> System Notice
[Southern Passageway Accessed – Manual Route Activated]
[Environmental Anomaly Detected: Warped Ether]
[Warning: Unknown Entity Presence – Observation Recommended]
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The southern corridor exhaled a strange heat — not fire, but something older, more unnatural. The torch Kael carried flickered blue, flames licking at the mist that clung to the stone like it was feeding.
Beside him, Silna clicked her tongue. "Feels like something's watching us."
Kael didn't respond. His eyes scanned the corridor, noting the warping shadows and how sound felt... muffled. The fog didn't move like smoke. It pulsed, like breath. Alive.
He tightened his grip on the hilt at his hip.
They walked in silence, their boots echoing too sharply on the stone. Then came the change — the corridor widened, revealing a circular hall. The floor was scorched and cracked, as if something had burst outward from the center. Blackened sigils flaked from the walls. Columns loomed overhead, their carvings eroded by time and fire.
At the center lay a fractured altar — jagged, desecrated.
Silna approached cautiously, circling it. "This wasn't part of the trial."
Kael knelt by the altar's base. The surface was scorched, but beneath the ash he saw old bloodstains—ritualistic patterns, long dried. His brows furrowed.
"This wasn't a test," he murmured. "It was a seal."
Silna looked up sharply. "Then what was it holding?"
Before Kael could answer, a ripple passed through the mist—silent, cold.
A figure emerged.
It drifted forward, feet never touching ground. Gaunt. Cloaked in tattered robes, face hidden behind a cracked porcelain mask leaking red light like molten tears. Its presence twisted the air, warping the torchlight into unnatural shapes.
Kael's instincts screamed.
"Move!" he barked, pushing Silna aside just as black fire erupted from the figure's sleeve — the blast seared the stone where they'd stood moments before.
He rolled and came up in a crouch, heart pounding. "Guess we found what the seal was keeping in."
Silna rose beside him, blade drawn. "And I guess it's not happy."
Kael drew his weapon. The air around the masked figure shimmered like heat haze, and whispers echoed from nowhere — a language not meant for mortal ears.
"Do we engage or retreat?" Silna asked, eyes locked.
Kael didn't answer at first. He could feel something emanating from the figure — not killing intent, but... memory. Pain. Regret. Echoes, like ghosts of a forgotten war clinging to it.
He stepped forward.
The masked figure shifted, a slow, deliberate motion that sent another ripple through the chamber. This was no construct. No summoned beast. It was something left behind... on purpose.
Kael's jaw tightened. "We test it. If it reacts like the Warden, it's hostile."
"And if it's worse than the Warden?" Silna muttered.
"Then we find out together."
She cracked a grin. "I knew you were reckless."
As the masked entity raised a hand again — this time slower, deliberate — Kael lunged, blade flashing in the flickering light.
This fight wouldn't be like the last. The ground itself seemed to resist him, like the tomb wanted him to lose.
But Kael wasn't that same boy from Chapter One anymore.
He was beginning to understand something.
Every trial, every echo, every scar on this path... was reshaping him.
He struck.
And the cinders beneath the stone awakened.
---
> System Notice
[Unknown Entity Engaged – Data Incomplete]
[Trial Deviation Confirmed – Legacy Echo Triggered]
[Tracking: Kael Veyr – Crownless Protocol Sync: 64%]
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📌 [End of Chapter 13]