The old woman's words clung to Ryuji like frost on steel.
"Go beyond the breach."
He had heard stories of that place since he was a child. A frozen wasteland where the wind howled like mourning spirits, and the sky never changed. Soldiers who went there never returned. Even maps refused to mark it.
The Dominion called it a forbidden zone.
But she had called it something else, "Where the pact began… and failed".
Ryuji stood at the base of the fortress stairwell, one hand resting on the hilt of his side-blade. The stone under his boots was cold. Morning light flowed down through the tower window above, pale and sharp like winter glass.
He didn't know what he would find in that place.
But he knew one thing, the truth was no longer in ledgers, or scrolls, or whispered meetings behind closed doors.
It was buried.
And he would dig it out, even if it meant crossing a land left to die.
By midday, Ryuji had gathered what he needed.
A long cloak lined with heat-thread, a blade tempered to withstand frost-bitten blows, and a small compass marked with Dominion runes. It had once belonged to his father, used only when crossing wild, uncharted terrain.
He carried no banner. No emblem. Only silence and resolve.
In the armory vault, Velen waited. His arms were crossed, and his brow was wrinkled with concern.
"Are you sure about this?" he asked.
Ryuji nodded once. "The seal wasn't a lie, it was a lock. Someone meant to keep the breach forgotten."
Velen didn't speak right away. Then he sighed.
"I've seen men go near that place. Their eyes changed. Like they'd heard something waiting in the wind."
"I need to hear it too", Ryuji said quietly.
Velen placed something small in his palm. A shard of glass. Inside it, light shimmered faintly.
"A flame crystal. Old tech. It'll burn for a day, more if you whisper your name to it."
Ryuji held it gently. "Thank you".
Velen paused, voice softer now. "Whatever you find… just come back."
Ryuji gave the smallest of nods, then turned and walked toward the breach road.
The path leading east was broken and faded. No carts moved here anymore. Only old wheels and forgotten tracks remained, crushed into the mud like bones.
Hours passed in silence.
The world around him changed.
Trees turned pale. Their bark cracked with frost. The air grew still, and the wind thinned into a whisper. Each breath he took left a trail behind him. His fingers tingled from the cold despite the cloak.
Then the breach came into view.
It was not a gap in the land, as he once believed.
It was a wound.
The earth fell away into jagged ice cliffs and ridged stone. A wide basin stretched below, filled with endless snow and broken ruins that jutted from the ground like frozen teeth.
There was no sky above, only gray haze. No birds. No sound.
Just silence, heavy and cold.
Ryuji stood at the edge, staring down into the place that had been erased from every Dominion archive.
This was where the Ninth had stood.
Where the first pact had been made.
And where one of them had chosen to betray it.
He felt something shift in his chest. Not fear, something colder. A slow dread, like remembering a dream that had ended badly.
He stepped forward.
Snow crunched beneath his boots.
The slope was steep, but manageable. Bits of ice cracked under-foot. The wind tugged at his cloak like unseen hands. The crystal Velen had given him glowed softly now, guiding his way.
Hours passed.
The further he went, the more the ruins around him came to life, old statues buried in snow, pillars fallen sideways, and shattered stone circles half-lost beneath the ice.
Each one bore the same mark, the white sigil.
Over and over.
Sometimes scratched out. Sometimes sealed in iron.
They had built something here.
Not just a meeting place.
A shrine. A sanctum. A prison, maybe.
And they had left it behind.
Ryuji knelt before one broken obelisk and traced the sigil with his glove.
"What were you hiding?" he whispered.
The crystal flickered.
He looked up.
In the distance, half-buried in the snow, stood a tower.
Not tall. But strong. Circular, like a watch-post. Its door was sealed with rusted metal, but still intact.
A sense of quiet purpose pulled him toward it.
As he approached the tower, a faint sound reached his ears, a hum.
Low. Soft. Mechanical.
Alive.
The door held a Dominion lock, ancient but functional. He placed his palm to the plate. It scanned him slowly. Then clicked.
Inside was darkness.
And heat.
He stepped in.
The door closed behind him.
And from the far end of the tower, a voice spoke, low and rough with age.
"I never thought they'd open the breach again".
Ryuji froze.
"Who are you?" he asked the shadows.
The voice answered.
"One who watched. One who kept the oath… and one who regrets it."