The realm known as Silk Requiem was hidden—not behind barriers of stone or spell, but behind the memories no one dared revisit.
Floating amidst the spirit-layered edges of Southeast Asia, it existed as a drifting continent of twilight forests, sky-bridges woven from prayer, and abandoned temples veiled by forgotten prayers. Here, Sovereigns who had lost their name, form, or doctrine bled into myth and were sewn into the tapestry of the unseen.
> [Codex Notification: You have entered an Unaligned Sovereign Realm — "Silk Requiem." Danger Level: Fractured Myth Tier.]
Rei stepped forward onto a bridge of glass-thin threads.
Noira blinked. "This place sings in my bones."
Eirenne narrowed her eyes. "No. It whispers—about things we buried."
Mireille opened the Codex, her fingers trembling. "There are no records of this place. Not even the Sovereign Archive knows what's here."
Karasu's feathers rose. "Because memory itself rejects it."
---
Temple of Wept Threads
Their first encounter was not a guardian—but a memory.
A younger Rei, flickering and indistinct, repeating words he never remembered saying:
> "If I burn for them, will I become more than ash?"
The memory faded.
Then came the real threat—Xindaros, Fragment Sovereign of Sorrow Unthreaded.
He did not walk. He unravelled.
Clothed in strips of regrets, his face a mask of reversed smiles, Xindaros whispered in a chorus of abandoned voices:
> "I am every 'what if.' I am the sin you left unnamed."
Combat did not begin with blades. It began with choices.
---
Sorrow Trial — Narrative Confrontation
Each companion was forced into their most painful echo:
Mireille saw her past life—burning books to protect forbidden knowledge, damning herself for saving truth.
Eirenne faced her old squad, slaughtered because she hesitated at the wrong moment.
Noira relived a betrayal—her blade once used to kill someone she loved under false orders.
And Rei... he faced a mirror.
Not physical. But philosophical.
> A voice asked: "If none remember your name, will you still fight?"
His answer:
"Yes. Because I was never fighting for memory. I fight for the chance of meaning."
Rei's flame ignited inwards. He did not destroy Xindaros.
He embraced him.
> [New Trait Acquired: Sorrow-Woven Core — Rei can now absorb Sovereign echoes into his own narrative, stabilizing reality threads.]
Xindaros wept as he vanished.
> [Thread Gained: Forgotten Sin. Passive Effect: Empathy Synchronization — Allies gain resistance to Sovereign echo manipulation.]
---
Sanctum of Silk — Aftermath and Revelation
In the heart of Silk Requiem, the group stood before a loom—ancient and eternal. It weaved possibilities, not events.
Karasu tilted his head. "This place is a root—a point where threads of what never happened intersect."
Mireille traced a line. "This one… shows what would've happened if Rei died in Chapter 3. The world fell."
Eirenne saw another. "Here, you joined the Devils. The human realm burned."
Noira touched a red thread. "This one... you never reawakened. And I never found you."
Rei looked to the loom, then back to them.
"This is what we protect. Not certainty. Not power. Possibility."
The loom shimmered.
> [Codex Trait Evolution: Narrative Anchor achieved. Rei's choices now permanently shape the course of Sovereign Arc events.]
A final thread glowed—leading not to a place, but to a presence.
The last Sovereign Fragment.
Velstra's core.
Karasu growled. "Next... is the Sovereign of Devouring End."
Rei nodded, flame quiet but absolute.
"To the center of the Spiral."