> System Notice
[Warden Defeated – Sigil Reclaimed]
[Ashen Crown Protocol… Paused]
[Title Unlocked: "Ashen Challenger"]
[New Companion Affinity Detected…]
---
The battlefield still hissed with embers. Charred stone. Cracked steel. Smoke curled in the air, like the breath of some wounded beast refusing to die.
Kael stood in the center of it all—back straight, shoulders heavy. His left arm trembled faintly, though he wouldn't let it show. Blood slicked one boot, a dark trail leading back to the place where the Warden had finally fallen.
He exhaled slowly. The fight was over, but something inside him refused to settle.
"That thing was no ordinary guardian," he muttered.
"You bled for a relic," came a voice behind him—sharp, wary, but no longer hostile.
Silna stepped forward. Her blade was lowered, though her eyes were still calculating. She scanned the scorched chamber like a hunter tracking the last shadows of a retreating prey.
Kael gave her a side glance. "Didn't peg you as the sentimental type."
"I'm not." Her gaze fell on the shattered pieces of the Warden's mask. "But whatever that thing was... it didn't fight like a construct. It fought like it remembered something."
He nodded. That... wasn't far from the truth. Though even he didn't know what truth that was.
"You still planning to kill me?" he asked quietly.
Silna's mouth twitched—not quite a smirk, not quite a frown. "You just saved my life, didn't you?"
"And that makes us even?"
"No." She sheathed her blade and crossed her arms. "It makes you interesting."
---
> System Notice
[Combat Resonance Detected – Silna Farros]
[Companion Bond – Tier I Affinity Initiated]
[Status: Guarded Respect]
[New Bond Skill Tree Unlocked]
[Codex Entry Updated: Silna Farros]
---
Kael felt something subtle shift inside him. Not power exactly, but... possibility. Like a door had opened somewhere in his soul.
He turned to her. "If you're staying, understand something—I'm not here to lead an army. Or play hero."
Silna shrugged. "Good. I'd stab the next self-proclaimed hero anyway."
A beat passed.
Then she smiled—barely, but it was real.
Kael stared at the ash swirling through the chamber, and for once, the weight on his shoulders didn't seem unbearable. The silence between them was not tense, but... earned.
Something had changed.
Not just the bond.
But maybe, for the first time in this broken world, Kael wasn't entirely alone.
---
> System Prompt:
[New Questline Available: Echoes of the Crownless Path]
[Recommended Action: Exit Tomb – Southern Passageway Unlocked]
---
[End of Chapter 12]