The chamber pulsed like a heartbeat.
Not sound. Not light. Something deeper. A rhythm that trembled in Kaelen's bones.
Vos backed toward the corridor. His firewand flickered, the flame guttering despite the lack of wind.
"We need to leave," he said flatly. "Now. This place was sleeping. You woke it."
Kaelen didn't move.
The wall carvings were shifting, rearranging. The scenes of chained kings and watching eyes melted into new forms. Spirals. Spirals made of broken oaths. Of names long since stripped from the system's registry.
Kaelen reached toward the nearest glyph.
"Wait" Vos began.
But Kaelen's hand was already on the stone.
It didn't burn.
It welcomed him.
The moment his skin touched the glyph, the ruin responded.
The wall cracked open, dust and age spilling into the hall as a hidden door split down the center. Behind it, a tunnel sloped downward, smooth, symmetrical, clearly constructed. Not ancient ruin-work. Systemic design.
And just above the tunnel's entrance, a glyph sparked into visibility.
Kaelen read it aloud.
"Archive Core. Null-class access only."
Vos stepped forward, staring.
"That's impossible. Null-class designations were scrubbed after the Calamity. The system was purged. Nothing like that should still be functional."
"It recognized me," Kaelen said.
"Exactly. That's the problem."
The tunnel pulled at them.
Not physically.
It tugged on Kaelen's very presence, like gravity for his soul.
"I have to go down," he said.
Vos cursed under his breath. "Then I'm coming too. But if we die down there, I want it on record I told you so."
They stepped through.
The descent was slow, but the air grew colder with every meter. Symbols flickered along the walls language from the system, but older. Rooted in a protocol Kaelen couldn't quite understand, only feel.
[ Alert: User presence approaching forbidden depth ]
[ Accessing… Matching Core Thread: Oath-ID: Broken / Classification: Corruption Node ]
[ Override detected. Granting provisional entry. ]
[ Welcome, Unnamed Heir. ]
Vos stopped dead. "Did it just say?"
Kaelen didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
At the tunnel's end, a vault door stood waiting. Circular. Black stone ringed with alloy veins pulsing silver-blue. In its center: a keyhole shaped not for any blade or relic but for a hand.
Kaelen stepped forward, hesitated, then placed his palm on the lock.
A spike of pain shot through him. His markings flared. A scream echoed behind his eyes, and the world twisted.
He saw
A battlefield. Skies aflame. Giants made of system code warring with creatures of unshaped void. A city in ruin. A throne shattering. A voice, his voice, but older, more broken, screaming a vow into the dark.
"I will not kneel to the Silence. I will forge my own path. Even if it damns me."
And then... Silence.
The vault door hissed and turned.
Stone slid aside.
They stepped into a chamber unlike anything either had seen.
The Archive Core.
Thousands of suspended memory orbs hovered in frozen arcs of light, each glowing with faint internal storms. Consoles pulsed, half-alive. Holograms flickered in and out. At the center, a pedestal waited, surrounded by stasis barriers.
On it sat a single item.
Not a weapon.
A mask.
Kaelen approached.
The system flared.
[ Archive Key Acquired ]
[ Item: Forgotten Heir's Mask ]
[ Function: Interface Severance / False Oath Purge / System Language Override ]
[ Caution: Usage will result in Class Shift - Undefined / Rogue Node Risk 89% ]
Vos stared at the display.
"That mask… it unlinks you from the Core. Not just temporarily. Permanently."
Kaelen reached out, hand hovering over it.
"I don't think I have a choice."
"You always have a choice," Vos said sharply. "But this one will mark you. You'll never walk among the Oathbound again."
"I'm already marked. You saw what that construct was. I'm not getting out of this by playing nice."
His hand closed around the mask.
It was warm.
Alive.
The system screamed in protest.
[ WARNING: CLASS DEVIATION IMMINENT ]
[ Suppression protocol initiated… Failed. Override by Host Presence. ]
[ Identity Flux Detected. Commencing shift. ]
[ Class Shift - Success. New designation: Archivebound - Rogue Null ]
[ Skill Unlocked: Language of the First Thread ]
[ Passive Unlocked: Unwritten Will - Immune to forced system control ]
[ Mask Effect: Activated ]
[ System Compliance Mode: OFFLINE ]
Kaelen gasped as the world around him shimmered and peeled like paper.
He could see.
Not just light and stone.
The code. The weave beneath the world. The strands of intent that made the system function. And more terrifying still—
The parts that didn't belong. The pieces patched in later. Clumsy. Hiding something.
Vos pulled him back.
"You're changing."
Kaelen looked down. His veins glowed softly, the rootlike lines now branching toward his chest. His eyes flickered silver for a breath, before returning to shadow.
The mask dissolved into his skin.
His voice was hollow. "I think the system was never meant to be eternal."
Before Vos could reply, the Archive Core shuddered.
A siren began to blare. Not audible but systemic.
[ Archive Breach Detected ]
[ Unverified signal inbound ]
[ Origin: Core Nexus, Tier 0 Authority Signature Confirmed ]
[ Name: Thalanir - Oathkeeper Prime ]
[ Mission: Eradicate Null-class Anomaly. Arrival in 12 hours. ]
Vos went white.
"Thalanir's alive?"
Kaelen whispered, "Who is he?"
"Not who. What. The first Oathkeeper. The last of the originals. We thought he died a thousand years ago during the Collapse. If he's coming here"
Vos didn't finish.
Kaelen's eyes narrowed.
"Then we'd better be ready."
Because whatever Thalanir was...
He remembered Kaelen.
Even if Kaelen didn't yet remember him.