The air turned cold not with winter, but with remorse.
With the defeat of Silence, the world did not rejoice. It remembered. And sometimes, memory cuts deeper than blades.
Rei stood before the new destination outlined by the Thread Map—an archipelago veiled in crimson mist.
> [Thread Signature Detected: Sovereign of Regret — Codename: Yurei. Access Level: Restricted. Emotion Required: Genuine Remorse. System Calibration in Progress.]
---
Location: Isle of Weeping Lanterns
It began with footsteps that didn't echo.
The team arrived on the first of the Yurei Isles, each step met with sighs from the earth, the trees, the sky. Lanterns floated midair—unlit, trembling, humming with unspoken guilt.
Mireille scanned the Codex. "These lanterns contain memory echoes—tragedies never voiced. Failures never grieved."
Noira passed one and flinched.
Inside it played a loop: her younger self failing to save someone unnamed. Her hands, covered in spectral blood.
Eirenne stood rigidly, one lantern playing her old betrayal, the one that led to her exile.
Even Karasu was silent.
Rei approached a lantern—but instead of watching, he whispered.
"I'm sorry. For everything I've buried."
The lantern ignited.
And Yurei stirred.
---
Location: Cradle of Regret — Heart Lantern Nexus
The deepest part of the archipelago was a floating palace of obsidian glass, suspended above a lake of tears. Here, lanterns didn't float—they wept.
At its center stood Yurei, robed in ash, his face masked in broken porcelain. His voice was a whisper that pierced the soul.
"You walk with remembrance. But do you walk with regret?"
Rei stepped forward. "Yes. But I do not drown in it."
Yurei's robes expanded like shadows, conjuring specters from Rei's past:
His hesitation before claiming the first spirit.
His rage during Cael'Tharion's trial.
His silence when a friend was lost in Chapter 28.
Each one stabbed. Each one true.
Eirenne tried to intervene, but was blocked by a wall of sorrow.
Mireille called out, "He has to confront this alone."
Rei collapsed to his knees—but did not falter.
"I do not seek forgiveness. Only truth."
> [System Alert: Emotional Threshold Achieved. Thread of Regret Responding. Preparing for Soul-Tether Integration.]
Yurei descended, placing a single hand on Rei's chest.
"Then take my thread, Flamebearer. But know this—regret remembered is strength. Regret denied is death."
> [Thread Acquired: Sovereign Yurei — Trait Gained: Cradlefire. Empathic resonance amplifies spirit power based on emotional truth. Allows conversion of guilt into spectral defense.]
---
Aftermath — Shoreline of the Isle
The team regrouped. The lanterns now floated calmly.
Eirenne exhaled slowly. "It tried to break you."
Rei wiped blood from his lip. "It almost did."
Noira grinned faintly. "Then we're finally getting somewhere."
Mireille placed a new marker on the Codex map. "Next thread… is hidden even from the spirits. It's not on land."
Karasu murmured.
"Then we go to the sky."
And so the path led upward—toward forgotten altars in the stars.