The Vault did not merely shake.
It rose.
Stone groaned like a living titan stretching for the first time in centuries.
Cracks raced along the ceiling in jagged spirals, glowing pale blue as ancient mechanisms awakened.
Shelves of shards split open, scattering fractured memories across the hall like glittering dust.
And then came the footsteps.
Heavy.
Deliberate.
Impossible to outrun.
Wardens.
Not one.
Not two.
Dozens—forming from the floor, from walls, from rifts in empty space itself.
Each one built from the remains of broken Monarchs and shattered floor fragments.
Each one a guardian forged for a single purpose:
Erase thieves of Monarch legacies.
Riven pulled Kael down a narrow side tunnel, her eyes wide with panic.
"This way! Move, Kael!"
Kael staggered forward, still lightheaded from wielding Marrowstorm's first principle.
Mr. Han leaned on him, one arm draped around Kael's shoulder.
The corruption in his veins pulsed blacker with each tremor.
Behind them, the Vault's roar deepened—
a sound like a collapsing mountain.
Riven pushed them through twisting corridors, each lined with shelves filled with shards that glowed faintly when Kael passed.
She glanced back, grim.
"You awakened too much of the Vault. It's reacting like it thinks the Fractured King has returned."
Kael swallowed hard.
"Why?"
"Because you carry the Echo!" she snapped.
"And the Vault hates him."
A thunderous BOOM shook dust from the ceiling.
A massive Warden burst from the far wall, its chain-whips slicing through the corridor as if the air itself was paper.
Riven grabbed Kael by the back of his shirt, yanking him aside.
The chain cracked the floor where he had stood.
Kael gasped.
"That would've cut me in half…"
"No," Riven said.
"It would've erased you."
The Warden roared—a sound like shattered worlds—
and swung its other arm.
Riven rolled, pulling Kael and Mr. Han into another chamber.
The chain ripped through the doorway in a violent arc, sending shards of stone flying.
Then the ground beneath them tilted.
The Vault was rearranging itself.
Corridors shifted.
Floors rotated.
Walls folded like origami made of nightmares.
Kael scrambled for balance, catching Mr. Han before he fell.
"What is happening?"
Riven pressed her back to the wall, breathing hard.
"The Vault is reconfiguring its structure to trap you. It thinks you ARE the Fractured King."
Kael's heart slammed.
His fractured shadow stretched behind him—
longer
darker
sharper
Crowned.
It was changing.
Riven saw it and cursed under her breath.
"That shadow… it's reacting to the Vault. If it takes shape in here, we're dead."
Kael clenched his fists.
"I'll control it."
"No. You'll fail," Riven said bluntly.
"Even real Monarchs struggle to hold back their imprints."
The Echo's voice whispered directly behind him:
Let it grow.
Let it awaken.
Let it break this prison.
Kael gritted his teeth.
"Not happening."
He pushed the Echo's influence back, forcing his mind to stay his own.
The shadow dimmed slightly—still fractured, but less hungry.
The floor stopped rotating.
For a brief moment, everything went still.
Riven exhaled in relief.
"Good. Good. You're keeping it suppressed."
BOOM.
A Warden slammed into the wall behind them, breaking through stone like wet clay.
Its burning eyes fixed on Kael instantly.
Riven raised her blade.
"Run!"
"No," Kael said.
"I can see it."
Riven froze.
"What?"
Kael stepped forward.
The Warden's body lit up in his vision—
a network of glowing cracks
faultlines
microfractures in its limbs
weaknesses invisible to normal eyes
all exposed by Marrowstorm's sight.
Kael focused on the largest crack, running across the joint of its right leg.
He breathed in and felt the shard-light pulse through him.
Not enough for another explosion.
But enough for precision.
He pointed.
The crack glowed.
The Warden staggered.
Riven's eyes widened.
"You're weakening it—its joints—its structure—!"
Kael whispered,
"Break."
A single shard formed at his fingertip.
He flicked it forward.
The shard pierced the crack—
and the entire leg splintered into dust.
The Warden crashed onto its side, roaring in fury.
Kael turned to Riven.
"Move. Now."
They sprinted past the broken Warden before it could reconfigure its form.
Stone trembled beneath their feet again as the Vault reset its orientation.
Mr. Han coughed violently, grabbing Kael's shoulder.
"Where… where are we headed…?"
Riven wiped sweat from her brow.
"To the central chamber.
The Heart of the Vault."
Kael narrowed his eyes.
"And what's there?"
Riven's voice dropped.
"Everything the Fractured King left behind."
Kael's fractured shadow pulsed at the name.
The Echo whispered softly:
He died there.
And so will you…
or rise.
Another corridor shifted into place before them, leading into a vast stairway that descended into darkness.
The air grew colder with each step.
Riven hesitated at the top.
"This is where even Monarchs turn back."
Kael stepped past her.
"I'm not a Monarch."
Riven exhaled, gripping her blade.
"No.
You're worse."
Kael led them downward.
At the bottom of the stairs stood a massive stone archway.
On its surface, a single phrase glowed in jagged blue runes:
The One Who Broke the Labyrinth
Riven whispered,
"That's the Fractured King's title."
Kael's heartbeat quickened.
His shadow trembled.
The Echo stirred.
Behind the archway, the air pulsed—
not with magic
not with Dominion
With memory.
His.
Kael stepped through the archway.
And the central chamber of the Vault awaited him.