to bury.
And he was just getting started.