The scent of dust and age filled Kaiser's lungs as he stood, disoriented.
He was in a circular chamber, old, massive, lined with metal that predated even Kaelthorn's founding. No doors. No visible entrance. Just walls pulsing faintly with blue veins of light, like the entire room was alive.
At the center stood a pedestal.
Upon it, a sealed black box, no locks, no hinges, just symbols etched deep into its surface. Familiar ones. The same script that pulsed through his veins during the awakening.
[SYSTEM ERROR:]User Location: NULLTracking Failure: Connection to Core Grid Lost.
"Finally".
Kaiser stepped forward, wary. His boots echoed across the stone, the only sound in the chamber.
And then the voice returned, not the System's, but something older.
"Welcome, He Who Broke the Pulse."
The walls around him flickered.
Visions bloomed, shadowy, incomplete, like faded memories of a forgotten era.
He saw men and women standing around this very pedestal. Hooded, armed, scarred by war. Behind them, a city burning in the distance. Not Kaelthorn, something far older.
The voice continued.
"Seven were chosen. Five were erased. One became the Lock. And one... betrayed."
Kaiser felt a chill crawl down his spine.
He touched the box.
It responded.
The top dissolved into smoke, revealing what lay inside: another obsidian shard. But this one was different. It pulsed with a name. His name.
And more than that, a memory long buried.
A Name Without Chains
[Architect Fragment Acquired: 2 of 7]Unlocking…Memory Thread:Name Protocol (Unbound)Origin: Lost to the System
Kaiser staggered as a flood of light poured into his mind. Not knowledge but identity.
Not a title.
A true name.
Kaiser Von Atrin
Meaning: "One Who Cuts the Thread of Fates"
The box disintegrated.
And with it, the last of the room's light faded.
But the echo remained.
"Now they will hunt you not just as a threat… but as a successor."
A figure stepped from behind the pedestal. Not a System construct. Not a memory.
Real.
Human.
A man in tattered robes, face hidden, wearing a chain of broken rings around his neck.
"You touched the second," he said. "That makes you part of it now."
Kaiser raised his blade. "Part of what?"
The man removed his hood. His face was scarred, stitched, broken and yet… familiar. Not in appearance, but in the way he looked at Kaiser.
"I'm the last survivor of the first rebellion. The last of the Circle That Fell."
"And I'm here to see if you'll do better than we did."
Above them, something roared, not from the sky, but from the System itself. A signal had been triggered.
The man looked up, then back at Kaiser.
"They know now. The third vault won't wait long."
"Where is it?" Kaiser asked.
The man pointed east.
"Beyond the Spire of Knives. Beneath the city's old roots. But getting there… you'll have to pass through the hands of the thing that remembers everything."
Kaiser's grip tightened on Vow breaker.
"I've fought it once."
The man smiled grimly. "Then you know it's not done with you."
The wall behind them pulsed once and a door opened.